| Student Voice and 1:1--Three Considerations | |
| Author: Martin Baltierra , Karen Ward, | July 13th, 2011 | |
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Imagine the range of emotions you would feel if you were invited to a dinner party, given the time and location of the event, ushered through the front door when you arrived, and shown the correct seat; however, you were never invited to share your unique ideas, experiences, or perspectives through authentic conversation during the meal itself. This would produce an awkward situation, at best! The main question to consider is do our students identify with this same type of experience as they attend our schools and classes? We have found the answer to be a resounding, ‘yes!’ We have also found that inviting students to the table to participate in the discussion (aka: Student Voice) is not only exciting, but it is the right thing to do! We propose three considerations for your attention regarding this work.  The concept of Student Voice is not new to the world of education, however, our first consideration is that it has generally been implemented as a ’hope’ situation—we hope that by asking students to complete designed work, we as campus leaders and educators will impact our school learning culture and more students will be successful. Or, we hope that Student Voice will encourage our parents and general community to support our 1:1 program. However, we also know that hope is not a strategy that leads to success. You have to be more focused and intentional in order for Student Voice to be effective, and you have to understand that while Student Voice is about academic success, the work itself will lead to new perspectives, reframing conversations, and new values for all stakeholders like those included in the AALF whitepaper titled, “The Right to Learn”. Student Voice is not something done for students…it is leadership students provide for their schools.This leads to our second consideration: we need to engage in a partnership with our students…a partnership that empowers all stakeholders. Student Voice goes way beyond the words “student” and “voice”. It is a process that impacts every student, the staff, and the way a school site does business; a shift in attitude and perspective if you will. Imagine empowering students with meaningful purposes and accompanying tools that will empower them to be effective Academic Leaders for themselves, their peers, their educators, their parents, and in short their school and community. Adam Fletcher describes this when he states that, Meaningful student involvement is the process of engaging students as partners in every facet of school change for the purpose of strengthening their commitment to education, community, and democracy (Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to Students as Partners in School Change). Student Voice partnership work leads to the re-culturation of campuses…what would this type of partnership require? The answer leads to our third consideration. In our 21st century settings this campus-based collaborative Student Voice work is best accomplished through global networking and collaboration…not school by school. We all learn from one another, and perhaps that is the most exciting aspect of Student Voice work…we all become learners and leaders! We know that in order for scaled-up collaboration to be effective, we must focus on the same framework. This framework includes the foundations of ‘why’ and ‘how’ for Student Voice Academic Leaders, their educators, and the community at large. In the upcoming AALF newsletters expect to read about examples of how schools are using the 1:1 Student Voice Academic Leadership frameworks to go about their work. We will end this introductory article by focusing on the ‘why’ of Student Voice…why should you, as an educator, consider implementing this exciting work? • Because it is the right thing to do in this collaborative 21st century world in which we live! Technologies today provide us with incredibly powerful collaborative opportunities that the majority of students understand and, in fact, base much of their life on, yet they tend to get little opportunity as they learn in school. • Students themselves are the largest stakeholder group on every campus and they were born ‘connected.’ These qualities alone guarantee multiple perspectives that are powerful and must be exposed and built upon. As educators we need the insights and unique ideas that our students bring to our campuses in order to better understand the effectiveness of our work. • Students are anxious to support successful 1:1 implementation and learning. Generally, students love to learn and they want to do just that…they also understand the student-centered focus 1:1 provides. • Student Voice has the potential of removing feelings of marginalization that some student groups struggle with during their school experiences. • Each student has a right to learn and Student Voice increases the probability that this will happen. As an educator, will you invite your students to your table to discuss invaluable ideas and accompanying challenges? Will you empower your students to be part of the learning process as they become Student Voice Academic Leaders? If you answer yes to both questions, then you are on your way to providing a voice for your students who at times feel voiceless. As the largest group on any school site, Student Voice can and will make an impact with you, your staff, your parents, and your community. If your school has begun this student academic leadership journey we invite you to share your work and story with us so we can do so with the large international AALF community. **Click here to read a past, related blog post on Student Voice by Susan Einhorn. |
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