To be seen and heard: teacher action to amplify student polyvocality

Abstract

Around the world, youth expressing their voices and interests are often unfairly dismissed, portrayed by settler-colonial systems as divergent from White-patriarchal standards. With space and opportunity, however, young people have proven effective in utilising their polyvocality—the multiplicity of their voices and interests—to agitate dominant systems and advocate for change. Amplification of student polyvocality by teachers in classrooms has the potential to challenge White-patriarchy embedded within existing educational practice. Synthesising qualitative data from the Weaving Stories of Strength (WSS) project, we foreground the insights of 16 Indigenous experts in Indigenous Education from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the USA, who advocate for teacher-led actions towards reframing classrooms and amplifying student polyvocality.

Introduction

The multiple and varied interests and voices of youth are often dismissed, echoing the antiquated adage “children are to be seen, not heard” (hooks, 2015, p. 5). And yet, Indigenous youth and young allies across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the USA—the Anglosphere herein, are powerful advocates for change, utilising their voices to agitate enduring settler-colonial systems. Settler-colonial systems are continuing and organising social structures which exploit patriarchal White sovereignty, White-patriarchy herein, as a system of control and “a discourse of pathology to subjugate and discipline” societies along White and male standards (Moreton-Robinson, 2009, p. 63). For example, climate change is one of the most pressing crises for Indigenous communities globally (United Nations, 2023); however, it remains a conspiracy-laden, oftentimes vitriolic, and sometimes violent debate in White-patriarchal societies (Uscinski et al., 2017). Indigenous students and young allies continue to ensure their voices are heard regardless of this contention, with the School Strike 4 Climate movement beginning in 2019 and continuing through today, which saw hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary school students marching across the Anglosphere, utilising their voices to fight against political inaction (Al Jazeera, 2019; Milman, 2019; Murphy, 2019; Taylor et al., 2019). Herein, we refer to the multiplicity of voices and interests of diverse young peoples with the term “polyvocality,” a concept extended to this context from intersectional and educational research (Pithouse-Morgan et al., 2014; Thimm et al., 2017).

Despite this, and many other examples of youth operationalising their polyvocality, many Indigenous and marginalised youth continue to be forced into institutions where their voices have been actively suppressed by White-patriarchal interests. Overt and subtle forms of epistemic restriction, racialisation, racism, violence, and silencing continue to be exerted over and against Indigenous communities and peoples as well as other marginalised peoples in educational settings across the Anglosphere (Yared et al., 2020). In classrooms, the effects of settler-colonialism compound, hindering Indigenous and marginalised students’ abilities to articulate their perspectives (Donovan, 2015), with these youth receiving “less credit than they deserve due to negative and prejudicial identity stereotypes” (Kotzee, 2017, p. 326). In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are disproportionately constrained, challenged, and oppressed by the dominance of White-patriarchal schooling systems, with their polyvocality stifled by the enduring settler-colonial project (Beazley & Cassidy, 2023). It is crucial for teachers to recognise how White-patriarchy causes Indigenous students as well as other marginalised youth to experience high levels of racialised and cultural ignorance, reifying the systemic exclusion of their voices and interests (Meston, Cutler, et al., 2024). Accordingly, the implementation of new, counter, flexible, and alternative practices, pedagogies, and curricula that engage and empower youth polyvocality are desperately required in schools (Dei, 2010; Shay & Heck, 2015).

Writing from Meanjin, also known as Brisbane, Australia, on unceded Aboriginal lands, we are a multicultural education team guided by Indigenous educators. We draw expertise from our roles in community, Initial Teacher Education, and the Social Sciences in Australia, and analyse data from the Weaving Stories of Strength (WSS) project, engaging the voices of 16 Indigenous experts (IEs) in Indigenous Education from across the Anglosphere (Riley et al., 2024). In this article, we outline our impetus for extending the decolonial methodology of reframing to present educational settings across the Anglosphere to accommodate and actively promote all students’ polyvocality. To do this, we synthesise literature combined with qualitative data from the WSS project, engaging the voices, knowledges, and experiences of IEs in Indigenous education from across the Anglosphere. Their insights provide critical information regarding how teachers and educators can help support the structure and conditions for creating more spaces and opportunities for the amplification of youth polyvocality to occur in classrooms.

