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The role and contribution of students to the governance of university departments is a relatively neglected area of inquiry. This study investigated the factors which student representatives perceived to help or hinder their effectiveness as student members of departmental committees. Twenty students from a range of disciplines were interviewed about their experiences in the student representative role. Students reported complex motivations and conceptions of the representative role and were particularly sensitive to the perceptions and expectations of academic staff. Role ambiguity was the greatest challenge reported by student representatives, and the overall effectiveness of the role was perceived to be reliant on the willingness and ability of academic managers and staff to engage in constructive dialogue with students. It is argued that universities need to adopt a more proactive approach to the development and support of student leaders and representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the "one person, one vote," an election campaign inside public universities. It offers information on the history, principles and scope of "one person, one vote." It explains the role and function of elected students at public universities to government officials. In addition, it studies the methods used by the elected students at the University of Georgia and University of Michigan. According to the author, student governments need to adhere to "one person, one vote" policy to establish good policy at the onset.

Benchmarking satisfaction over time can be extremely valuable where a consistent feedback cycle is employed. However, the value of benchmarking over a long period of time has not been analysed in depth. What is the value of benchmarking this type of data over time? What does it tell us about a feedback and action cycle? What impact does a study of historical student feedback have on our understanding of quality? This paper explores a unique collection of student feedback data from a period of over 18 years and focuses on two aspects of student feedback. First, the paper identifies that significant changes have occurred over time, which are reflected in the data. In particular, the data indicate not only where priorities have changed but also where student concerns have remained consistent. Second, the paper argues that the questionnaire itself is a dynamic tool and the ways in which its structure develops reflect historical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 2007-2008 company report of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). According to executive director James R. Plasker, the society has experienced positive net revenue which made the society to function more productive. Regarding the society's membership, there has been an increase in the participation of students with the implementation of the Student Advisory Council (SAC) in 2006-2007. The publications of ASPRS play a vital part in the vision of the society, the "Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS)," remains its quality and financial stability.

The article offers radical solutions that would encourage student activism and influence in law schools, and create substantial change toward a participatory legal pedagogy. To effect change, students should mobilize existing student organizations. In the face of student concerns about curricula, pedagogy, and the learning environment, administrators should be willing to partner with students to formulate solutions. The article argues that by involving students in thoughtful exchanges about pedagogy and curriculum, faculty can ensure that they are being effective, responsive teachers.

