Student voice: do we really care about student voice? Live Webchat today

In a few hours I'll be facilitating a live web chat on an area that, after three weeks seeing some fascinating practice in New Zealand and Australia, is closer to my heart than ever. I've written a longer blog post on how I think we could listen more to student voice rather than just hear it, and in a few hours (8pm British Summer Time, noon Pacific Time) we have a live web chat to thrash out the loose ends in these arguments:

"Learner voice" is one of those phrases that at some point in time was a useful hook for those revolutionising how students learn. Rather than seeing young people as cogs to be prepared
for an industrial age future, learner voice focused school leaders and
teachers on letting young people have a say in how their school was run
and, much more importantly, what and how they learn.

However, it is quickly becoming edu-jargon, with its actual meaning for
day-to-day learning becoming less clear to those teaching young people
and, vitally, to young people themselves. Learner voice has all too
often been reduced to making choices on what the lunch menu will be.

I've spent the last couple of weeks in New Zealand, seeing how the
actions and approaches of individual teachers, head teachers, and, in
some instances, the school structure itself are being adapted to
facilitate deeper appreciation of what students want and what they are
capable of. What's clear is that where practice might be considered "the
best," learner voice has not been reduced simply to asking students
what they want at school ("What can we at the school cede to learners?")
but has become the principal vehicle for teaching and learning ("What
do you want to learn, how do you want to learn it, and what can we at
the school do to help make it happen?").

I hope you can join me and a few others to share your own experiences, challenges and ideas for increasing the student's voice in student-led learning.

Tags: Australia, Education, Learning, Methods and Theories, New Zealand, School, Student, Youth