Come join a student advocacy group showcase and community discussion to encourage students to use their voices to reclaim and advocate for their education. Various community-based organizations will engage in conversation about current issues in education and learn from each others’ successes. The main issues of discussion are making public education public, effective advocacy strategies in curriculum, and working with the community as a whole to facilitate change. Audience participation and student input is highly encouraged, so ask questions and bring your experiences to share! 

Abstract: 

This forum will serve as a student advocacy group showcase and community discussion to encourage students to use their voices to reclaim and advocate for their education. Envisioned as a showcase, this event will be enriched by the insights of various community-based organizations, gathering to engage in thoughtful conversations surrounding the pressing issues of contemporary education and learn from each others’ successes. At the heart of the discourse lie pivotal questions that challenge the status quo: Why does public education often seem veiled from the very public it serves? How can we empower our children to assume an active role in their educational journey, bestowing upon them and their parents a legitimate voice in shaping their learning environment? These questions serve as the guiding light, illuminating a path toward a more inclusive and participatory educational landscape. Furthermore, there will be a nuanced exploration of effective advocacy strategies within the curriculum, dissecting methods to empower students and parents alike to influence the educational trajectory. Some of our guest speakers will be local activist groups, each bringing a unique perspective to the table.  Audience participation and student input is highly encouraged, so ask questions and bring your experiences to share! 

Background Information:

A dominant narrative has maintained students holding a passive voice in their own schooling. From K-12, their education has brought them up to be holistic thinkers, however have we thought about how they think critically about their own education? How has student voice been integrated into K-12 education? How could it be, for future generations?

Conceptualizing student voices allows us to learn more about its workings. The four elements to student voice, according to Jennefer Bain in her article “Integrating student voice: assessment for empowerment”, include the following:

• Space: Students must be given the opportunity to express a view
• Voice: Students must be facilitated to express their views
• Audience: The view must be listened to
• Influence: The view must be acted upon, as appropriate (Lundy, L. (2007))

Bain speaks to student engagement, in the context of assessments in higher education, however a similar framework can be applied to student activism through K-12 in Saint Paul, Minnesota and the Twin Cities. As displayed in Figure 1. Conceptualizing the role of student voice in assessment, the intersection of space and voice makes way for the right to express view. Similarly, the convergence of influence and audience makes way the right to have views given due weight. It is through these interpretations that make way for student voice to be interpreted in three different modes: 

​​• an epistemological voice, or a voice for knowing;
• a practical voice, or a voice for doing; and
• an ontological voice, or a voice for being and moving forward. (Batchelor, 2006:787)

Bain connects this theory to her research by explaining that the ontological voice within student voice is most commonly ignored and disregarded because more often than not, sharing student opinions is passive. These frameworks are informative to critically and reflectively receiving and listening to student voices in our forum.  

Audience Statement:

Through this discussion based forum, we’re aiming to start the conversation among parents, students and teachers alike, to surface issues and themes around student activism. We aim to encourage  parents to know that they have a voice in their child’s education; specifically through informing parents, students and teachers alike that individuals, particularly students, and groups from a variety of advocacy circles are taking action and participating in activism. 

Core Questions:

By the end of the forum, participants will be able to answer the following questions:

  • How can we support student advocacy, students and ground work in Minnesota?
  • How can we support student self-determination in education?
  • How do organizations play a crucial role in facilitating student engagement and advocacy?

Resources:

Panelists: 

  • Global Teen Activists
  • Saint Louis Park Youth Data Analysts

Bibliography:

Bain, J. (2010). Integrating student voice: Assessment for empowerment. Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 4(1), 14-29.

Batchelor, D. (2006) Vulnerable Voices: An examination of the concept of vulnerability in relation to student voice. Educational Philosophy and Theory. 38(6): 787–800.

Lundy, L. (2007) ‘Voice’ is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations’ British Educational Research Journal, 33 (6), pp. 927-942