Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education

“However, institutional changes will fall short of success if individual teachers’ beliefs about students are not addressed (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“Students are state assets that are the spearhead of the next generation [1]–[3].”

“The rationale for exploring the student perspective on SaP draws on ideas of student voice that give value and privilege to what students think about their education by virtue of being essential partners in learning and teaching (Cook-Sather, 2002; 2006).”

“students’ voices (Cook-Sather, 2002), that is, positioning high school students as authorities on their own learning and teachers as learners. A more recent development in student voice research has been its application to teacher education (Cook-Sather, 2009) and, more particularly, to urban teacher education (Kidd,…”

“The value of student perspectives is argued by Cook-Sather (2002) , who explains, “many of them make visible the difficulties and contradictions as well as the illuminations that attend such a re-informing of conversations about educational policy and practice” (p.”

“Despite intense endeavors to promote educational change to effect student achievement, one voice, perhaps the most critical voice that could inform the debate of how to increase student achievement, is sorely lacking: that of students themselves (Cook-Sather, 2002; Erickson & Shultz, 1992; Kozol, 1991; Lee, 1999; NetD…”

“By combining reflections from key concepts in the fields of student voice (Cook-Sather, 2002), children as public policy actors (Tisdall, 2008), and children’s rights (Barrance, 2017; Elwood & Lundy, 2010), we can arrive at a far more nuanced conceptualisation of the experience of national assessment as it is perceive…”

“The same findings invite students to develop a voice in determining alternatives to the status quo in teaching and learning (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“"We cannot afford to continue old reform efforts or to develop new ones that do not succeed in making school a place where students want and are able to learn" (Cook-Sather, 2002, p.12), and yet rarely are students consulted in such reform efforts.”

“Cook-Sather (2002) has provided the most elaborate case to date in favour of listening to those we teach; helping the student teacher explore and refine perceptions certainly requires that their teachers listen to and work with them.”

“Youth who are encouraged to participate in school decision-making and who feel empowered are more likely to remain engaged and take greater responsibility for their education (Cook-Sather, 2002; Muncey & McQuillan, 1996).”

“When this happens, students are not authorised as knowers and their legitimacy as knowers is withheld (Cook-Sather 2002).”

“(Cook-Sather 2002, 3) Such a position demands that we recognise young people as having knowledge and influence to shape what counts as education.”

“Cook-Sather (2002) urges educators to embrace the capacities of children to speak on their own behalf and contribute to the critical conversations around educational enhancement by providing them with opportunities not only to speak but also to be heard.”

“Cook-Sather (2002) explains that this process involves a reconfiguration of the power relationships between teacher and pupils.”

“It is a student-centred pedagogy that attempts “to challenge traditional notions of who has authority in and on education” (Cook-Sather 2002, 4).”

“In order to make educational viable, Cook-Sather (2002) stated in his research that students should be included when changing the terms and the outcomes of educational policy and practice in order to make education a viable and revitalizing process. Researchers are continuously looking into how students thoughts and b…”

“Similarly, Cook-Sather (2002) questioned the assumption that educational researchers know more about learning and teaching than research subjects.”

“Educational environments should exist as places that nurture and celebrate student individuality as preparation for a lifetime of learning and existing cooperatively in a complex society ( Cook-Sather 2002 ).”

“The rationale for this study follows from a longstanding belief that if student teachers are to be actively engaged in their own learning, their voices must be heard (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“The needs of public education during that historical period stand in stark contrast to the demands of the 21st century (Cook-Sather, 2002, 2020; Larson & Miller, 2011).”

“There is a growing amount of research stressing the importance of children’s voice in the research process (Grover, 2004; Lansdown, 2004, 2011; Schiller & Einarsdottir, 2009), as well as including their perspectives on their education (Cook-Sather, 2002; Einarsdottir, 2005; Montandon & Osiek, 1998; Smith, Duncan, & Ma…”

“and participation in education (Cook-Sather, 2002), the movement seeks to bolster the position”

“At the highly constrained pole the freedom can be no more than adults listening to students’ views while preserving their own authority intact (Cook-Sather, 2002), or adults granting students minor choices in what is fundamentally a teacher-prescribed curriculum (Rudduck, 2007).”

“For instance, Cook-Sather’s (2002) study of elite White high school students from “Main Line” Philadelphia reveals unexpected disaffection and disaffiliation, which are summarized in the following statement from one of the students: “On the first day of school this one teacher handed out this sheet that was ALL about…”

“Some writers (e.g., Gersch 1996; Cook-Sather 2002) have emphasised the need to guard against the kind of tokenism which encourages pupils to express their views and then fails to either analyse what is said or use the information to influence change.”