Literature review

The importance of youth polyvocality

Young people operationalising their polyvocality is explicitly demonstrated in the powerful history of Indigenous youth and allied activism across the Anglosphere. Examples to note include in Australia, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and other protesting allies have utilised their polyvocality to disrupt enduring settler-colonial systems from the 1960s through to today, advocating for land rights, cultural protection, and Black Power (Mason, 2017), and rallying against colonisation, racism, oppressive policies, and unjust legislation (Franco, 2023). In Aotearoa New Zealand, Indigenous student activists and other protesting allies have operationalised their polyvocality to occupy for the protection of Sacred Sites (Haunui-Thompson & Fernandez, 2019), fight for the preservation of Māori (Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) culture and Pākehā (Aotearoa New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) commitments to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) (Thorne, 2024), protest the war and occupation exerted upon Palestine (Ball, 2024), and rally for the Black Lives Matter, Protect Ihumātao, and Generation Zero causes (Nairn et al., 2021; Watson, 2022).

Similarly, Indigenous student and youth activists across North America have utilised their polyvocality to disrupt White-patriarchal systems from the mid-20th century through to today. In the USA, the diverse voices and interests of students have been employed to protest colonisation, racism, war, and protect Indigenous lands, including the multiple occupations of Alcatraz (Johnson, 2024), the fight for Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline (Elbein, 2017), and the Indigenous youth joining pro-Palestine encampments across US universities (Birkenbuel, 2024). In Canada, Indigenous students and youth activists have applied their polyvocality to advocate for “land-based direct action as far back as the 1970’s and 80’s” (Friedel, 2015, p. 889) through cultural preservation and political representation (Murphy, 2015), the protection of sovereign lands (Wikler, 2020), and engaging with social movements and groups such as Idle No More and the Assembly of First Nations National Youth Council.

These examples are only a handful of the total works, projects, and causes Indigenous youth and student activists have engaged with across the history of the Anglosphere. Despite the power and impact of these movements, across the Anglosphere, Indigenous youth and student activists are deemed “social problems,” as their voices, interests, and “forms of behaviour violate the norms of white [as written in original work] civility” (Moreton-Robinson, 2009, p. 67). Many Indigenous students and allied youth have been met by the force of police and military apparatus, with violent displays exerted against these protestors across the Anglosphere (T. Kerr & Cox, 2016; Pita Loor, 2020; Workman, 2016). The rhetorical dismissal of youth polyvocality, and the violence against Indigenous students and youth activists, demonstrates that expressing your voice as a young person in the settler-colonial states of the Anglosphere can be a “courageous act . . . an act of risk and daring” against Whiteness and patriarchy (hooks, 2015, p. 5).

The ongoing disavowal of the legitimacy of youth polyvocality across the Anglosphere is a consequence of settler-colonialism. This concept describes the continuing and organising social structures which exploit White-patriarchy as a system of control and “a discourse of pathology to subjugate and discipline” societies along White and male standards (Moreton-Robinson, 2009, p. 63). To do so, state-backed and private entities enforce “regulating and disciplining” mechanisms upon individuals and groups, such as organisational rules and regulations, institutional policies and technologies, codified programmes and practices, driven towards the dominant norms of White-patriarchy (Moreton-Robinson, 2009, p. 65). Educational institutions have been no exception to this rule (Meston, Whatman, & Bargallie, 2024).

