what counts as student voice in active citizenship case studies?

Abstract

We analyse a teacher-to-teacher discourse (14 web-published case studies) concerning `participation as citizenship' in schools. Many different mechanisms through which pupils participate are reported (from school councils to paired-reading schemes and community links). The claimed outcomes of these activities are also varied: improving the effectiveness of schools, developing skills, and promoting feelings of involvement and empowerment among the participating pupils. Significantly, the outcomes are not radically or politically transformative and are generally contained within schools' existing structures. The texts reveal their adult authors' range of understandings of children and schooling, which help to explain the relatively conservative pattern of outcomes. However, the pattern is also explained, in part, by the contested interpretations of both participation and citizenship, and by the open and permissive model of education for citizenship favoured in Scotland.

Keywords

citizenship participation Scotland student voice teacher discourse

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