Elevating Student Voice: How to Enhance Participation, Citizenship, and Leadership

Citation

Brooks, J.S. (2006), "Elevating Student Voice: How to Enhance Participation, Citizenship, and Leadership", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 44 No. 5, pp. 525-528. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230610683813

Nelson Beaudoin's Elevating Student Voice: How to Enhance Participation, Citizenship, and Leadership offers actionable strategies for promoting democratic principles in schools by including students as engaged partners in governance. The book draws from three decades of Beaudoin's experience as an educator, focusing primarily on lessons he learned as principal of two award‐winning high schools. The book is a blend of anecdote, artifact, and advice, and readers will appreciate both the accessible language the author uses and the many helpful templates and decision‐making guides sprinkled throughout the text.

The book includes an introduction to basic concepts, eight chapters and a conclusion. Chapters vary in length but are generally organized into short sub‐sections, each of which deals with a distinct aspect of that chapters' overarching theme. To illustrate key concepts, Beaudoin provides actual forms, letters, and examples of processes he has used to facilitate student involvement in governance in schools he has led. Sharing these documents is extremely helpful in that it offers readers tools they might readily use in other educational settings, and makes clear the practical utility and logistical possibility of elevating student voice in schools. Practicing school administrators will find this book both thought provoking and immediately useful both as a reflective aid and as a managerial toolkit.

In Chapter 1, Beaudoin explains the beliefs and attitudes educators should have to best support student voice in schools. First, the author believes that above all else, students must care about the work in which they are engaged and the school in which they do it. To this end, educators must foster student engagement, the (p. 5) “linchpin of great schooling”. Second, educators must commit to providing students with an individualized educational experience. Students should have the freedom to pursue their interests and capitalize on their strengths. Third, schools that elevate student voice must promote among students a feeling of belonging in which they are safe and supported. Fourth, educators must create structures and community norms that allow students both to realize their potential and engage the school governance system in a way that helps others reach theirs as well.

Chapter 2 finds Beaudoin moving from a discussion of general dispositions into one centered on work in schools. In this chapter, he refers to his earlier published work (Beaudoin, 2005a,b), in which he urged school leaders to “step outside their comfort zone” and expect a certain amount of messiness as they begin to change the practice of leadership in their schools. While intimating that leaders should anticipate challenges and obstacles, Beaudoin also points out that school leaders should take heart in the fact that they are in a unique position of power and responsibility and are therefore able to set the tone of the work. More specifically, he suggests that leaders seeking to elevate student voice in their school should:

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  choose a positive and supportive attitude;

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  create open and safe forums and processes that facilitate transparency and the exchange of ideas throughout the organization;

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  adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach to schooling wherein responsibility and efficacy are conceived as a collective ethic; and

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  recognize that processes and programs must maintain flexibility so they can accommodate changing needs of students and educators.

Chapter 3 explores how the democratic dispositions and processes mentioned in the previous two chapters can be implemented as a coherent component of the structure and organization of the school day. He explains the importance of giving students an opportunity to make meaningful decisions about issues that matter to them; token input on trivial matters is insufficient. To accomplish this, Beaudoin recommends some familiar ideas, such as an open‐door policy and the need to honor and respect students. However, he also explains how frequent administration of student opinion surveys can serve as a formal mechanism for providing regular feedback to teachers and administrators. Further, as educators need advice and feedback from students, students likewise need personalized advice and feedback on their work and progress. Formal advisory programs can take many forms, but should be conducted:

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  in groups of a manageable size that meet regularly for a reasonable amount of time;

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  in such a way that offer students opportunities to lead conferences; and

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  by facilitators who grant students permission to speak freely.

In Chapter 4, Beaudoin shows how purposeful elevation of student voices can help connect the school and students to the community in meaningful ways. He stresses the importance of community service, service learning, student‐directed programs and events, and experiential learning. In doing so, Beaudoin illustrates each of these concepts with examples of educational projects students at his schools completed that involved families, local companies, and community groups. These programs, which included wetlands conservation, student‐student mentoring programs, and fundraisers for medical research, highlight the possibility for students to make a substantive contribution to their communities while learning.

In Chapter 5, Beaudoin looks at how extra‐ and co‐curricular activities, properly conceived and supported, can positively influence student participation. In doing so, he emphasizes the need to move student work to the center of organizational focus by ensuring that their work is exhibited regularly to the entire educational community rather than only in individual classrooms. Student clubs can be a powerful vehicle for elevating student voice and should provide students with the opportunity to implement ideas and affect change through innovative means. Again, Beaudoin offers numerous examples of clubs that offered benefits to students and educators in his own schools. This chapter also highlights the importance of empowering and trusting students to express themselves responsibly through student‐run media such as school newspapers.

Chapter 6 highlights ways in which schools can serve as laboratories of democracy by creating and sustaining meaningful and engaged citizenship roles for students. Beaudoin explains that educating students for citizenship and democracy will be ineffective unless they actually participate in such processes during their school experience. To facilitate this form of engagement, the author points out that most schools have (or should consider having) a civic mission. This mission should inform not only classroom level curricular and instructional decisions (such as how much the study of politics and government should be in the curriculum), but should also guide student governance structures, and prompt educators to include students on school‐level committees. Further, in keeping with his democratic orientation, Beaudoin extends this logic beyond the walls of the school and explains how students can and should be represented on the school board.

Chapter 7 emphasizes the importance of freedom and responsibility by reviewing the central tenets of First Amendment Schools, a comprehensive school reform model based on democratic ideals. At the time this book was published, Beaudoin's experience with this reform was minimal, as his Kennebuck High School was reaching the end of the first year of implementation. Still, readers will benefit from this presentation of core values and reform design, and given Beaudoin's impassioned exhortations for facilitating student engagement and democratic principles throughout a school, this reform seems promising.

In Chapter 8, Beaudoin provides exemplars of effective democratic leadership practice from across the USA. The first half of the chapter is devoted to detailed profiles of people and schools that reported success in elevating student voice. For example, Barnstable, a service‐learning oriented school on Cape Cod, made great strides getting students involved in the community and transformed the relationship of the district to the community into a vibrant partnership. Beaudoin also uses this chapter to point out that individual educators can have a tremendous impact on student experiences with democracy and civic engagement. He relates the inspirational story of Mark Grashow, a committed teacher who sponsored exchange activities that allowed students to travel to countries and provided numerous educational resources and opportunities to students, domestically and abroad.

In sum, Nelson Beaudoin's Elevating Student Voice: How to Enhance Participation, Citizenship, and Leadership offers reflections on real‐world practice, a review of democratic principles that can guide school programming and cultural norms, and numerous resources that practicing administrators will find useful and inspirational. Beaudoin's is the voice of experience, and his optimistic perspective on school change and student‐centered approach is refreshing.