Project-based learning is a pedagogy that involves students in applying and developing theories, skills, and techniques to solve real world problems. Three faculty members used project-based learning to involve graduate students in an interdisciplinary seminar on sustainable development in Appalachian Ohio, which was convened under the auspices of the Appalachian Regional Commission's Appalachia Teaching Project. The process of presenting this course underlined the difficulties of interdisciplinary work as well as the opportunities and challenges inherent in involving students in authentic research with communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on data from a single element of a larger project which focused on the issue of "touching" between education and child care professionals and children in a number of settings. This case study looks at a school once internationally renowned as the exemplar of "free" schooling. The authors consider how the school works as a community, how it impacts on its students, and how it copes with the strictures of the audit culture in relation to "risk" and "safety." The authors' experiences led them to the realization that physical "touch" was an irrelevant focus in this school, and they developed the notion of "relational touch." Summerhill works in ways that approximate an inversion of the audit culture. The authors argue that progressive and critical conceptions of education continue to have much to learn from concrete examples like Summerhill and conclude that a revival of such values in education is long overdue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case study of working with a group of students as researchers and policy makers in their school. We argue that there is much to learn about the location of gender and class within processes of inclusion and exclusion, specifically how student voice can reveal their experiences in ways that adults may not be able to or wish to. We acknowledge that this type of work with students is not easy, but through our experience of working with students we report on how tackling inclusion for students needs to involve inclusion for teachers. Inclusion is a political process; it is activist and pedagogic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary philosophical and political theories place high hopes on the concept of deliberative democracy. Within educational research, there seems to be widespread agreement that if students are to be educated for deliberative democracy, actual classroom deliberation constitutes an indispensable educational tool. From the standpoint of sociology and social psychology, this assumption seems plausible but unnecessarily vague. In this essay, Wendelin Reich suggests a comprehensive list of educational aims that may be associated with deliberation before reviewing research on the concept of communicative interaction in order to evaluate how deliberation, seen as a specific form of communicative interaction, could live up to its educational aims. From this evaluation Reich deduces that the aims stand in complex and sometimes even contradictory relation to the means for achieving them and to each other. Reich concludes that more empirical research is needed to determine in which forms and contexts deliberation can best contribute to fulfilling the goal of educating democratic citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My doctoral study focused on students' perceptions of educational change in a number of secondary schools in Australia. The research was birthed when I, as a teacher at a school undergoing substantial change, started to listen to students' comments and discovered in them a remarkable similarity to what we as teachers were saying. Yet, students are seldom considered as participants in educational change. My research found that not only did students wish to take part in the decision-making processes in schools, they were very aware of the various agendas for change. Students strongly believed they should be viewed as stakeholders in their education. Areas of concern included school image, academic learning and teacher employment. A hybrid conceptual framework was adopted, drawing on both a postmodern policy cycle approach and also on critical theory - after the works of Paulo Freire. This article presents a reflection on my research journey as it developed from listener to researcher. The article concludes with suggestions for empowering students, especially in policy enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Czech pre-Marxist sociological journals - Sociologická revue (established in 1930, published until 1940, and again in 1946-49) and Sociální problémy (established 1931, published 1931-1938/39 and 1947/48) - and compares how they functioned with the work of the contemporary Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review (analysed volumes 32 (1996) to 41 (2005)). Although the internal situation of the branch and its public evaluation were rather different during each of the two periods, the author believes that looking back at the well-established earlier period of Czech sociology can provide some comparative data for a better understanding of the current situation and its imperfections. First, the author quantitatively analyses the 'genre' composition of the old and new journals and concludes that in the earlier publications reviews and scientific polemics were more strongly represented, whilst the papers - especially those in Sociologická revue - were less likely to be connected with any empirical research. Conversely, the old sociologists were highly involved in the public sphere, which included student education and active participation in policy making. Nowadays, Czech sociologists tend to be wrapped up in themselves; they produce better theoretical and empirical papers, but the number produced per person has decreased, and their reception is probably weaker. In the article the author also analyses the means of recruitment of the journals' editorial boards, relations within the Czech sociological community itself and its relations abroad, and other issues of the sociology of Czech sociology, past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original mission of the state and land-grant university was to engage with communities to solve problems and improve the quality of life for the citizenry. Today most state and land-grant universities have moved far away from their original mission and are struggling to become engaged with the communities they serve. In this case study, we highlight some of the steady progress toward engagement that has recently occurred at The Pennsylvania State University. We catalogue how strong vision and leadership; infrastructure reorganization; and the active involvement of faculty, students, and community partners have revitalized the land-grant mission at Penn State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effect of implementing participatory school administration, leadership and management (PSALM) on the levels of empowerment among the educational stakeholders. A mixed method approach combined experimental design with empirical surveys, interviews and documentary analysis. Surveys included administrators, teachers, students, alumni, parents and community leaders from secondary schools in the Philippines. Findings showed that PSALM implementation led to higher levels of empowerment compared with the control group and that teachers and administrators felt more empowered than the other stakeholders. Challenges were overcome through open communication channels and support systems. Findings support the link between PSALM and empowerment levels of stakeholders.

Graduate schools in the United States have made a philosophical commitment to support greater diversity, including attracting and retaining students of color. With an increasingly diverse U.S. population, recruiting and retaining a diverse student body is critical. This paper offers some practical suggestions for accomplishing at goal, based on the author's practical experience with adult students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the students' engagement in the academic life with sociology as their major option. The objective is to explore the demographic factors such as the attitudes about learning and academic behaviors. The student survey data revealed that factors such as faculty behavior, course variables, student beliefs, sociology selection had a major motivation and group work has impact on the students' participation. The student questionnaires' result showed that Caucasian students were better engaged for their motivation in sociology than others. A table containing student engagement is represented using least squares regression analysis.

The article focuses on the contributions of students to academic values. Students contribute to the affirmation and modernization of values of universities. Examples of higher education policy and values familiar to students include internal governance, and management of an institution. Student participation in higher education governance presented evidence of the degree and complexity of student involvement and representation at an institutional and national level. It also discusses the aspects of university culture with regard to the status of inter-institutional and transnational values.

