Ecer 2014 busher-students voices

Listening to Students’ Voices to
enhance inclusive schooling
Hugh Busher
School of Education University of
Leicester
Presented to NW10 ECER 2014

Pre-amble
• Listening to the multiplicity students’ voices helps
teachers to tune their teaching and organisational
practices to the social and cognitive needs of students
• It helps students to have a sense of ownership of their
learning and of the school of which they are part.
• The paper draws on two studies of student voices
carried out in England in Secondary schools between
2006 and 2012 that investigated students’ views of
teaching, learning and their school as an organisation.
Aug 2014 School of Education, University of Leicester 2

The Two Studies
• The two studies varied in size, but used a constructivist perspective (Lave
and Wenger, 1991) to investigate students’ views of teaching, learning and
their school in its socio-political contexts. Neither had fewer than 30
participants and all used semi-structured interviews with students and
teachers, as well as non-participant observation by researchers as the
main data collection instruments. The qualitative data was audio-recorded,
transcribed and analysed using inductive or open coding (Corbin
and Strauss, 2008) that reflected students’ views rather than researchers’
prior conceptions.
• Study One was of Year 9 (Y9, 13-14 year old) students of English in a state
Secondary school in England (Cremin, Mason and Busher, 2011, Busher
and Cremin 2012) serving a mixed multi-cultural catchment area of private
and social housing.
• Study two was of Y9 Science students (Tas and Busher, 2011, Busher and
Tas 2012) in two state Secondary Schools in England, one serving a largely
mono-cultural rural area and one an urban multi-cultural but largely
economically disadvantaged area.

School as a social arena riven with
asymmetrical power
• Students and teachers have a clear awareness of the contradictions of
policy, power and voice (Busher and Cremin, 2012) and of the official and
unofficial discourses in a school. These interactions reflect the interactions
of agency and structure in particular policy contexts (Paechter 2007), the
influence of these on students’ and teachers’ constructions of their
school/ work-place identities (Pierce, 2007) and on the construction of
their school’s organisational culture (Busher, 2006).
• These relationships can be investigated through studying ‘first hand’ what
people do or say in particular contexts or cultures (Hammersley, 2006: 4),
answering questions about participants’ perspectives on learning,
teaching and educational issues (Walford, 2008) in particular social,
economic and policy contexts, including the macro, local and
organisational-cultural contexts in which people interact.
• It can help investigate how people use and experience power in
communities and between individuals and understand the relationship of
culture to social structures and how participants in particular social
situations choose to act (Georgiou & Carspecken, 2002).

Discourses of performativity shape
schooling
• Discourses of performativity that are constructed within educational sites, such as
schools, (Jeffrey and Troman, 2012) shape the perspectives of participants such as
teachers, school students, head teachers and support staff.
• Many national governments, often for claimed economic reasons, construct and
police schooling and teachers’ work using performative models of ‘techno-bureaucratic
managerialism’ (Apple, 2000).
• Education is both a site and a conduit for struggles (Foucault, 1976) through which
teachers and students experience the tensions of being and becoming as they
(re)construct their identities (Giddens, 1991; Kearney, 2003) in situational
contexts.
• The pursuit and enactment of self-identity is central to the development of agency
(Giddens, 1991) through which people interact with others and with constructed
social systems/structures (Giddens, 1984). They are of central importance to
students’ and teachers’ development of themselves as learners, community
members of a school and citizens.
• However, schools often restrict democratic participation by students and teachers
in shaping institutional practices, but expect them to adhere to policies (Deakin
et.al., 2004).

Constructing discourses and voices in
schools
• The participants in a school include all staff and students and possibly other
stakeholders, such as parents, too. Through struggling with national and local
discourses on education, people construct their own particular cultures of and
within institutions and their identities (voices) in the social, intellectual, emotional
and political spaces of society (Bhaba, 1994) or of organisations such as a school.
• These struggles are expressed through the cultures teachers and students
construct collectively to delineate the values and beliefs that underpin their own
practices whether in classrooms, subject areas or schools generally.
• Students are subordinates in schools. Metaphorically, their situation is similar to
the subordination of native people by colonial regimes as discussed by Bhabha
(1994) and Spivak (1985), since students are portrayed as belonging to a caste
whose attributes permanently exclude them from joining the ranks of the
dominant group in an educational institution, teachers and senior managers.
• As in other institutions, especially those of a disciplinary nature, teachers and
others in part control their own actions by monitoring them against the norms
embedded in dominant discourses that impinge on their bodies in the way, for
example, that they are allowed to use time and space (Foucault, 1977).
• Teachers who have ascribed authority to lead (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) have
to sustain a school’s culture to their own subordinates, the students, to maintain
order in a less abrasive manner than that of more overt coercion (Lenski, 1986).

