Last week we met with educational charity and academy sponsor, ARK, to talk about student voice and school councils. They’re going to be setting up a number of new schools in Uganda and wanted to know whether and how they should embed student voice in them.
Naturally, we’d love the opportunity to see schools with student voice as part of their founding principles, rather than something (often awkwardly) added later on. So I put together this reading list for them.
- The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Years Education. This document gives a nice summary and a good bibliography for further reading if you want to find out more.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/ReggioAug06_tcm4-393250.pdf - The most detailed study focussed on school councils and student voice (Geoff Whitty and Emma Risby, IoE, 2007):
Brief: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RB001.pdf
Full report: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/emie/inc/fd.asp?user=&doc=RB29_XR25221.pdf - Interesting report linking participation and achievement (David Frost, Cambridge, 2009):
http://www.gtce.org.uk/publications/pupil_part_anthology1109/ - The Citizenship Longitudinal Study is very detailed and thorough and touches on student voice, although this isn’t the core focus. It does suggest a link though between increased participation in activities such as school councils and increased civic participation later in life – see 6.2 (David Kerr et al, NFER, 2010)
Brief: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RB059.pdf
Full report: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR059.pdf - The Youth Citizenship Commission’s 2009 report strongly recommended school and class councils:
http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/dnloads/youth_commisoners_final_report_dated_09.pdf - Consulting pupils: what’s in it for schools? (Jean Ruddock, Cambridge, 2004):
http://books.google.com/books?id=kLxqhKsgguwC&dq=Hylands+Consulting&ie=ISO-8859-1&source=gbs_gdata - Really good summary on the current academic thinking on student voice, with an extensive bibliography (Lena Bahou, Cambridge, 2011)
http://www.educatejournal.org/index.php?journal=educate&page=article&op=viewFile&path[]=286&path[]=236 - Ofsted report on improving behaviour highlights strengthening student voice as an essential part of successful strategy:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Inclusion/Behaviour/Improving-behaviour/%28language%29/eng-GB - Looking at the wider context of school reform and the impact on attainment/achievement (Terry Wrigley, Edinburgh, 2008):
http://www.educationstudies.org.uk/materials/vol_1_issue_2_wrigley_final.pdf - It’s worth reading anything/everything by Michael Fielding (IoE):
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/EFPS/EFPS_30.html - And Jean Ruddock:
http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/formermembers/rudduck/ - Cambridge Primary Review sees listening to children as key element in primary school reform:
Summary: http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Finalreport/CPR-booklet_low-res.pdf
Website: http://www.primaryreview.org.uk - Final report of the Carnegie Young People’s Initiative:
http://www.participationworks.org.uk/files/webfm/files/resources/k-items/carnegie/empowering%20young%20people%20carnegie.pdf - Also came across this article today which mentions the use of student voice in Hong Kong’s successful ‘learning to learn’ curiculum.
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/flux/2011/06/29/all-round-education-life-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Ctruly-outstanding-school%E2%80%9D-one-highest-performing-education-systems-world?dm_i=N1A,GPFQ,3KAFIU,1D182,1
This isn’t an exhaustive list and I’m sure there are many important things I’ve missed. What are they? Add links in the comments below.
ARK are especially keen on quantitative data that show a link between increased student voice and improved attainment, do you know of any? Again, add links or references in the comments. Thanks.