As a result of the continuing influence of White-patriarchy on educational settings across the Anglosphere, teachers give less consideration to Indigenous and marginalised students’ interests and voices, often advancing biased versions of thinking and doing at their expense (Wall, 2022). In Australian classrooms, racial bias is consistently exemplified in the act of “silencing,” where those in positions of power guide students “to silence their experiences of racism” (Yared et al., 2020, p. 1523). Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and peoples “are still experiencing racism and racist violence frequently, insidiously, persistently, and dangerously” (McGlade, 2023), the nationally scoped Footprints in Time study found only 24% of Indigenous students able to voice the extent of the racist bullying they endure in school (Vanovac, 2023). Compounding this issue, many educators often hold preconceived assumptions and stereotypes regarding Indigenous and marginalised students (Riley, 2019). Furthermore, 158 of the “200 most educationally disadvantaged schools in Australia” have a student population between “50% and 90% Indigenous” (Beazley & Cassidy, 2023, “A system that ‘reinforces inequality’” section, para. 1). Indigenous and marginalised students are over-represented in culturally unsafe learning contexts, and without the capacity and resources for support, these students’ voices and interests continue to remain absent from their classrooms (Bonnor et al., 2021).

With the space and opportunity, however, young people have proven their capability to operationalise their polyvocality and challenge these dominant systems. Rather than be a site of contention, educational settings have the potential to be locales where White-patriarchy is confronted by youth, provided that those in positions to do so, namely, teachers and educators, are willing and able to create spaces and opportunities for students to utilise their polyvocality. As Ira Shor (2014) contends, as “the rhetorical setting opens up to them,” those students who are deemed “apparently silent have a lot to say” (p. 34).

Space and opportunity for polyvocality

The creation of spaces and opportunities which not only accommodate but actively promote the interests and voices of Indigenous, marginalised, and all other students fundamentally reframes the power dynamics over whose knowledge counts in classrooms (Smith, 2012). Key examples within educational settings where Indigenous youth have had the space and opportunity to express their polyvocality have resulted in the organising, leading, and implementing of effectual change (Meston et al., 2023).

Within Australia, a prominent example of this was the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Western Australia, who initiated the Aboriginal Leadership Cross-Cultural Solutions Program (ALCCSP) in 2014. The Commissioner consulted “1,271 Aboriginal children and young people from all major regions of Western Australia about the most important issues in their lives,” with the final report detailing this conference, entitled Listen To Us, being brought to the Western Australian Parliament on August 4, 2015 (Commissioner for Children and Young People Western Australia, 2023, para. 1). The ALCCSP “focused on recognising and building the leadership capacity of Aboriginal children and young people along with their peers in three schools from across WA: Karratha Senior High School, Girrawheen Senior High School and Narrogin Senior High School,” such that these students may leave higher education, and enter tertiary education, the workforce, and wider society with critically developed skills (Commissioner for Children and Young People Western Australia, 2023, para. 4).

A further example of when youth have had the space and opportunity to express their polyvocality includes the Childhood Summit (n.d.), run by the Australian Institute of Play, which holds a bi-annual event in Meanjin, putting children at the centre of the itinerary as both serious conference speakers and event organisers, with the aim of working towards “systemic change for children, with children” (para. 1). Critically, the “event advocates for the rights of Australian children and promotes children as active citizens,” with their most recent conference hosting 40 primary-school-aged speakers calling for “Recognition of First Nations Peoples,” “Cultures, and Languages,” and action on “Racial Discrimination and Peer Pressure,” “Cost of Living,” and “Mental Health” (Childhood Summit, n.d., para. 2).

A similar case, where Indigenous students held the space and opportunity to express their polyvocality, includes the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Youth Forum. Here, Indigenous students presented their “Our Youth Statement,” passionately calling for the matriarchs attending the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Summit “to make space in our own communities’ decision-making for young people to listen, learn and contribute” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2023, para. 9). As evidenced, when these Indigenous students were provided the space and opportunity to express their polyvocality, this has resulted in the organising, leading, and implementing of effectual change against the normative practices of the White-patriarchal establishment. Within education, it is up to teachers, administrators, policy makers, and others in positions of power to create environments that nurture these spaces, and extend to all students the opportunity to have their polyvocality heard and acted upon.

