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The possibilities and problematics of student voice for teacher professional learning: lessons from an evaluation study

Version 2 2024-05-30, 11:28
Version 1 2020-08-24, 15:44
journal contribution
posted on 2024-05-30, 11:28 authored by Eve MayesEve Mayes, Ros BlackRos Black, R Finneran
Student voice has the potential to prompt creative and transformative teacher professional learning and practice. However, contemporary conditions of education – including policy priorities and institutional constraints – shape how student voice is taken up. This article draws on data from an evaluation study of a student voice programme (‘Teach the Teacher’) as enacted in two Australian schools. Notwithstanding the possibilities of student voice, reductive interpretations of teacher’s work risk translating student voice into thin practices; the teacher becomes envisioned as technician who needs to fill their ‘toolbox’ and find ‘what works’ by listening to 15 students. Analysing what is said and unsaid about student voice for teacher professional learning in interviews with school leaders and teachers, as well as focus groups with students, this article explores the problematics of mobilising student voice for teacher profes- sional learning. Questions are raised for those seeking to promote reciprocal intergenerational learning in democratic schools.

History

Journal

Cambridge Journal of Education

Volume

51

Pagination

195-212

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

0305-764X

eISSN

1469-3577

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

2

Publisher

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD