Browsing by Subject "Student voice"

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    THE DUAL PRESENCE OF PROMISE AND INEQUITY: A PRAGMATIC INQUIRY INTO HOW HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PERCEIVE THEIR VOICE
    (2022-04) Virgin, Robb
    In the present study, I attempted to understand how students perceive their voice in the 2900 student public high school where I serve as principal. The study is a qualitative inquiry that combines human-centered design and action research for its conceptual framework. My dual roles of researcher and principal influenced every aspect of this project, from its initial imagination all the way to the construction of this dissertation. Data on how students perceive their voice at Valley View High School (VVHS) were collected via focus groups, interviews, surveys, and specific student voice initiatives directly involving a total of 31 students. Participants were diverse by race, age, and gender. A schoolwide student survey and crowdsourced innovation event provide contextual insights. Across the data sets, participants’ deep interest in having their voice heard was apparent, as was their belief that their voice improves the school. Inequitable perceptions of who was heard were also consistently found. These two findings combine to create what is referred to here as the “dual presence of promise and inequity.” Additional specific findings include students’ interest in having a voice in the classroom, crowdsourcing as an effective student voice strategy, and the importance of follow-through from adults following student voice experiences. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of how the dual presence of a belief in the promise of student voice and inequitable experiences can be navigated. Recommended work areas within this dual presence are disrupting whose voice is (and is not) at the table, intentional creation of opportunities for student voice, creating and supporting a culture of student voice, and following through on our commitments. Recommendations for further study are in the areas of adult perception of student voice, specific student voice strategies at the classroom level, and, more specifically, Black or African American and Hispanic/Latino student voice experiences in the classroom. Future actions will be taken within the same conceptual framework of the present study, which is based on an iterative relationship between action and investigation.
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    Out-of-School Learning: An Exploration of Children’s and Teachers’ Perspectives
    (2015-12) Felber-Smith, Abigail
    In this study I argue that an important narrative is all but missing from the discourses around school-community relationships; that is, children’s perspectives are rarely considered. This project—a grounded theory case study—seeks (at least in part) to fill this gap by exploring what can be learned as students assume the agency for teaching practitioners about their out-of-school learning experiences via a photovoice project, referred to in the study as the Community Exploration Project (CEP). I used theories of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and Authentic Pedagogy (Newmann, Marks, & Gamoran, 1996) along with research on the Funds of Knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), developmental assets (Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000) and social capital (Coleman, 1988) as conceptual tools. In addition, I applied Weick’s (e.g., Weick & Sutcliffe, 2005) notion of sensemaking in analyzing how teachers and students interpreted new learning from the CEP. For the CEP fifth grade students collected photographs of their communities around a series of prompts (e.g., Where do you learn in your community? What do you learn?). They then had opportunities to share their work (to varying degrees) with their teachers and peers. Data collection primarily included student and teacher interviews before and after the CEP, classroom and school observations, and student photographs and captions. Data analysis led to an emerging theory of school-community relationships (as mediated by children). All participants to varying degrees valued the CEP experience; many described new learning from the project. What emerged, however, is that at least in this case new information was filtered through existing mental models, stereotypes, and personal experiences, which in some cases prompted additional reflection, but in others seemed to constrain the sensemaking process.