Shor (2014) noted that the process of “power-sharing” in schools “involves teachers and students working to promote educational equity [and] cultural diversity” (p. 29). Where the historical legacies of settler-colonisation persist, the act of amplifying the polyvocality of Indigenous, marginalised, and all other students is a transformative step towards dismantling the systemic limitations of White-patriarchy. This is only possible in places where student voices and interests are openly supported and included. Accordingly, the implementation of new, counter, flexible, and alternative practices, pedagogies, and curricula that engage and empower Indigenous youth, and subsequently all students, is desperately required in schools (Dei, 2010; Shay & Heck, 2015). To reframe the power dynamics of educational settings, teachers and those in positions of power must realign their classroom environments and practices towards the polyvocality of students, giving their interests just consideration in the formulation of lessons and learning direction, and providing them the necessary skills to represent and understand their own voices alongside their classmates. Regardless of whether policy, legislation, or standards for teaching are calling for it, it is an imperative for those in positions of power to strive towards creating space and opportunity for student polyvocality in classrooms.

In the following discussion, we analyse qualitative data from the WSS project, a 12-month-long study involving interviews with 16 IEs in Indigenous education from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the USA (Riley et al., 2024). Drawing on this foundation, our article centres the voices of the IEs in Indigenous education, who are Indigenous themselves, to engage the tensions surrounding the continued lack of space and opportunity for student voices and interests in educational settings, providing practical avenues for educators to utilise and address this lacuna by amplifying student polyvocality.

Methodology

Our article advocates for teacher-led actions to amplify student polyvocality in classrooms by reframing whose knowledges and voices count. In analysing data from the WSS project, we draw on Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s seminal text, Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (2012). Research into Indigenous communities and peoples has been employed as extensions of settler-colonial power, operating to exploit First Nations communities, knowledges, beliefs, resources, and cultural traditions. Challenging the historic and continuing consequences of White-patriarchy, Smith offers a foundational framework for contemporary researchers to utilise decolonised methodologies pioneered by Indigenous researchers. Exploring methods paralleling concepts such as cultural survival, self-determination, healing, restoration, and social justice, Smith engages First Nations scholarly and communal knowledge through 25 projects (2012). In so doing, Smith amalgamates existing methodological approaches with culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate Indigenous knowledges and practices containing numerous intersecting goals, including the disparate interests of distinct Indigenous communities.

Accordingly, this study acknowledges that the perpetuation of unresolved social problems that challenge Indigenous peoples often stem from limited and biased framing of these issues, and actively engages in the method of “Reframing,” the 15th project advocated by Smith (2012, p. 153). Reframing is a deliberate, transformative process aimed at relinquishing the control of discourse and solutions surrounding Indigenous issues from dominant perspectives, catalysing a shift in power dynamics, and entrusting Indigenous communities and peoples with the authority to steer discussions about their own issues, experiences, and cultural wealth (Smith, 2012). This method inherently challenges the continuing effects of White-patriarchy by empowering Indigenous peoples to control, assert, and voice their own knowledges, values, and beliefs. Embracing Reframing, this study endeavours to dismantle the predetermined, often biased narratives surrounding Indigenous and marginalised students, and instead, calls to amplify their polyvocality.

Within the White-patriarchal systems of the Anglosphere, Indigenous students and youth activists are deemed “social problems,” as their voices, interests, and “forms of behaviour violate the norms of white [as written in original work] civility” (Moreton-Robinson, 2009, p. 67). We have argued that when given the space and opportunity, youth are effective in utilising their voice to agitate settler-colonial systems and advocate for change. Engaging with the WSS IEs in Indigenous education in the following section, we present their wisdom on how teachers can create opportunities for student polyvocality to be heard and engaged with in educational settings. These 16 IEs are located in Australia (three males, three females), Aotearoa New Zealand (one male, one female), Canada (four females, three males), and the USA (one male). They contend that teachers and those in positions of power must reframe the dynamics of their classrooms, identifying and leaving their preconceived biases at the door, and allowing students to take the lead in classroom initiatives, direct curricula inquiry towards areas of their choosing, and participate alongside staff in discursive planning for lessons (Walsh et al., 2019).

