Students of reforms. Investigating and troubling the enactment of student voices in research on reform

Abstract

We investigate how students’ voices are enacted in reform processes and in research on reforms. Our theoretical stance on the concept of reform is performative and onto-epistemological; thus, we understand reforming as an entangled multiplicity, co-emerging and co-morphing. Reforming reconfigure what ‘is’ and intra-act with what is already there. The article focus on a reform of the Danish primary and secondary school. We work with three different cases, each with a different data-set, and analyse how research methodologies and findings in the field of reform research constitute ‘the student’ and ‘student voice’ as well as we look into dynamics of how reforms shape and change what counts as voices and how voices change and shape reforms.

Keywords:

• Reform as performativity
• student voices
• posthumanist
• psychogeography
• methodology

Notes

1. We have chosen to use the concept ‘data’, despite its connotations to positivism (Denzin, 2013).

2. This places Danish students among those with the highest amount of lessons within the OECD. https://www.uvm.dk/Uddannelser/Folkeskolen/Fag-timetal-og-overgange/Timetal. The part of the school reform regarding longer school days was passed through an agreement between the government, the Danish Liberal Party, the Danish People´s Party, and the Conservative People´s Party. The Red-Green Alliance and the Liberal Party of Denmark voted against.

3. https://www.information.dk/telegram/2013/06/antorini-elever-faar-mere-spaendende-skoledag. 7. juni 2013

4. The change of teachers’ working hours is a legal act the Law 409 on working hours. It was passed in 2013, just before the school reform was launched. After four weeks of lockout of 60.000 teachers in 2013 the rules on the weekly workload was decided by the parliament. Following the enactment of the law the teachers’ union demanded new agreements on working hours and complained that the ideas of the reform could not be achieved unless time for preparation was included in the work schedule. See also Nana Vaabens article ‘Reforming Time in Danish Schools’ this special issue.

5. In some municipalities, local agreements have been reached to reintroduce some flexibility in this regard. See also Nana Vaabens article ‘Reforming Time in Danish Schools’ this special issue.

6. (2015, December 11) (a). All newspapers etc. from the quotes for this part of the analysis can be found in the end of the reference list.

7. 543.753 Danish students attend Folkeskolen www.uvm.dk/Service/Statistik/Statistik-om-folkeskolen-og-frie-skoler/Statistik-om-elever-i-folkeskolen-og-frie-skoler/Elevtal-i-folkeskolen-og-frie-skoler

8. The Association of Danish Pupils is a politically independent non-governmental organization for students in primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. http://www.skoleelever.dk/en.

9. (2016, January 7) (a).

10. (2016, January 7) (a).

11. Together with The Danish Education Institute, The Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research, the Danish School of Education Aarhus University and Trygfonden’s Centre of Children Research, Aarhus University.

12. (2016 February 26) (a).

13. In the contract between SFI and the ministry, the ministry is the ‘data owner’.

14. (2016, January 16) (a).

15. (2016, January 6) (a).

16. (2016, January 6) (a).

17. (2016, January 6) (a).

18. (2016, January 6) (a).

19. (2016, January 28) (b).

20. 2016, February 28 (a).

21. (2016, February 10) (a).

22. (2016, February 10) (a).

23. (2016, February 12) (a).

24. (2016, January 28) (c).

25. (2016, January 28) (d). Analysis of the data indicated that more boys than girls – and more ethnic majority boys than minority boys – were critical of the length of the school day.

26. (2016, January 28) (d).

27. (2016, January 28) (b).

28. This study (The Danish School Reform: Performative effects of new outcome-based standards for learning and management.) was a collaboration between University College Copenhagen and Aarhus University. All interviews were conducted by assistants, transcribed and shared among the group of researchers. Also school leaders were interviewed.

29. We thank one of the anonymous reviewers for this beautifully framed question.