“Our work also builds on the growing body of literature on student voice that recognizes the absence of this perspective in the educational research and attempts to privilege student voice, and to argue that students’ lived experiences in school should enjoy a more prominent place in the literature ( Cook-Sather 2002a,…”

“The kind of theoretical vantage point I have been arguing for and that needs to be adopted is one that regards learning as a political process, in the sense of providing an authentic space for hearing the voices in schools that are not always accorded a particularly high priority (see also: Mitra, 2001, 2003; Cook-Sat…”

“Fuentes, 2010; Maguire, 1993), stereotypes and assumptions (Kidd & Kral, 2005; McIntyre, 2003; Mcintyre, 2006; Nygreen, 2006), learning to listen and trust co-researchers (Cargo & Mercer, 2008; Cook-Sather, 2002; Mcintyre, 2006; Oliver & Kirk, 2015), and reproducing power relationship (Mcintyre, 2006; Nygreen, 2006).”

“Student voice can be used in research as well as school activities (Cook-Sather, 2002, 2006).”

“A number of scholars (Beaudoin 2008; Cook-Sather 2002, 2006; Goodman and Eren 2013; McCombs 2003; Mitra 2003, 2009; Shields 2003; Thiessen 2006) have been strong proponents of the power and importance of accounting for student perspectives in education.”

“Furthermore, these mechanisms (largely designed by educators not students) may not be perceived as effective by all parties (Cook-Sather 2002).”

“Pupil voice research and practice have been developing over the past 40 years (Rudduck 2006 ) and, spurred on by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ( 1989 ), have triggered changes in policy documents (for example, the Ofsted ( 2009 ) inspection criteria), research methodology (for example, Cook-Sather 2002…”

“The children co-researcher interview method was implemented with an activist-oriented framework that believed that children were agentic knowledge producers who could use their agencies to challenge constructs that situated them as sponges who soaked up adult knowledges (Cook-Sather, 2002; Oldfather, 1995).”

“Strategy: A direct way that educational researchers can be a part of preparing youth to participate in producing alternative media and lobbying mainstream media is to involve youth as co-researchers (Cook Sather, 2002; Kelly, 1993; SooHoo, 1993).”

“Urban education scholars advise stakeholders to be more intentional about the practice of including students’ voices in educational reform efforts (Cook-Sather, 2002; Mitra, 2007; Noguera, 2007).”

“Cook-Sather (2002) defines and presents two challenges to achieving the construct of authorizing student perspectives in the following excerpt: Authorizing student perspectives means ensuring that there are legitimate and valued spaces within which students can speak, re-tuning our ears so that we…”

“Informed by dialogue theorists (e.g., Cook-Sather, 2002; Sidorkin, 1999), we understand dialogic spaces as alternatives to monologic domination when all participants can position themselves as agents.”

“Thus, one aspect of social justice is that students should have a say in how they are taught (Cook-Sather, 2002) in addition to their right to learn (Brown, 2002).”

“This may require changes to the typical structure of schools to include student voices as part of the school community (Cook Sather 2002; Rudduck and Flutter 2004).”

“Cook-Sather (2002) argues that the climate in many if not most school education settings is resolutely mistrustful of children’s capacity to be good and responsible, and to use relevant knowledge (p.4): The educational institutions and practices that have prevailed …reflect a basic lack of trust in…”

“Students’ perspectives can offer a valuable complement to the ideas and perspectives of teachers and staff (Keddie, 2015), offer warnings on what needs to be improved (Busher, 2012), or provide a new way of approaching education policy development (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“As calls for youth involvement in program decision making and evaluation become more apparent, methodologies for generating valid perspectives from youth are needed (Cook-Sather, 2002), particularly from those youth in afterschool arts programs.”

“As Cook-Sather ( 2002 ) stated, “It is time that we count students among those with the authority to participate both in the critique and in the reform of education” (3).”

“In the first few years of the twenty-first century, many studies have explored and discussed ‘student voice’ as an emerging theme in research (see, for example, Beaudoin 2008; Bishop et al. 2009; Cook-Sather 2002; Fielding 2004; Hopkins 2008; Jones and Stanley 2008).”

“The research findings attest to the need to authorize students’ perspectives ( Cook-Sather 2002 ) on Religious Education.”

“Therefore, Cook-Sather (2002) advocated foregrounding students’ voice in educational research, policy and practice.”

“Yet recently, the importance of youth’s interpretations of school-centered reform efforts and those of youth-based organizations has become increasingly significant (Cook-Saither, 2002; Heath & McLaughlin, 1993; Wilson & Corbett; 2001).”

“However, such approaches require what Cook-Sather (2002) has described as the twin challenges of authorising student perspectives, that is a change in mindset, as well as changes in the structures in educational relationships and institutions.”

“Over several years there has been a growing movement that promotes the inclusion of students’ voices in reflecting on educational policy and practice and of consulting young people more generally about their schooling (Cook-Sather, 2002; Flutter & Rudduck, 2004; Lumby, 2011).”