Discussion

Amplifying student voice and polyvocality

Within the study, there was an emphasis on the importance of schools providing students with meaningful opportunities “to nurture their self-identity, and not just be what other people see them as. They need to be themselves. And whatever that is, is up to them” (Moon & Berger, 2016, p. 10). One way to do this is by enabling students to share what matters most to them and the communities they represent in classrooms. As one IE explains,

I think privileging Indigenous student voices in spaces where you can is really important, whether it’s young people’s voices in the schools and the classrooms, whether you’re in mainstream classrooms or flexible learning environments. It’s always important to do that, and it’s always important to privilege voices from the communities that you’re working in too. (IE9)

Another IE agrees, explaining,

I think the voice of the students themselves, those who would champion the need to understand the Indigenous people of the land upon which we are on—they can be exceptional at being champions of learning about our Indigenous people. (IE2)

These IEs relayed that when teachers incorporated students’ unique ideas and perspectives into the curriculum, it enhanced a feeling of belonging among students and helped motivate students to continue to express their polyvocal interests. These IEs contend that to ensure students feel confident to present their voices within the classroom, teachers must be willing to reframe their classrooms according to students’ interest and community needs, as this will help facilitate more opportunities for students to amplify their polyvocality within dominant educational spaces.

Other researchers agree. For example, Lewthwaite et al. (2015) recollect Ladson-Billings’s (1995, 1996) call to “use students’ voice as a foundation for teachers’ reconsideration of practice, drawing into question the protocols of mainstream classrooms and, in response, encourage teachers to work towards a dynamic and synergistic relationship between home, community culture, and school culture” (p. 135). In another study conducted by Moon and Berger (2016), seven urban Indigenous teachers described how Indigenous student success could be achieved when settler and Indigenous educators work together in ways that promote polyvocality through the concept of holism, the acknowledgement of the diversity of the students’ bodies, minds, and spirits. One of the interviewed IEs noted how having the opportunity to make choices around their learning enabled them to understand more about their culture and noted that flexibility around assessment items helps provide freedom for students to capitalise on their interests. She recalled how for her, as a student, having the ability to choose an issue that piqued her curiosity helped stimulate her willingness to learn more about a particular subject and that what she learned later encouraged her to become an advocate herself as an educator. She states,

I remember in high school, English particularly, we would always have options; we would have the flexibility for our assessment. I would always choose to write my feature articles on Indigenous issues or my legal studies cases on Indigenous issues. (IE12)

However, she explained that while the flexibility to choose her projects gave her the space to investigate her culture further, she did not feel motivated or supported by her teachers at school. She stated, “So, it was my intrinsic motivation to learn about my culture and people rather than curriculum and teachers saying that was a requirement” (IE12). This raises the critical point that when teachers allow their students to pursue their interests, students can still be stimulated to learn even if they do not directly relate to their teacher. And yet, providing that flexibility could also help build the student–teacher relationship and may inspire the student to incorporate similar flexibility into their practices. The IE explained how they now include this element of choice into their teaching (IE12).

Teachers who provide students with the space and opportunity to express their polyvocality can then use these diverse experiences, cultural knowledges, and frames of reference, to align classroom content and assessment items with the issues that impact students most, inspiring and motivating them to engage (Lewthwaite et al., 2015; Yunkaporta, 2010). For example, in their article, An Evolving Vision for Designing Professional Learning: Inspiration from Aotearoa, Reschke and Ruhland (2020) describe how in Te Whariki, a national early childhood education programme in Aotearoa New Zealand, teachers empower learners to express their diverse and multiple voices and interests through a culture of inquiry, with “learning how to think being valued over learning what to think” (p. 15, emphasis in original work). The authors describe how teachers encourage children to take their knowledges, and trial and test possible responses and solutions to questions and challenges through exploration, helping cultivate student agency. Within this programme, teachers “communicate clearly that the risk of a ‘wrong’ answer or an unsuccessful attempt at achieving a goal is an expected part of the learning process for everyone, including themselves” (Reschke & Ruhland, 2020, p. 15).

