Increasing Student Voice
Spicy: Building Capacity for Leadership
At the highest level of the student voice pyramid is building capacity for student leadership. Student voice is often included... but only at the invitation of an adult. How often do students’ lead these initiatives? If our goal as educators is to prepare students for future leadership, we must give them opportunities to act as leaders. Or in the words of Alfie Kohn:
... if we want children to take responsibility for their own behavior, we must first give them responsibility, and plenty of it. The way a child learns how to make decisions is by making decisions, not by following directions. (1993)
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The examples shared at right continue to be initiated by adults, but the process includes training students to take over the work and to influence the future direction of their efforts.
Helpful Hints:​​
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These practices work best as part of a whole-school initiative.
However, if you must, it's better to launch within your classroom than to "give up" because you don't have others on board. The movement can grow from small beginnings.
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Trust in the capacity of your students to be leaders.
Your confidence in their abilities will show and positively influence the outcomes of their efforts.
Student Consulting
Student consulting is a formal program that trains student leaders to work as "coaches" for teachers. Just as an instructional coach might do, student consultants perform tasks such as participating in curriculum planning or observing and offering feedback on classroom practices. Alison Cook-Sather of Bryn Mawr college pioneered this movement that builds collegial relationships between students and their teachers. Student consulting programs are spreading in high schools and colleges, but with proper training and support, has been successful in middle schools as well: click here to learn about Student Consulting at High Tech Middle Chula Vista including a detailed implementation guide.
Peer Mediation
Taking restorative circles to a new level, peer mediation programs elevate student voice by giving students the facilitator's role when mediating conflicts among their peers. It requires extensive training and preparation, but there are many models and resources to support this process. The biggest benefit is shifting conflict management from adults and empowering students to resolve disputes by themselves.
Students as Co-Teachers
"The fundamental principle of coteaching in reality pedagogy is that the neoindigenous student is the expert on the best way to deliver information to others who are a part of their culture; the more opportunities students have to both teach and learn from their classmates, the better off they are in regards to understanding content." (Emdin, 2016, p. 99)
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Go ahead- give up the reins! ... with guidance of course. Students will need support with ensuring accurate content, but once you give them the responsibility of designing and delivering lessons, assignments and assessments- you are tapping into creativity and expertise that might otherwise remain hidden. What might you learn from your students, and what will they learn from each other if you challenge them with a role reversal?