Elevating Diverse Student Voices: Empower Student Engagement and Agency
It is not enough to simply listen to student voice. Educators have an ethical imperative to do something with students, and that is why meaningful student involvement is vital to school improvement.
– Adam F.C. Fletcher
INTRO
It can be a challenge to create a space for diverse thoughts and voices when you do not necessarily agree with them. The challenge is compounded when considering that “students have the greatest stake in their education but little to no say in how it is delivered. This lack of agency represents a lost opportunity to accelerate learning and prepare students for a world in which taking initiative and learning new skills are increasingly paramount to success” (Center for American Progress).
But as educators, it’s our job to overcome challenges and ensure all student voices are called-upon and heard equitably. During a Crowdsource Coffee on December 7, 2022, Portico leaders, coaches, and facilitators shared their experiences and discussed new ideas for how we can all begin taking this challenge on for our students. Not only is it best for our students, but making good and well-informed decisions—and doing our jobs correctly— requires listening to all voices. It is often in that disagreement and tension that we ourselves learn and grow.
OBJECTIVES
- Brainstorm ideas for how your school can better elevate diverse student voices
- Start planning and/or implementing at least one of the below ideas or one you/your team brainstorms
The below ideas are just a few suggestions to get you started. Feel free to use or modify them, even if just as inspiration for your own ideas.
THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
- As a leader, make soliciting and really hearing diverse voices a priority in your role
- Making sure you’re bringing in new voices/ideas, and not just relying on the same voices/ideas that you’re comfortable with
- Effective and intentional use of surveys
- If you’re going to ask someone to share their ideas, then respect the participants’ time and openness by actually doing something with/because of the information they share – and have a clear plan for this before you create/launch the survey
- Examining your A-Team: Who is in your circle of leadership? Do they represent the diversity of your students? What might your students’ assessment of your leadership team’s representation be?
- Student clubs should be student-created and led and should be inclusive of every interest students have
- Even a few students could come together if they had an interest; there doesn’t need to be complex structures or restrictions on club size, etc.
- The role of club advisors (educators/school staff/etc.) should be to guide students on how to set up and promote clubs. Students should have ownership as they create and build clubs and events, including creating flyers, etc. Advisors should be working with students each step of the way and acting as a guide, etc.
- Younger students may need more guidance, of course, but the role of the advisor is still one of guidance, and students should still feel empowered to create their own club space
THINGS YOU CAN START WORKING ON NOW
(but will take a little more planning to implement)
- Raising Student Voices Program: quarterly summits where student representatives gather feedback from their fellow students, and then summarize and present what they hear to school leadership teams.
- The student representatives meet with the district and their high school leadership, and present 3-4 issues they want addressed
- Teachers can shadow students who are English Language Learners (or students in other learning programs)
- In the shared experience, teachers who shadowed students observed how the students were ignored throughout the day, and it changed their mindsets and instruction by having the adults experience what it felt like to be ELLs
- Student clubs, continued: Collect data on which students are in clubs. Keep track of who is involved and who is not, and aim to reach the students who are not in a club.
Responses