“Justification for this move and for focusing on our experience of the class comes from Cook-Sather ( 2002 ) and from Palmer ( 1998 ), who wrote that “the most practical thing we can achieve in any kind of work is insight into what is happening inside us as we do it” (p.”

“It is thus about the ways in which the voice(s) of children and young people are actively sought out, heard and acted on ( Cook-Sather, 2002; Fielding, 2001).”

“…interchangeable, all of these terms call for positioning students alongside others with expertise and essential perspectives on educational practice (Cook-Sather, 2002; Matthews, 2017) and have implications for established systems of student representation as well (Matthews & Dollinger, 2023).”

“…successful parent–school relationships (see, for example, Barr and Saltmarsh, 2014; Gordon and Seashore Louis, 2009; Rapp and Duncan, 2012), and positive relations as being integral to and a consequence of student voice (see, for example, Cook-Sather, 2002; Mager and Nowak, 2012; Smyth, 2006).”

“Without this, coaches are at risk of constructing a curriculum based on an incomplete picture (Cook-Sather 2002).”

“examining ways in which students, in general (Cook-Sather, 2002), and immigrant and minority students, in particular, personally experience their school curriculum and school”

“Cook-Sather (2002) chided, “There is something fundamentally amiss about building and rebuilding an entire system without consulting at any point those it is ostensibly designed to serve” (p. 3).”

“Smith (1991) also expressed contempt for ignoring students when he put forth the question "Where is the child in physical education research?" and Cook-Sather (2002) claims that students are “the missing voice in educational research” (p. 5).”

“Early student voice research and pedagogy focused predominantly on consulting students to elicit their perspectives on schooling and learning and authorise these as a contribution to school improvement and reform initiatives (Cook-Sather, 2002) and democratic pedagogies (Fielding, 2004).”

“This is such a commonplace idea in teaching (Ballard, 2003; Cook-Sather, 2002; Henderson and Bowley, 2010) that it is slightly startling that so many schools have not made the final link in the chain; just as teaching is more than imparting information, so engaging with and supporting parents is…”

“Many scholars trace the pedagogical roots of student voice to such theorists as Vygotsky and Dewey or align student voice with the works of critical pedagogy theorists such as Freire, Shor, and hooks, who argue for reframing students as teachers, already in possession of deep knowledge and understanding (Cook-Sather,…”

“A. Cook-Sather (2002) ‘Authorizing students’ perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue, and change in education’, Educational Researcher 31, 4, 3-14.”

“The students felt empowered by their role as knowledge providers and active participants leading to a powerful collaborative and constructive learning environment (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“This term is also based on the constructivist notion that students need to be ‘authors of their own understanding and assessors of their own learning’ (Cook-Sather, 2002 , p.”

“Our work further builds on existing research calling for students’ accounts of schooling experiences as a valuable, but often overlooked, source for learning about and ameliorating school practices (Cook-Sather, 2002; Pekrul & Levin, 2007).”

“The work of Cook-Sather (2002a, 2002b) demonstrates how pre-service teachers and high school students can engage in partnerships to reflect on teacher education and practice.”

“A gap identified in the literature is that the student voice and perspective on WIL placement, theory-practice alignment as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the WIL experience are lacking (Barker, Quennerstedt and Annerstedt 2015; Cook-Sather 2002).”

“…research projects has been argued to be that data are often collected from within adult-dominated environments, rather than in, for example, the networked environments that young people in the twenty-first century are more likely to inhabit (Cook-Sather 2002, 313; Mallan, Singh, and Giardina 2010).”

“Listening to the voices of marginalized minority youth, such as Cambodian students, can powerfully inform researchers, educators, and policymakers about teaching, equity, and school reform (Cook-Sather 2002).”

“…their story’, this study facilitates an understanding of what it is that children prioritize in their own minds to disclose to a relative stranger, i.e. the researcher, rather than assessing the levels to which they are affected by issues that an adult nominates (Cook-Sather, 2002; Lundy, 2007).”

“Many educationists agree that, in fact, it is a way to access and understand the perspectives of stakeholders who are most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, the process of reforms (Cook-Sather 2002).”

“Listening to the voices of those who are directly affected by the changes, especially the voices of youth, has been the topic of many investigations in recent years (Cook-Sather, 2002; Smith, 2005).”

“has documented the benefits to prospective teachers ( Cook-Sather 2006a, 2002; Cook-Sather and Youens 2007; Donohue et al. 2003; Youens and Hall 2006).”

“The reproductive aspects of schooling are particularly harmful because they work to reify hegemonic epistemologies and ontologies in educational spaces which then make invisible and silence already marginalized voices both in the classroom and on syllabi (Cook-Sather, 2002).”

“Without the views of all of the community, including students, the picture of the educational process is incomplete (Cook-Sather, 2002).”