Despite their growing presence, student members of school boards remain relatively neglected in extant research. Drawing on notions of situational and institutional power, this study examines how seven U.S. student members of the board enacted their roles during the challenging 2020-21 school year and how adults responded. Findings highlight not…

Bullying remains a serious problem in schools in England and internationally despite the plethora of research, interventions and policies which aim to address it. The majority of research and interventions are based on a traditional approach where school bullying is constructed as involving a clear imbalance of power between individuals. Recently,…

Students who serve on the governing body of UK and Irish higher education institutions often report challenges due to a perceived power dynamic. This study explored the perspectives of power among current and former student governors (n = 14). This research highlighted the importance of power and its role in determining the influence (or lack of)…

This article presents the results of collaborative autoethnographical (CAE) research that investigated the group dynamics and processes of an undergraduate student, a post-doctoral fellow, and two senior administrators engaged in a students-as-partners (SaP) project. The CAE methodology allowed us to systematically, collaboratively, and…

Despite the popularity of student voice initiatives, there is ample evidence that they fail to challenge power relations at school or help marginalized students make their voices heard. This paper presents a student voice project based on the Photovoice method. The project was implemented with marginalized youth in an urban high school in Israel.…

This case study explores the implementation of a collaborative initiative that transformed the traditional role of teaching assistants (TAs) into student-faculty partners in two psychology courses. The objective of the collaboration was to leverage the insights and contributions of undergraduate students as co-creators of instruction for students'…

The paper examines school meetings held in a small democratic school in Poland in order to explore how school communities are formed. Drawing on Foucault's concept of power, the authors analyse fieldnotes and interview excerpts to reveal how voice and scripted bodily expressions accompanying verbal utterances are privileged in these school…

Research has shown the value of including youth, especially minoritized students, in school- and district-level educational decision-making. However, power dynamics, as related to adultism, along with other inequities, are barriers to youth's political influence. We elucidate these barriers by exploring the possible relationship between…

We interrogated a students as partners (SaP), co-curricular program that focuses on supporting student learning. To center power and equity in SaP, the program was grounded in social design-based experiment methodology. We considered the manifestation of power and equity beyond higher education, to that of broader socio-political contexts.…

Primary school approaches to student voice and leadership rarely change, despite concerns about manipulation and tokenism. This single case study investigated an approach to student voice and student leadership in an Australian primary school that was very different to a traditional student council. Thematic analysis of school documents and staff…

Until recently the dominant critique of "student participation" projects was one based on the theoretical assumptions of critical theory in the form of critical pedagogy. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of a critical education discourse that theorises and critically analyses such projects using Foucault's notion of…

The focus of this article is methods for facilitating student voice and engagement in higher education, specifically participatory methods. Across the student voice and engagement literature there is a growing emphasis on promoting collaborative partnerships between staff and students. However, there is a lack of detail and criticality with…

This study aims to unfold the framework of empowerment pedagogy by describing an approach of listening to the children, supporting their rights, and enhancing participation through the lens of a learning community. The authors draw from the literature that acknowledges children as active agents and supports them in participating in their daily…

Motivated by the addition of a curriculum standard for active citizenship into New Jersey's social studies standards a group of educators and researchers set out to integrate an action research curriculum, based on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) model, into social studies classrooms. Adapting YPAR, with its promising blend of…

This article focuses on the process of conducting a research project which explored the university student experience across three different geopolitical contexts using students studying at an English university as co-inquirers. The project sample included students at different stages of their university experience (undergraduate, postgraduate and…