Towards emancipation: achieving transformational change

One of the most profound, positive aspects of the term (student voice) - and one of the clearest indicators of the beginning of a cultural shift – is its insistence on altering dominant power imbalances between adults and young people (Cook- Sather, 2006, p.366).

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Katsenou et al (2013) used action research to explore the factors affecting the active participation of two classes of primary school pupils in a programme of sustainable waste management. The pupils were reluctant to engage in pupil-led actions relating to the whole school or local community because they did not believe that anyone would listen to them or take their ideas seriously. Although encouraged to persevere, they were disappointed by the lack of response of the school and community. Joint reflection with their teachers led to general acceptance of the worth of their endeavours and the realisation that encouraging participation is a slow, gradual and long-term process for both pupils and teachers. The research demonstrated that ‘pupil participation is inseparable from the school culture within which it takes place’ (p.255). Involving the pupils in reflection as co-researchers helped both teachers and pupils to build confidence in developing participation activities, acknowledging both as learners. Teachers begin to learn from the children in ‘professional development that is more open, reciprocal and indicative of a flexible, dialogic form of democratic practice in which the interdependency of teaching and learning is explored and enhanced’ (Frost, 2007, p.443).

Kirby et al (2003) identify three different cultures of participation in organisations: consultation-focused; participation-focused; and child/youth-focused. In the last of these, ‘children and young people’s participation is central to these organisations’ practice and they establish a culture in which it is assumed that all children and young people will be listened to about all decisions that affect their lives’ (p.6). The inclusive culture of participation for all children infuses the whole organisation, with positive relationships between adults and children based on trust and respect.

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Meaningful participation should be accessible and inclusive, a dialogue which involves both listening to the voices of children and young people and responding constructively to them (Hatton, 2014, p.44).

It is significant that the school reported by Frost (2007) already had a culture of genuinely listening to pupils and facilitating pupil participation. Student researchers in schools without such an ethos might find it more difficult to be given autonomy and to report potentially uncomfortable findings back to an unreceptive staff. Rogers and Frost (2006) found that some of the teachers who were not directly involved in their student research project ‘reacted strongly as they felt a little threatened by the empowering of students’ (p.2).

Adult belief in student voice is essential to realise its potential (Bragg, 2007, p.506).

Cobbett et al (2013) found that participatory spaces do not automatically redistribute power between participants of unequal status and that a lengthy period of time was needed for change to occur. Martin et al (2006) and Hargreaves (2004) argue for incremental changes in the extent of student involvement and innovation because the culture of respecting students’ ideas and participation needs to be nurtured in order to become transformational. Children need time to get used to and accept new responsibilities in shared research (Michail, 2014) and adults need to feel some ownership in developing new approaches they can believe in (Tew, 2010). The senior management team in schools need to support this work, helping to provide evidence of its effectiveness (Kirby et al, 2003; Gunter and Thomson, 2007a).

Leitch and Mitchell (2007) demonstrated that there is often a great dissonance between pupil images of the culture of school and their head teacher’s perspective, even in those schools that

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are working hard to create a culture of participation. There is evidence of democratic and highly innovative pupil participation in other countries, for example, Brazil (McCowan, 2010), but ‘the vast majority of schools in countries like the USA and UK have not as yet moved beyond the ‘thin’ democratization of the student council’ (p.23).

That children and young people’s participation is part of international law or public policy is not always enough to convince those who work with children and young people to engage in this work…more convincing is seeing evidence that participation works through tried, tested and evaluated ways of involving children and young people. This can ease the anxiety of adults who are engaging in participation work for the first time (Kirby et al, 2003, p.30).

Greig et al (2013) encourage us ‘to consider what tools, methods and approaches can best enhance true participation’ (p.209). Classic tools of participation such as tours, maps and photos generate good data but may not lead to emancipation. According to Lansdown (2001, cited in Greig et al, 2013, p.234), ‘effective participatory research has a minimum standard of:

 real relevance to the participants;  the capacity to make an impact;  adequate time and resources;

 realistic expectations of the participants (clear and agreed targets and goals);  values of trust, respect and equity; and

training and support for the participants to contribute to the planning.’

Involving children as researchers has to be a facilitation of genuine inquiry and not used by adults as another means to achieve their goals. It means that children need to be listened to with respect and allowed to have the power to investigate for themselves issues of genuine

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concern to them. It means that teachers have to have the confidence to open the adult world to scrutiny by children and be prepared to act upon their findings. Ultimately, children’s involvement in research will, I believe, have the power to change teachers’ attitudes and relationships with children, creating more democratic and respectful classrooms (Fielding, 2004).

The process of participation…is truly empowering for children and young people because they become partners in research, co-owners or co-researchers, who can initiate ideas and actions, make and contribute to key decisions and carry out key research tasks. In participation, we need to respect children and young people as experts in their own lives who have a unique and powerful contribution to make to the research (Greig et al, 2013, p.205).

May (2005) calls for more classroom-based research that allows pupils to initiate ideas and actions within the research context and have some control over their own participation whilst interacting with professionals. Facilitating teachers to work jointly in this way with children during the AIs in this study is, I believe, new to the research base on children as researchers.

Teachers and students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in the task of re-creating that knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they discover themselves as its permanent re-creators. In this way, the presence of the oppressed in the struggle for their liberation will be what it should be: not pseudo- participation, but committed involvement (Freire, 1996, p.51).