Role-modelling and mentorship

The IEs in Indigenous education strongly advocated the concept of role modelling and mentorship across the interviews as means to provide students with the opportunities to be a co-producer of their educational experiences. Teachers can help to increase students’ confidence in their capacity to achieve success; however, a crucial role of teachers, as seen by the IEs in Indigenous education, is to role model the skills their students will need to become agentic learners, future leaders, and masters of their destinies. A teacher within a study by Moon and Berger (2016) reflects, “Our job is about a guide. Really, we are a guide supporting” (p. 10). Similarly, one IE interviewed compares their role with that of a structural engineer. She notes,

We’re not just building the house. We have to think like a structural engineer to pull a house together that can hold many voices. That’s what I’m using it for. It’s like a backlight or potlatch. People come together to tell these stories. Then once that house is set up, everybody gets to sit around to do storytelling. They get to reflect. They get to come up with ideas. Then the new generation comes in, and they probably will have way better ideas than we would. So, it’s just keeping the continuity, consistency of their truth, and being reconciliation motivated. (IE13)

However, it may be difficult for teachers to model this kind of practice if they are unwilling to make mistakes or acknowledge what they don’t know in the classroom. As one IE, a teacher educator, contends, a common concern among teachers is the prospect of being exposed as ignorant in front of their students. This IE challenges their teachers to reflect upon the underlying reason behind their fear (IE16). According to him, teachers are often afraid to relinquish their authority in the classroom, the “need to be the all-knowing omniscient teacher” (IE16). He suggests that the work around this is for teachers to have the courage to, “admit you don’t know and then search for how to know, how to find out” (IE16). Rather than present themselves as the all-knowing expert, he encourages his teachers to become co-learners with their students and invites them to “take small steps together” to move beyond the fear of making mistakes (IE16). He relays how a teacher, one of his students, was nervous because his class was going to address an issue of which he had very little information on. He also relayed how he invited the teacher to utilise his own questions about the topic as a point of entry with his students so that they could co-learn together, using an inquiry-based approach (IE16). He explains,

We had a teacher one year. He said, “I’ve got this high school class, and they’ve all signed up for ‘Indigenous Treaties in Canada.’ I don’t know anything about treaties. I just agreed to do it because no one else wanted to do it.” It’s like, “OK, so what are you doing?” And the teacher said, “Well, the first day, I just had them all tell us what the questions were, and we wrote them on the board. We just wrote out, ‘Question; what is a treaty? What treaty exists in this territory? I’ve always heard treaties are broken. In what ways?’” And so [I informed him] that’s a starting point. He did some digging and then said, “Here are some sources we’re gonna consult.” And then they [the teacher and his students] read those together. And [I just encouraged the teacher to] just [ask] more questions, right? It’s taking an inquiry of a perspective approach, so that’s very helpful. I tell the teachers, “Model learning and what it is, be a model, and that’s an Indigenous way of teaching and learning—modelling.” So those are things we do. Modelling, learning by doing, co-enquiry, learn along with your students, break down the hierarchy. (IE16)

This IE believes that a crucial aspect of a teachers’ role is to give students the chance to learn skills that will boost their confidence and ability to gain new knowledge (IE16). To do this effectively, teachers need to be open to learning themselves and demonstrate the process of learning, which takes humility.

Another IE who was interviewed agrees, saying that not being afraid to step back and encouraging students to express themselves can lead to a transformation of the curricula–pedagogy–classroom dynamic. She explains, “we ask the students what was important? What did you learn? [By doing this] students actually get to create, they get to share whatever they have learned, transforming their learning experience” (IE3). These IEs in Indigenous are not afraid to challenge the traditional power dynamic between teachers and students prevalent in more colonised educational institutions. Instead, they advocate for teachers to demonstrate problem-solving, team building, communication, and critical thinking to their students, and to provide spaces for students to explore their diverse ways of communication through self-directed active dialogue, storytelling, and project-based and inquiry-based learning.