Social expectations of schools and children
• Dominant social discourses in England describe schools as institutions for
controlling children and shaping them to become useful adult citizens.
• Schools are expected to discipline students to fit these norms through careful
monitoring of their actions (surveillance) by adults, through regimentation (e.g.
school uniform, school bells), through various manoeuvres (school timetables,
examinations) and through punishment (detention, exclusion) which is in inscribed
on their bodies, at least metaphorically (loss of time in detention, acting in ways
prescribed by school rules) (Foucault, 1977; Paechter, 2007).
• Discourses of student voice (Flutter and Rudduck, 2004) and a recognition of the
contribution students’ perspectives make to constructing successful schools (DfES,
2008) resonate with wider notions of choice and discipline in education and
emphasise students’ needs as individual learners, parents’ vested interest in their
children’s education, and to try to reduce student disengagement with schooling.
• Democratic participation of students can be fostered through institutional
structures such as a school council, but school councils are often dominated by the
agenda of senior staff (Fielding, 2004).
• Pupil consultation can lead to a transformation of teacher-pupil relationships, to
significant improvements in teachers’ practices, and to pupils having a sense of
themselves as members of a community of learners (Ruddock and McIntyre,
2007).

One student voice or many?
• The concept of student voice is problematic.
• Some researchers hold that it can only be articulated when teachers
authorise it and usually in ways that curtail any critical discussion of
prevailing conditions (Ruddock, 2006; Arnot and Reay, 2007).
• This implies that students should only be listened to when they
speak in the ways expected of subordinates by ruling elites (Spivak
in Morton, 2002), in the case of schools, the teachers.
• Others assume that student voice is monolingual (Robinson and
Taylor, 2007), one student voice.
• This denies the multi-faceted nature of student perspectives (Rubin
and Silva, 2003) that arise from the intersectionality of gender,
social status, ethnicity and faith (Reay, 2006) that shape how
students construct their identities and perspectives: not one
student voice but many.

Students as participants in school
communities
• Students are experienced participant observers of teachers,
teaching and schools (Riley and Rustique-Forrester, 2002).
• Many are able to articulate clearly what they consider to be
effective and ineffective teaching and support for students
(Nabhani, Busher and Bahous, 2012, Busher and Tas, 2012) and
these views bear a strong similarity to work on successful classroom
practice, for example Kyriacou (2007), Wragg et.al., (2000).
• Involving students directly in school decision-making about issues
of immediate relevance to their own lives, such as teaching,
learning and school organisation, helps to give students a sense of
ownership of the learning and institutional process of which they
are part (Ruddock, 2004), to develop respectful cultures in schools
(Sebba and Robinson, 2011), and raise students general levels of
enthusiasm and achievement (Potter, 2002)

Students as partners
• Accessing students’ perspectives acknowledges students have a right to be
heard in the evaluation of schools (Troman et al., 2007) and to influence
the shaping of their own learning (Fielding, 2004). It was encouraged by
central government in England to promote personalised learning (DfES,
2008)
• It recognises that students are citizens, not merely citizens in preparation,
whose rights should be respected under the UN Convention of the Rights
of the Child (UNCRC) (Sebba and Robinson, 2011).
• Within the European Union, the development of citizenship by member
states is recognised as crucial to the construction of society (Osler and
Starkey, 1999). However, there are some distinct national differences in
understandings of citizenship, with an emphasis in England on citizens’
duties and responsibilities but on citizen rights (e.g. the right to travel, or
to work) in France and Spain (Edye, 2003).
• In England it is difficult to promote a genuinely democratic dialogue in
schools (Arnot and Reay 2007) because state schools try to optimise their
own performance within the disciplinary framework of performative
education policy (Troman, et al., 2007).

