Session Information
25 SES 04, Inclusive Pedagogies and Children's Rights
Paper Session
Contribution
Over recent years educational reform has extensively seen the development of a trend which welcomes the increasing importance of student participation in matters relating to schools. This move was inspired by Article 12 of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child which encourages listening to the voice of the child in matters of their concern. In the UK, policy has attributed increasing significance to the right of all children to have a ‘voice’ in educational decisions. This contributes to the widely-agreed notion that listening and taking into consideration students’ opinions, results in an amplified opportunity to increase student participation, academic achievement and global enjoyment of learning. The process of eliciting student opinion may be a challenging venture. However, it primarily involves individuals who are capable of assessing the broader context and subsequently engage in dialogue to express the student’s needs and aspirations. This inevitably raises questions on how to provide the most feasible structures within which even the most vulnerable of students can express their “voice”.
While the notion of “student voice” has a broad meaning, this paper rests upon Hargreaves’ (2004) definition that considers student voice from an educational practice perspective. This revolves around teachers’ classroom practice: how they listen to what students have to communicate and how they encourage them to play an active role in their education. Despite that some students may have a focused idea of their educational needs and preferences, other students with learning difficulties may need additional help and support. There is an increasing body of literature about methods related to eliciting the voice of students with learning difficulties (eg. Porter et al., 2001; Grove et al., 2000). This study seeks to further contribute to this knowledge by addressing ways in which teachers of students with learning difficulties in a special school strive to give a ‘voice’ to their students. This includes a focus on the resources they use and the methods they employ to be able to successfully integrate student voice into everyday practice.
Activity theory (Leont’ev, 1978, 1981; Engeström, 1987) is a theoretical framework that provides a socio-cultural lens ideal for the analysis of human behaviour. It presents a valuable perspective through which classroom activity can be comprehensively investigated. In essence, it allows researchers to access the complexity of classroom practice as well as the added dynamics of a special educational context. An activity system is a logical combination of interrelated entities, including a subject, an object and layers of historically accumulated tools, patterns of division of labour and rules. This study adopts Cole and Engeström’s (1993) model of activity theory to examine the mediation offered by the teacher as a tool for instilling and promoting student voice in the social environment of the classroom.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Cole, M. & Engeström, Y. (1993). A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition. In G. Salmon (Ed.) Distributed cognition: Psychological and Educational Considerations, (pp. 1-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by Expanding: An Activity-Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit. Grove, N., Porter, J., Bunning, K., & Olsson, C. (2000) ‘Interpreting the Meaning of Communication by People with Severe and Profound Learning Difficulties: theoretical and methodological issues’. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 12(3): pp.190-203. Hargreaves, D. (2004). Personalising Learning 2: Student Voice and Assessment for Learning. London: Specialist Schools Trust. Leont'ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, Consciousness and Personality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). Problems of the Development of Mind. Moscow: Progress. Porter J., Downs C., Morgan M. & Ouvry, C. (2001) ‘Interpreting Communication of People with Profound and Severe Learning Difficulties’. British Journal of Learning Disabilities 29(1): pp. 12-16.
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