Student Voice and Participation - Developing and Enabling Student Agency and Potential in Schools

This doctoral study will examine the interrelationship between school-leaders as cultural architects and students’ voices to promote Student Agency in schools. International perspectives from both Norway and Ireland will be sought. Student Agency can be described as the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change. It is “rooted in the belief that students have the ability and the will to influence positively their own lives and the world around them.” Voice and Participation are important prerequisites for students becoming agents in their own learning and development. This project will examine the factors that facilitate the development of school culture that will foster Student Voice and democratic participation among all students. It will also examine the role of the school-leader in developing such an agentic school culture. The influence of Student Voice and Student Participation can extend to impacting students' overall satisfaction with their lives. Voice and Participation are key factors for students’ motivation for learning and experience of belonging at school. Motivation for learning affects and enables student’s potential, and the experience of community belonging can influence young people's mental health. This means that Student Voice and Student Participation might prevent ‘outsiderness’ or lack of belonging which we know is an increasing challenge for young people globally. The project will examine Student Voice and Participation through three conceptual lenses, of Trust, Psychological Safety and Belonging all of which impact the student and the leader. In addition a fourth dimension focuses on the Leader as Cultural Architect and looks specifically at how leaders create, foster and influence school culture. The project is a collaboration between KS Consultants AS and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and the University of Limerick In Ireland (via professor II relation at HVL).

This doctoral study will examine the interrelationship between leaders’ visions and students’ voices to promote student agency in the context of democratic citizenship education. The project will make an important contribution to school development nationally and internationally. Several factors provide context for this work; the Norwegian new curriculum, LK20, the Future of Education and Skills OECD (OECD Learning Compass 2030) and UNs Sustainable Development Goal number 4, Quality Education. Student agency is defined as the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change. The importance of developing student agency, and to be an involved part of and build competent and sustainable communities, is a read thread in these national and global policy documents. The OECD conceptualize student agency as “rooted in the belief that students have the ability and the will to influence positively their own lives and the world around them.” Voice and participation are important prerequisites for students becoming agents in their own learning and development. This project will examine the factors that facilitate the creation of school culture that will foster student voice and democratic participation for all students. It will also examine the role of the school-leader in developing such an agentic school culture. Student voice and participation promotes students' motivation and mastery, learning and responsibility, and is an important prerequisite for students satisfaction with their own lives. It can affect the experience of community belonging which in turn has an influence on young people's mental health. Student voice and participation might prevent ‘outsiderness’ or lack of belonging which we know is an increasing challenge for young people globally. The theoretical framework will be; Trust, Psychological Safety and Belonging and the Leader as Cultural Architect.