Students as sounding boards: a minimalist
position for neo-liberal times
• However, student ‘consultation’ may be tokenistic (Byrom et al, 2007) with
school council agendas constrained by the views of senior staff (Fielding,
2004) to discussing only matters considered safe for subordinates
• Discourses of performativity shape the perspectives and practices of all
participants in schools - teachers, school students, head teachers and
support staff – that are translated in to school processes and structures
(Jeffrey and Troman, 2012, Busher and Cremin, 2012)
• Despite the asymmetrical power relationships in schools, listening to
student voices helps teachers to reflect more critically on their practices
(McIntyre, et al., 2005) to improve the quality of teaching and learning
and meet students’ educational needs more successfully (Fielding, 2004).
• But teachers find this threatening (McIntyre, et al., 2005; Busher and
Cremin, 2012) unless what they hear fits with their existing constructions
of knowledge on teaching, learning and the distribution of power in
schools
• Listening to students can also contribute to the effective management of
schools in economically and socially disadvantaged areas to meet
students’ educational needs (Mujis et.al., 2005; Lupton, 2007?).

What English students like about school
(14-15 year old English students)
• Teaching: the GCSE grades they get – they were really bad when I came to the
school and now they’re getting better – but now they’re getting better (MK)
• … other teachers that are quite strict and they want you to do the work – but I
s’pose that’s because they want us to get good grades 'cos (AR)
• Teachers supervision: the good thing about that is we have teachers that walk
around the field to check if anybody is [smoking] (AR)
• our area where we hang around … staff are there to keep an eye on you … just in
case something does happen (AR)
• everyone has a named teacher, or a tutor … if there’s anything you want to talk
about, they’ll ask you to see if you’re alright … and then they’ll go to the Deputy
Head (AR)
• you go to your tutor to get signed in the register and then afterwards, what
happens is, that if there’s anything you want to talk about, they’ll ask you to see if
you’re alright and if you like school and stuff and then you just talk to them(MR)
• School facilities: It’s a big sports hall because apparently we’ve got the choice
between sports hall and a swimming pool, but they picked they sports hall
because our other two gyms ain’t that nice (CP)
• It feels quite safe – no-one’s going to get in and no-one’s going to get out, but … it
don’t look nice. All you see is a load of spikes and poles ... It’s more like a prison
than a school (CP)

What Science students like about school
(14-15 year old Science students)
• Other students (friends): meet my friends daily; my friends also help me with my
work and I help them if they are stuck; I get to talk to my friends in class;
• Collaborative learning: leading class sessions is very useful to gain communication
skills and a lot of confidence; activities such as netball allows me to think more
positively; I work better in a group; you can express your views to other student
and visa versa, therefore learn off them;
• Interesting topics/ subjects: things I wouldn’t find out about anywhere else;
learning new skills; new interesting things; I will listen well in the lessons [that I
like] … I learn more; I do like science and cooking but not my cooking teacher;
• Extra- curricula: school trips and learn things outside of a classroom; science club;
like my family helps me to do well, they motivate me, and help me out
• School / classroom culture: the friendly environment makes it easier to develop
our learning skills (listening and speaking) [and] also increase our concentration;
Because I enjoy school I try and do well; [Science] is a good subject because we’re
a specialist science school
• Teachers’ styles of teaching: I like learning and discussion; enthusiastic teachers
inspire me to learn; hands on practical lessons – helps me study better;
• Impact on life outside school: learning new things and how our world works … has
a positive impact outside of school; things that can be put into context with
everyday life; [get] qualifications I need to get the job/career I want … makes me
work harder;

What English students like about teachers
• Competence and support: your teachers know what we’re doing … Now the
teacher knows that, if [pupils]’re playing games and not do[ing] their work, they
can tell them off (AH); they help you … He helped me a lot to get … a level 7 in my
mock SATs (AH); I did really well in my Maths test the other day. I was really proud
of myself. Miss [name] helping me loads of times; teachers that are quite strict
and they want you to do the work – because they want us to get good grades
• Empathy/ classroom culture: He’s really funny in lessons … and she’s really funny,
so basically we can do our work and have a laugh at the same time (AR)
• there’s always a nice atmosphere when you go into that room … she’s always really
happy and really nice about things and you (CT)
• I do enjoy ICT as well. The teacher’s a bit of a muppet (Laughter) in a good way! He
makes you laugh. So it’s quite a nice atmosphere again (CT)
• if you get on with all the teachers it makes you easier (CT)
• in some lessons you can just chill out and do your work and talk … it helps me
concentrate … but in other lessons you’ve got to be quiet and sit still and do your
work (RI)
• [teachers] let you sit with your friends and get on with your work, and they’re not
always telling you off and [like] give you detention for no reason (SY)

