Students often don’t have a say in how their schools are run, or how to direct their own learning, despite the fact that including student voices in schools has many proven benefits.
Among others, these benefits include: increased academic motivation (Quaglia 2016); higher GPAs, fewer absences and less chronic absenteeism (Kahne et al 2022); an increased sense of agency, belonging, and competence (Mitra 2004) and increased self-esteem, life skills, democratic skills, and improved relationships with adults (Griebler & Nowak 2012).
If teachers and administrators want to include students in decision-making, practical tools are needed. A good starting place is to decide what decisions students are included in and how.
There are three levels of student voice in decision-making:
- Teachers and administration make decisions with feedback from students
- Students are included to co-decide with teachers and administration
- Students are fully empowered to make their own decisions in a given domain
Once students are given a clear role in decision-making, a school will need to decide on a process to make decisions. Majority rules and sociocracy are two options for this.