Cultivating student agency and teachers as learners in one Lebanese school

Abstract

Questions about the nature and extent of students’ active involvement and influence within schools and the wider community prompted this author to investigate ways in which student voice, as one important manifestation of active participation, was translated into action through a ‘students as researchers’ activity. A three-phase intervention study was developed to explore the processes that established and optimised the conditions for Grade 7/8 students in one Lebanese school to acquire and apply research skills as instruments for activating student voice for agency. The collaboration between the researcher and director of the school, and the essential support of teachers, enabled students to expand their active participation in school, casting teachers as co-learners, which resulted in facilitating student–teacher ‘border crossings’. The author introduces important modifications to Hart’s ‘ladder of participation’ and applies Starhawk’s typology of power to describe the changes among students and teachers. Implications for future research are considered.

Keywords:

• student voice
• students as researchers
• participation
• agency
• teachers as learners

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the school members of Ibn Batouta for participating in this research. The author is grateful to Professor Peter Gronn for his excellent comments on earlier drafts. The author thanks Rabab Tamish and Dave Pedder for insightful conversations. The author would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.

Notes

1. Such as consultations, student feedback, class observations, student councils, peer mentoring and SAR.

2. All names have been de-identified.

3. See the United Nations Environment Programme on the Crisis of Lebanon. http://www.unep.org/lebanon/ (accessed May 2, 2011).