What Science students like about teachers
• Enthusiastic teachers: about the subject … always have a positive attitude which
encourages me to learn; makes it interesting so I want to learn; [teachers]’ve got
to know you[student] in order to be able to meet the[ir] different learning needs
• Empathetic teachers: Listen to what you have to say; they can be relaxed but
serious when needed; he is funny and I get better grades with him; they make
learning fun … which helps us learn more; always try their hardest to help me to
learn; if I don’t understand I can always ask them; they believe in us; I think some
teachers [cater for learning preferences] better than others
• Commitment to students: willing to spend breaks and lunches to help us … pass
our grades; she is always there, making time for us whenever needed to help us
understand anything that we don't understand; lunch times (clubs) when we can
go and ask for help;
• Teachers can control the class
• Classroom culture: it depends on the teacher and the students … like in science as
a whole group we encourage everyone … some classes are mixed and … some
disruptive children … sometimes put you down if you get it wrong; we have like
fun in our class … a lot of jokes can go around … the teacher can get involved, and
because we are still learning, its great

English students’ views of successful lessons
• Styles of learning: To have more [like] hands-on things,
rather than just listening or watching someone do it - you
[like] do it for yourself... in my ICT I’m … making videos.
We’ve got to make downloadable tunes advert
• Use of resources: So I’m not very keen on it ... I [like] using
the interactive boards more, really ... making it more
interesting ... Make things really colourful and bright
• Relevant to everyday life: Cooking is something you need to
know 'cos you can’t just ... order takeaways all the time ...
in IT you get to learn a lot about computers, technology,
even about what’s happening around the world.
• Practical work: I only like Science when we’re, like, doing
experiments or, like, when we’re writing out conclusions

Science students’ views of successful lessons
• Teachers’ styles of teaching: the interactive on the board, and quizzes and stuff, I can’t learn from
someone lecturing … because I won’t understand it; we get to communicate with each other by
doing loads of group activities; I think it’s interesting researching about science because despite the
fact that we don’t know it there are so many things that are out there which we can research into;
she puts a lot of … resources on … a learning tool on the internet, so we all have our own log ins;
• Teachers’ clear explanations: they explain things in detail; easy to understand; they explain things
more than once if you don’t understand; they are always trying to help us understand the concepts
that we are studying;
• Interesting topics: So it’s really interesting how we learn about different people’s viewpoints as
well; I just like learning about bacteria and fungus, viruses, trying to find new medicines and help
others; like really fascinating to learn like how our world works … you don’t really think about it
until you’ve learn about it;
• variety of activities: she combines … practicals plus … book work, plus like exam questions, and
visual experiments … so that really helps us learn and [wish] other teachers were more like; gets us
involved its not just … her speaking and us listening, and she also makes notes on the board so then
we can actually copy and she draws diagrams; we do have demonstrations and interactive activities
and we also have practicals so if there are hard concepts it allows us to understand it better
• Classroom culture: it depends on the teacher and the students … like in science as a whole group
we encourage everyone; some classes are mixed and … some disruptive children … sometimes put
you down if you get it wrong; we have like fun in our class … a lot of jokes can go around … the
teacher can get involved, and because we are still learning, its great;
• Gender issues: The boys tend to be more strong mathematically but girls tend to be much more
stronger when it comes to understanding the actual concepts; there have been a lot of lessons
where my [girl] opinion hasn’t been counted say as well as others … then towards the end of the
year they kind of grew to the fact that I’m still there

English students’ views of unsuccessful lessons
• Teacher approaches: I like reading and writing too – practising them. In other
classes, you can’t. You just have to look straight ahead. You end up having
arguments with the teachers (Li); my Science teacher is quite strict … we have to
be quiet while we’re doing our work and you just can’t talk or nothing (RI); We just
have to sit there and write down everything the teachers tell you to write down –
at least 2 pages (AH); : it’s not the actual lessons, it’s just the way that they’re
taught ... really boring ... the [teachers] just repeat themselves a and then it just
confuses you
• Perceived unfairness by teachers: I don’t like DT. The teacher’s a bit moody.
Different personalities [like] one day she’ll be alright with me but be a bit sarcastic
and stuff like that sometimes (AK); Sometimes a teacher has a go at you as soon as
you get in the classroom like “Can’t sit there - Move away from them” and when
you’re not even doing anything (JD); Sometimes I get earache. She shouts in my
ear. Not at me! At other people and it kills my ear like mad. I like it when … she’s
not angry with other people (SP)
• Teachers’ perceived lack of respect for students: [Miss] treats you like you’re a
bunch of idiots and that you’re stupid … Mr treats you like you’re an idiot, but he
does it in a way that is fair … Miss [unclear] shouts a lot … it’s just you don’t like
the way they treat you and the way that they teach the class (CT)
• Teachers’ perceived incompetence: [teacher] wasn’t around a lot in the DT class …
we used to just do random things in our lessons and we didn’t really learn
anything. We just went around doing stuff (AH)

