Conceptualizing Student Participation in School Decision Making: An Integrative Model

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Toward Critical Enactments of Democratic Citizenship Education

Abstract

The study of student participation in decision making has been characterised by conceptual vagueness and an absence of empirical tools to compare participatory practices in various contexts and to determine when they achieve their goals. This study presents an integrative theoretical model grounded in the organisational literature on participative decision making as well as in the children’s participation literature. The model views student participative decision making as a multidimensional structure that emerges within a context. Specifically, the model suggests that the rationales behind promoting student participative decision making (pragmatic, moral, or developmental/pedagogical) will determine its dimensions, which, in turn, will affect student, teacher, and school outcomes. It posits that the school organizational culture will shape the patterns of these relationships.

Authors

• Lotem Perry-Hazan, University of Haifa

• Anit Somech, University of Haifa