Vulnerable student voices are a matter for concern in contemporary higher education, but that concern is directed more towards identifying vulnerable groups, and seeking to widen their participation in higher education. It is less to do with the vulnerability of certain modes of voice when students are there. The concept of student voice may be anatomised into three constituent elements: an epistemological voice, or a voice for knowing, a practical voice, or a voice for doing, and an ontological voice, or a voice for being and becoming. A voice for being and becoming is less valued and validated in contemporary higher education, and more vulnerable, than voices for knowing and doing. Developing an ontological voice is deemed less important than developing epistemological or practical voices, yet an ontological voice is fundamental to those two other voices. The concept of vulnerability needs to be extended from referring to certain under-represented groups in the student body to indicating the strength or weakness of certain modes of the student voice. Vulnerability is not only about the vulnerability of the presenting student, but also about his voice yet to be uncovered. Reinterpreting vulnerability fosters modes of recovering ontological voices at risk of being lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Jessica Gold looks at the benefits that student councils can bring to teachers and pupils as part of the dialogue within schools. She argues that students must be genuinely involved in school life and not just the finished product. They must feel engaged in their own learning and school life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student voice, students having a say in their education and other matters affecting them, is a growing practice in schools looking for ways to engage their students as active citizens, and to harness the students' ideas and views. Every child should have his/her own on going dialogue about teaching and learning and all students can make an important contribution to this. Emma Biermann describes how student voice can be implemented in practice and presents case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the papers published in the periodical's issue which focuses on leadership efforts in school that will generate and promote voices of youth. It examines every educational aspect of the reports, gives it comments and criticizes the Osberg, Pope and Galloway's article stating that they had presented an intervention whose participants did not include a student where the purpose of the activity focuses on student initiatives.

Before youth can be accepted as important players in school decision making, the concept of student voice must gain acceptance among powerful stakeholders in the school. Using social movement theory as a lens, this article examines the consequences of positioning a student voice effort inside or outside of school walls. Positioning influences the legitimacy, sustainability, and scope of changes that a student voice initiative can pursue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is no coincidence, that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. There can be little doubt from research evidence that as conditions conducive of learning in schools deteriorate through emphasis on accountability, standards, measurement, and high stakes testing, that increasing numbers of students of colour, from urban, working class, and minority backgrounds are making active choices that school is not for them. When students feel that their lives, experiences, cultures, and aspirations are ignored, trivialized, or denigrated, they develop a hostility to the institution of schooling. They feel that schooling is simply not worth the emotional and psychological investment necessary to warrant their serious involvement. This paper argues that producing the circumstances necessary to turn this situation around requires invoking a radically different kind of ethos and educational leadership—one that encourages and promotes the speaking into existence of authentic forms of student voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We currently face a significant contemporary crisis, not just of student voice but of compulsory schooling and the social and political contexts that shape it. This paper offers a typology that seeks to understand and explain both that crisis and the burgeoning of ‘new wave’ student voice work in Australasia, North America and the UK. It suggests a number of ways forward that point to the possibility of developing forms of leadership that encourage approaches to student voice that take seriously the education of persons, not merely the thin requirements of an overly instrumental and ultimately diminishing schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of student's participation in various school activities particularly in school administration and curriculum planning. It mentions that a healthy relationship between students and teachers is important to develop an effective learning environment. Participation of students in the decision-making body of the school will result to successful improvement programs which will give way to an educational change. Student government is vital in cultivating student voice which will promote school reforms.

The article reflects on the effort of Llano Grande Center for Research and Development in cultivitating youth voices. The center, which was a non-profit community development and education organization, values participation of youth in their curriculum planning. The author believes that youth voice is important in improving ways of teaching as well as learning.

Our examination of three schools demonstrates how students can be involved in school reform by giving input about problems, helping design the reform, and sharing implementation responsibilities with adult leaders. Their involvement affects both the reform—as students leave their fingerprints on it—and the students themselves, who show signs of emerging leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of an experiential approach of teaching undergraduate research methods that allows students to conduct a formative program evaluation of their own baccalaureate social work program. Evaluation of this approach showed that a participatory approach valuing the feedback of students and provides an opportunity to create a change within the school of social work helped students to overcome their resistance to research. Students internalized research concepts and appreciated the importance of research through the practical application of their work. This case study suggests that the participation in program evaluation of undergraduate students increases the expectation that the graduates will perceive themselves as researchers.

