Building for Student Voice Readiness: The Role of Trust

• In Event: Empowering Student Voice in Educational Practice: Student Voice to Student Outcomes

Abstract

Objectives
The findings in this paper draw from a district with an espoused commitment to student voice activities and with a dedicated staff at the district- and school-levels to implement the work. Despite resources, training, and intention, student voice practices in these schools faced challenges that may hinder their sustainability in the long run. This paper examines the conditions that enable student voice work, beyond simply having the will and the capacity to engage in student voice activities.

Perspective
Our data point to trust as the critical third component of building contexts that can enable student voice practices. To be able to build trust, individuals should be keen to take on possible risks despite the possibility of harm. Specifically, we define trust as the willingness to be vulnerable with others, as well as the acceptance of people’s vulnerability without exploiting it for personal gain (Owens & Jonson, 2009).

Data Sources and Methods
We use qualitative data to support and refute the constructs of trust previously presented in the literature-- caring/benevolence, honesty, openness, reliability, and competences (Tschannen-Moran, 2014) within student-teacher relationships. Regression models were also specified to assess the association between the strength of student-teacher relationships and classroom-level SVPs from both teacher (n = 88) and student perspectives (n = 1,751). Models were run in SPSS and accounted for both teacher sociodemographics (i.e., gender, race, school site, and career length) and student sociodemographics (i.e., gender, ELL status, race, school site, and financial strain) in separate models.

Findings
Our analyses demonstrate how student-teacher relationships help to gauge teacher readiness for student voice work, including teacher mindsets and motivations. We illustrate how the strength of student-teacher relationships is positively linked with two types of classroom-level SVPs - constructive critique and collaborative decision-making - both from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Further, we link building trustworthy relationships to teachers’ perception on SVPs teachers use, specifically, to engage students who are marginalized.

Significance
The paper provides evidence on how trust and strong student-teacher developmental relationships are experienced by teachers and students as enabling conditions for student voice practices. It also highlights what specific conditions and contexts affect trust.

Authors

• Dana L. Mitra, Pennsylvania State University

• Ghadir Al Saghir, Pennsylvania State University

• Ashley Boat, Search Institute

• Nikki Lee Wright, University of Memphis

• Samantha E. Holquist, Child Trends