An argument to align student voice activities into a connected framework - from dialogue to partnership.

Author

Tom Lowe, Chair of Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE), University of Portsmouth (UK)

This blog has been written following a publication from Matthews and Dollinger (2022) who outline the connections and differences between ‘Students as Partners’ and ‘Student Representation’. Students having a say in their education is not a new idea, with scholars over 100 years ago, and frequently since, having emphasised the benefit and need to shape education through engaging students (Dewey, 1910, Freire, 1970, European Higher Education Area, 2001, Fielding, 2004). The names of subsequent areas of activity vary, from student voice, learner voice, pupil voice, student representation, student engagement and students as partners, at all educational levels as well as higher education. Whatever the title taken for such activities, there is a clear case to most that engaging students in the development of our higher education curriculum and wider communities is critical for the ongoing inclusivity and success of our universities.

This blog has been inspired from my working across Higher Education in roles supporting student engagement in the development of education, where I have supported many formats and pathways  of student voice activities. Some of which engaged democratically elected students, others engaged students through  participatory research methods, and others through simple feedback pathways for students to report both good and bad practices. I will make the argument that there is an urgent need to review and to connect our student voice practices, following en-masse adoption creating potentially chaotic and unconnected student voice systems at our institutions.

There are two key areas I wish to first focus upon in this area of higher education development. First of all student voice, is an “expression of any student in any forum about learning, schools and education” (Fletcher, 2017, 58). The second area of focus building upon student voice is democratic student representative schemes, whether course level through course representatives, or at institutional levels through roles such as Student Presidents and Councils. I would argue that these two areas of activity together build the foundation for wider areas of student engagement in the development of education, such as surveys, students as partners projects and student engagement in quality assurance. If these two areas are working, the opportunities created by such a foundation are fruitful as so many staff and students are engaged. However, if the most basic forms of student voice are not working, more intensive formats of student engagement in the development of education can struggle as the culture of student voice is not widespread.

For our plethora of student voice activities to succeed, we must ensure students and staff are both putting in effort, to meet half way in spaces about education, as demonstrated below (Figure 1). When a student wishes to discuss their educational experience, universities and their staff within, need to engage in that discussion and respond to the feedback (the feedback loop), in whichever format it occurs, which can be increasingly online. When students are elected to be representatives, we must empower those representatives to attend, have accessible dialogue, and succeed in reporting between the university and their student cohort. If the feedback loop breaks down, students will simply stop using formal methods to feedback, and instead move to alternative methods such as social media or activism – both of which are too, pathways of student voice.

Figure 1: Balance of student-staff relationships in higher education (Adapted from Lowe and El Hakim, 2020, 13)

Student voice in many nations, such as the UK, has become business as usual, which should be celebrated. However, student voice practices are now happening at scale across our universities in eclectic fashions, becoming difficult to connect and map. All of this practice should be celebrated (whether student representatives, students as partners, or student surveys), however, concerns are beginning around survey fatigue, unconnected pathways of feedback, representativeness of student representatives, and equal reward for student participation across different activities. I worry that there is an unlimited space of student voice activities occurring within some of our universities, with the only thing uniting these areas of our activities being the student themselves.

Taking a broad definition of student voice as outlined above by Fletcher (2017), there is now a need to audit our student voice activities, inclusive of not only our formal student roles, but our module evaluations surveys and informal methods of feedback run by our academic teams and professional services. There is also a need to include student complaints in this audit, which should be part of the same student voice picture , yet is often hidden (McHale, 2018). A brief example of a map is outlined below (Figure 2). We should also aspire to be student centred with each opportunity, where more than often, we are asking students’ to enter staff spaces to support such activities. If we are asking students to become a student representative or attend a university board as a Student President, we should ensure these opportunities are accessible and even better, empowering. Perhaps starting with the most taxing student voice opportunities for students, such as making a complaint, we can assess how we are empowering students to feel that they matter throughout our student voice activities. Then move through our opportunities back to the classroom, to ensure all of our staff are open to all forms of feedback (positive and negative).

Figure 2: Example mapping of Student Voice opportunities inclusive of Student Complaints

There is a need to audit our student voice activities, we may find we have dozens of surveys, dozens of feedback schemes, and unconnected roles discussing education in different spaces. There is great work going on at our institutions, but potentially that same work is unconnected with silos emerging. And, in every instance, we must be closing the feedback loop, and assessing if we are asking the same question twice. Perhaps we have thousands of pieces of student voice and feedback moving around our universities and there is a great risk that we cannot guarantee a meaningful experience in such a busy student voice ecosystem. Perhaps feedback is being given and not responded to – or perhaps staff, have just too many pathways of student feedback to manage.

This blog makes the argument to review, reflect and connect our student voice activities. Universities are one by one adopting a student-voice focused governance models, and individual staff and their departments are reaching out to students’ voices to improve their practice. Yet there is a risk if our student voice en-masse, becomes student voice messy, we are at a risk of getting this wrong – although starting with the best intensions.

References:

Dewey, J. (2004) Democracy and education. Courier Corporation.

European Higher Education Area (2001) Gotenborg Student Declaration Retrieved from: http://www.ehea.info/cid102734/student-goteborg-convention-march-2001.html

Fielding, M. (2004) Transformative approaches to student voice: Theoretical underpinnings, recalcitrant realities. British educational research journal, 30(2), pp.295-311.

Freire, P. (1973) Education for critical consciousness (Vol. 1). Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lowe, T. and El Hakim, Y. (2020) An Introduction to student engagement in higher education. In: Lowe, T. and El Hakim, Y. eds. (2020) A handbook for student engagement in higher education: Theory into practice. Routledge.

Matthews, K.E. and Dollinger, M. (2022) Student voice in higher education: the importance of distinguishing student representation and student partnership. Higher Education, pp.1-16.

McHale, B. (2018) Complaints – student engagement in its richest form? Wonkhe Published 3rd May 2018. Available at: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/complaints-student-engagement-in-its-richest-form/ (Accessed 13th November 2022).