Jean Rudduck (1937–2007) ‘Carving a new order of experience’: a preliminary appreciation of the work of Jean Rudduck in the field of student voice

Abstract

This paper offers a preliminary tribute to the work of the late Jean Rudduck, pioneer of student voice, both as an academic field and as a potential agent of school transformation. Tracing the roots of her student voice work back to CARE (Centre for Applied Research in Education) and the Humanities Curriculum Project (1967–1972), the author follows the intellectual narrative of her student voice work from the mid‐1990s up to and including her forthcoming (2007) book, Improving learning through consulting pupils, co‐authored with Donald McIntyre. The paper closes by suggesting eight aspects of Jean Rudduck’s work that make a distinctive, enduring contribution to the field of student voice and thereby to a more humane, more creative approach to education in and for democracy.

Keywords:

• Jean Rudduck
• Student voice
• School transformation

Notes

1. Jean Rudduck, Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, died on 28 March 2007. This short, preliminary appreciation is intended to honour her work in the field of student voice which she did so much to establish, both as a field of academic research and intellectual enquiry and, as a practical agenda for change. A full appreciation of her work is bound to follow from other colleagues and admirers: I offer this short series of reflections as a token of admiration and affection.

2. My thanks to John Elliott for reminding me of this paper, and of Barry MacDonald’s introduction to this collection of Jean Rudduck’s earlier work.

3. The original text is, I think, mistaken. It reads as follows: ‘Indeed, the critical exploration of what meaning is, he says, a precondition of effective acting together’. This does not make sense to me: hence my alteration.

4. At the time of writing, I only had access to the three chapters: 1, 12 and 13 which framed the book as a whole and for which Jean had particular responsibility. It may well be that a fuller reading of the book would prompt slightly different interpretations.

5. I have not been able to cite page references in this section of the paper because I was working from an unpublished typescript that only contained page numbers internal to each chapter.