Abstract: This article examines experiences in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces with devolved school governance, introduced in 1996 to promote democratic participation in education decision making. Utilizing the “theory of action” framework, this analysis is an effort to de-center the school governance debate by moving from a central government perspective to one privileging local meaning of participation and decision making in school governance. An understanding of individual local theories of governance and participation proves most powerful when seen in interaction with institutional structures and the subtle and less-than-subtle signals reinforcing established power structures and conventions and circumscribing the community''s role. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents information about the efforts of college faculties to help students learn and succeed in first-year programs in the U.S. A report from the Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education called for the reallocation of faculty and institutional resources toward increased service to first and second year students. Institutions in all sectors of higher education should focus on increasing student involvement because their participation to the campus community is correlated with retention.

In this article we suggest that the current popularity of student voice can lead to surface compliance—to a quick response that focuses on ‘how to do it’ rather than a reflective review of ‘why we might want to do it’. We look at the links between student consultation and participation and the legacy of the progressive democratic tradition in our schools and we look also at the difference between teaching about democracy as an investment for the future and enacting democratic principles in the daily life of the school (a commitment to the present). The tension between institutional gains (the school improvement perspective) and personal gains (confidence, a view point and the shaping of identity) is discussed and three of the ‘big issues’ are identified that underlie the credible development of student voice: power relations between teachers and students, the commitment to authenticity, and the principle of inclusiveness. Finally we reflect on some of the organizational implications of developing student voice: finding time and building a whole‐school culture in which student voice has a place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘pupil voice’ has, in recent years, become part of a wider discourse but tends to refer to a limited conception of young people ‘having a say’ within the bounds of school convention. This article is about what Henry Giroux terms ‘border crossings’, in which voice develops through a physical and intellectual journey beyond boundaries of classroom, of culture, of home and school learning. The story is told through the accounts of school students who crossed their own national borders to visit schools and families in other countries as part of a Scottish‐based project called the Learning School. It was an experience which for them brought into sharp relief questions of voice and sense of self. Through evaluating the experiences of their peers in the schools visited they learned to attune themselves to the hidden voices in classrooms in very diverse cultural settings, experiences which served to sharpen awareness of their own inner voice. Their diaries reveal ways in which the internalized voices of friends, parents and teachers shaped perceptions of who they ‘were’ and what they believed. Their descriptions of re‐entry to the schools they had left behind a year before illustrate some of the tensions that are faced by not only young people striving for resolution among multiple cultural identities but for all students who daily cross the borders of school and community, home and classroom. The broader lesson from this study for teachers is to recognize the hidden agency of the young people they teach and how their sense of self is shaped by the borderlands and ‘construction sites’ they inhabit. The challenge for schools is to reappraise their own identity and to discover what it means to become a genuine learning community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of student consultation and participation in the process of improving the physical environment in schools. Although quantitative studies suggest that there are some links between the learning environment and school performance, direct causal relationships between these factors remain unclear. However, as Clark points out: ‘... qualitative research on the indirect influences of school buildings on student learning and behaviour is of use in enhancing our understanding of the factors involved’ (Clark, 2002, p. 11). Evidence from qualitative studies of students' perspectives on the school environment is presented to illustrate the important insights that can be gained through listening to the student voice. The argument for student voice is taken further through a discussion of recent projects and initiatives in which students are given an active role in designing and improving school buildings and facilities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problems and benefits in involving students in the process of improving their learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the results from an in-depth multi-site case study of 20 institutions examining approaches to student engagement exploring differences by mission. The research questions pursued were: Is mission related to distinctive approaches for creating an engaging environment for students? If so, in what ways? The results demonstrate a set of relationships between institutional mission and the five benchmarks of effective educational practice identified by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Implications for institutional policy are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers suggestions to ensure all students are made to feel a part of a school reform community. The suggestions in creating a reform culture of shared responsibility for students include student-teacher feedback teams, students as collaborative researchers, tapping uncommonly caring teachers and student advisory councils. The approach being advocated holds promise for helping youth think metacognitively and critically about their educational experiences and feel invested in their own learning.

