La traducción de textos políticos

The recognition of the rights of pupils to have an active role in decisions that affect them was ratified by the United Nations as a pupil’s legal right (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989). In 1989, the Article 12 of the UNCRC stated that all pupils have the right to express their views freely, and to have their views taken into account when decisions are being made in any matter that affects them. The requirement to seek the voice of pupils was also set out in the 2001 SEN Code of Practice (DfE, 2001) and was a central tenet of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice, which places pupils’ opinions and their active participation in decision- making within schools as a key principle of its implementation. The aforementioned statutory guidance documents are seen as particularly important for two reasons: firstly, they empower pupils identified as having SEN to be key players in any decision that affect their school life, and secondly, they oblige schools to actively involve, listen and put into practice pupils with SEN’s suggestions for school improvement. Opportunities are presently provided through school mechanisms such as that of Student Voice.

In its widest sense, Student Voice is a term used for school reform activities that gives pupils the opportunity to express their opinion, and share their views about school problems and possible solutions. It could also require pupils to collaborate with adults in order to put their suggestions into practice (Fleming, 2013; Messiou, 2006; Mitra, 2004; Whitty and Wisby, 2007). Several scholars around the world, including Australia (Quinn & Owen, 2016), the USA (Mitra, 2004), England (Fleming, 2013) and Cyprus (Messiou, 2006), involved typical pupils and young adolescents to investigate the outcomes of their participation in Student Voice.

Using a qualitative case study, Quinn and Owen (2016) explored pupils and staff’s perspectives to investigate a primary school’s approach to Student Voice and student leadership. After analysing thematically school documents, staff and pupils’ interviews, findings revealed that daily teacher-to-pupil interactions and regular collaboration of pupils with their teachers in learning had positive outcomes in enhancing the power of Student Voice in the school community. At a personal level, pupils’ involvement in the Student Voice was found to bring many benefits as it enables them to develop skills of collaboration, communication and active listening as well as to enhance their sense of school belonging, and their belief they are capable to positively contribute in school improvement. Good structure of Student Voice and provision of a clear agenda was found to facilitate pupils’ participation. On the contrary, one reported challenge that made less popular pupils unwilling to participate and put themselves forward as representatives was the competitive process of election. Despite the in-depth exploration of Student Voice provided in this study, findings should be treated with caution as the external validity of data is limited and generalisation to a wider population cannot be made.

Mitra (2004) explored how pupils’ participation in Student Voice contribute to their ‘youth development’ using observations, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews from various staff and pupils attending a mainstream secondary school in Northern California. Research outcomes revealed that pupils’ involvement in Student Voice enabled them to create positive experiences about school and helped them meet developmental needs such as their need to belong, feel competent and exert influence. However, the degree that pupils managed to meet these needs was found to be influenced by two things: the quality of structure of Student Voice and the nature of teacher-to-pupil relations. Similar obstacles that hinder pupils’ participation were noted by Messiou (2006) in a qualitative study involving 227 primary aged pupils in Cyprus. Research outcomes revealed that limited resources, and teachers’ restricted time to collaborate and listen to pupils’ views were some of the reasons reported that the school avoided seeking pupils’ views about school issues. As Messiou (2006) stated, applying the right mechanisms to gather information from pupils is one step, but implementation is the actual evidence that shows that schools truly care to engage and address the needs of those pupils.

In a similar vein, Fleming (2013), after critically reviewing three studies exploring pupils’ perceptions on their participation in school decision making, suggested that pupils have the skills, capacity and knowledge to express perceptive ideas and make constructive

suggestions about school change. However, the researcher found that all efforts were in vain as rarely any of the pupils’ suggestions were implemented.

It can thus be concluded that by asking pupils to express their opinion does not necessarily mean that their voices are listened to and valued. It is important for schools firstly to structure Student Voice in an effective way where the applied mechanisms would encourage the participation of all pupils even the least popular ones, and secondly it is vital for the involved teachers to receive training to be in the position to actively listen and help pupils to put their suggestions into practice. It should be noted that most studies investigated typical pupil experiences on their participation in Student Voice. There is thus the need for future studies to include the voices of pupils identified as having SEN, which would be interesting to investigate further.

Summary

Ethos is a difficult term to define. It manifested itself either in the school mission statement, or in unwritten rules, practices and interactions between individuals. It is also something that is experienced and subjectively measured. In the literature, there is ample evidence demonstrating the significant impact that school ethos has on pupils’ attainment, behaviour, social interactions or even feelings of belonging towards school. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the ethos of a school does matter as the schooling experiences of pupils can be affected either in a positive or negative way.