Adapting teaching and assessment for student success

IEs also discussed the importance of adapting learning and assessment activities in a way that meets students’ present abilities. Teaching and learning opportunities need to be promoted safely and equitably, considering learners’ knowledge and experiences instead of taking on a one size fits all approach. One IE suggests that, when encountering difficult, sensitive, or unfamiliar terrain within the classroom, it may be wise to pass the microphone over to the students, providing the space and opportunity for learners to engage in pre-assessment activities (IE4). They explain,

We need to know who they are coming in, to meet them where they’re at, versus assuming where they’re at. . . . Why don’t you do a little pre-assessment or, you know, a quick, whatever the latest gadget is, the coolest app to use, like Cahoot or whatever, right? I don’t know. Engage them in something that lets you get a sense of where they’re at and what they know. That helps them feel engaged and respected for what they do carry. It gives the kids who really know a lot of chance to be seen but then it also helps the teacher model where they can take the students who don’t know and how they can take them there. (IE4)

This strategy allows teachers to adequately address any specific learning issues in students and quickly identify those who may need the additional space, opportunity, or scaffolding around content, to help empower their confidence. The implementation of such activities also helps to construct more meaningful content within classrooms, strengthening the knowledge and experience a student already brings to an issue and then providing them with the opportunity to extend upon their polyvocality. B. G. Kerr and Averill (2021) advocate culturally sustaining assessment practices to reinforce and acknowledge the polyvocality of learners, as well as their capabilities and successes. They note “the intent of the assessment is not to provide the same opportunities for all, but rather, to shape teaching and learning so that outcomes produce fair and just results” (B. G. Kerr and Averill, 2021, p. 240). One IE provides an example of the challenge they face when teaching teachers at very different levels regarding their understanding of student polyvocality. They note they aim to create learning opportunities, which, rather than assume that all learners come to the table with the same knowledge or experiences, aim to motivate students to voice their interests in ways contextualised to the learning at hand (IE6). They relay,

One of the things that I’ve found is a challenge, ever since I was in Indigenous studies, and carried it into education, was this feeling that students come with such a range of knowledge and experience. . . . So, from that moment, I felt I must connect with someone’s lived experience and then push them to go deeper or further. So, the course assessment, I guess, or the assignments, asks the person to start from where they are and think critically or push critically into new areas. They have to figure out some sort of application or something that’s going to be useful to them. . . . I want them to see how their work is applied when they leave here. It’s not just abstract thinking. . . . So, there’s a sense of purpose and utility to what you’re learning here and doing. (IE6)

Indigenous pedagogical practices are reinforced by ensuring that content areas and assessments are tightly interwoven with students’ concerns and interests so that students can easily connect their learning to the issues that matter most to them (Meston, 2024). As Kirkness (1998) asserts,

You will know when you have achieved your goal of quality education when your children are enjoying the challenge of school/learning, when their self-esteem and self-confidence are evident, when your children are proud of who they are, when their links with the older generations are made. (p. 15)

While Kirkness (1998) specifically made this quote about the concept of Indigenous student success, the author could apply the exact quote to all teachers concerning any student.

Conclusion

To quote the title of this article, children are to be seen and heard. Here, we have advocated for teacher actions to amplify student polyvocality in classrooms. Around the world, youth expressing their voices and interests are often unfairly dismissed, portrayed by settler-colonial systems as divergent from White-patriarchal standards. With space and opportunity, however, students have proven effective in utilising their polyvocality to agitate settler-colonial systems and advocate for change. Importantly, as new discursive forums, such as social media, become available, the young have proven that they possess strong thoughts and opinions on their worlds—strong enough to act. Amplification of students’ polyvocality by teachers in classrooms has the potential to challenge White-patriarchy in educational practice. It is up to those in positions of power to work towards reframing the dynamics preventing students from engaging beyond the settler-colonial confines of educational systems.

Turning towards the wisdom of IEs in Indigenous education from across the Anglosphere as guidance to work with and through the polyvocality of the young, we propose teacher-led actions to amplify the diverse perspectives of students in schools, reframing whose voices and interests count. Teachers and those in positions of power must reframe the dynamics of their classrooms by identifying and leaving their preconceived biases at the door, and allowing students to take the lead in classroom initiatives, direct curricula inquiry towards areas of their choosing, and participate alongside staff in discursive planning for lessons. Importantly, future educational scholarship on this subject is necessary. Further research which gathers and utilises the experiences, knowledges, and beliefs from the students themselves is required to gauge the now of what they need, what their voices and interests are today, and reframe practices accordingly as their polyvocality evolves into the future.