Leading Schools in Partnership With Students: Critical Questions for Creating Democratic Participatory Schools

• In Event: 70.065 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 70.065-11 - Democratic Citizenship in Education SIG Roundtable Session #3

Abstract

Student perspectives are often marginalized in school decision-making because of societal conceptions about the role and capabilities of young people, particularly in the absence of a rights-based discourse for their inclusion. As a result, schools that wish to incorporate students in school decision-making must often turn to non-rights based discourses to justify their inclusion. To explore the effect such justifications have on shaping the process and outcomes of student voice work in schools, this embedded case study of 12 schools partnered with an intermediary organization that promotes student involvement in school decision-making explores the role that educational leaders play in negotiating space for students to participate as leaders in decisions about teaching and learning.

Author

• Catharine Biddle, University of Maine