A unique professional development program took place for senior student affairs officers at The University of Salamanca (Spain) in June 2005. Participants had firsthand experiences with studying abroad and had opportunities to exchange ideas and perspectives with professionals from a variety of institutions from within and outside of the United States. This article will describe the purpose of the Institute, the workshops presented, and the learning outcomes attained. By examining the answers to those questions, a variety of themes emerged clarifying the participants' learning outcomes and potential applications of how to use those new perspectives. Invited Article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the student participation in making decisions about school change. It offers a short review of the recent Swedish school reform and its outcomes. It argues the importance of student participation in the decision-making of school change. It suggest that pupils should be able to make decisions about school change because that is the way to let pupils see that the democratic model is working.

The article focuses on the involvement of students in making decisions about school change. The author presented two examples of how communicative practices embedded in relationships of power can be changed, showing that pupils can be empowered to make decisions about school change by analogical approaches. According to the author, there is a need to find an alternative communicating mechanism that will help shift the balance of power and give young people the freedom to articulate observations about their schooling experience.

This article explores how far it is possible to develop a pedagogy of critical hope in the current neo-liberal, marketized climate of higher education. It first considers relevant insights from the works of Gramsci, Freire and the literature on academic literacies and then shows how I have begun to apply these insights through teaching social theory to ‘widening-participation’ students and how students have responded to my efforts. The article concludes by suggesting that a pedagogy of critical hope can be partly realized in higher education today if lecturers demonstrate the relevance of the topic being studied to students' lives and integrate academic literacy into their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2001 meeting of the European Ministers of Education held in Prague, higher education institutions in Turkey took serious actions in order to implement the goals of the Bologna Declaration (1999). Arrangements made for the democratization of universities and student participation in the decision‐making process formed one of the predominant actions. The formal point of these arrangements – aimed at student involvement in the university governance process via Student Councils and their representatives, was prescribed by law and forced universities to comply with the process. The present research provides information about the legal arrangements in higher education institutions concerning student involvement in the university decision‐making process and the obstacles met within the course of application. In addition, it presents the findings of an empirical study related to student representation and involvement in governance through the agency of the Student Councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the role of generational change in the emergence and continuity of the WFSF, generational change as situated through macro-historical perspectives, generational value shifts and their implications for the WFSF, and asymmetries and potentialities revealed through youth futures literature. It argues that the development of the WFSF in the longer term will require a generational approach that incorporates greater youth and student participation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article explores the value of student voice to school improvement, suggesting that it is often assumed to be a good thing. The article describes six trends that have contributed to this unexamined assumption. It is suggested that two dimensions of any claim that student voice can contribute to school improvement need to be analysed: the degree to which students are regarded as being active in participation in school life, and the purposed for which their voice is being used. A distinction is drawn between those that are for community purposes, such as the improvement of learning, and institutional purposes such as improvement in the appearance of the school. The various ways in which student voice can be used to coerce teachers of students into compliance are identified. An analytic matrix is presented. A dialogic model is proposed as the form of participation that will contribute most towards improvement. The article concludes with accounts of three projects in which student participation has been encouraged through dialogue about learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literacy-content dualism, which suggests that teachers must decide whether to provide literacy or content instruction, is a false dualism and adherence to it is detrimental to student participation in content-area reasoning, learning, and communicating. This article describes the experiences that prompted the teacher educators who authored this article to reconsider content and literacy instruction and their first steps to help preservice and in-service teachers confront and eliminate the literacy-content dualism. Suggestions for future research are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helen May recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of Leeds. Her EdD thesis, written with the benefit of extensive experience of practice, focused on the engagement of children with learning difficulties in interactions in primary classrooms. In this article, Helen May draws on her familiarity with the literature to explore the topic of pupil participation. This issue has attracted considerable attention in recent years, especially since it is on the Government's agenda for education in the UK. Here, Helen May examines the political, research and pedagogical contexts in which pupil participation is currently being addressed. She notes that the adult role in bringing about pupil participation is currently emphasised in each of these contexts and expresses concern that pupil participation is therefore being portrayed as requiring professional intervention. By calling for greater exploration of pupil participation from the perspectives of pupils themselves, Helen May makes a persuasive case for seeking a more balanced recognition of the active roles that pupils and professionals can play in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]