Science students’ views of unsuccessful lessons
• Teachers approaches: teachers can talk too much sometimes … a lot of it is off
topic; no interactive methods are used to break up the theory then the science
lesson can be ineffective; she just makes us copy things off the board which isn’t
helping at all; one of my teachers doesn’t explain anything so I don’t understand;
sometimes, we get overpowered with information
• teacher (in)competence: one of my teachers doesn’t explain anything so I don’t
understand; Poor teaching material; teachers are unorganised; When we have
supply teachers, they don’t have a clue about what to do, it can be tedious;
[teachers] not very good at controlling the class … I end up teaching myself out of a
book;
• seating plans: you can’t work with the people you want to work with;
• too much writing/ book work: when we get worksheet and when we have to copy
from the book because it's boring and it doesn't teach us much; I don’t like doing
coursework as it takes ages to finish; doing work sheets and writing all lesson
because it[is] boring and I end up not paying attention properly;
• not enough practicals: not as many practicals as I would like; practical lessons can
be fun; I prefer to not do practical work;
• Difficult topics: feedback on coursework assignments isn’t always great; Some
subjects aren't as interesting as other[s] making them harder to remember facts; I
don't thoroughly understand all the topics and this means I have to do more
revision; the topics are confusing and very detailed with lots of new words.

What English students dislike about schooling
• Perceived unfairness: They’ve just shut off Google … which is quite annoying. We
were just told people were misusing Google (CT); I’m a bit worried … in Science I
get loads of homework and in Maths I get loads as well. If I don’t get it in I get
detention or something … I don’t really like getting detentions (RI)
• Teacher coercion: one of the Vice Principals stands at the door, making sure
everyone’s in their uniform in the morning … So everybody’s [like] scared of him
'cos if they go to see him they know they’re going to get yelled at, and really badly.
And when he shouts, his voice goes right through you so (CT);
• Punishment systems: One of my friends, she went in to Stage 5 [detention]– she
was wearing jeans (SP); [photo of teacher] A walkie-talkie and a bunch of
keys. I think she was trying to sort out a problem … someone might have run
away or something – from a lesson or something like that (SY)
• Surveillance: [photo CCTV in the staffroom] they don’t even tell us they’ve got
CCTV cameras … we could be talking about … something private and stuff. I
don’t think that’s fair (NC)
• Facilities: [photo of toilets] And they’re always locked, so if you really need to go,
then you have to [like] walk all the way over to a place where you can get the key
to a toilet (SY)

What Science students dislike about schooling
• Teachers: are a little harsh sometimes and they take it out on the whole class if
one person is misbehaving; they can sometimes be very unapproachable if I am
worried about something; nobody understands my personal learning needs;
teachers being patronising; teachers losing your work; teachers being hypocrites;
[teachers] make bad decisions ; teachers judging you because of friends behaviour;
• Homework: having to do numerous amounts of homework; homework – not much
social time;
• Subjects: French; English; I don’t like Maths; don’t enjoy English
• Early rising: dislike that we have to be here early; Getting up early;
• Workload /Curriculum: overload of homework/coursework can be stressful and
other teachers don't understand how much we get; exams and stress;
• Uniform: I think the strict uniform rules are unnecessary and pointless
• School culture: The pressure of having to do well; how the impression is given that
if we don't get A's or A*'s we won't be as successful; lessons and long days; some
of the rules; the length of day; gender issues … my friends think its really strange
like they went to pick food, and textiles, and they enjoy English, and I’m just there
like, no I shall sit and do equations!
• Other students: that I get bullied and I miss loads of my PE lesson because of it
because I am to scared to go into my lesson; immature students in learning skills;
people shouting about stuff they know nothing about; people shouting abuse;
• School buildings: its quite old; some of the facilities are in a bad state; the library
is too small; Not having lockers to keep our bags and possessions in;

Conclusions
Students appreciated teachers with particular qualities of trust, care and concern, and
who maintained order so that students could work purposefully. Some recognised that
teachers had to sustain a school’s system and welcomed their gentle surveillance
during recreation times. Such views offer important clues to teachers about what
relationships, organisational cultures and practices are likely to help students to
engage strongly with schooling. Students’ views on successful lessons offer teachers
important perspectives to help them shape their teaching (McIntyre et al, 2005).
Students preferred:
• collaborative and trustful cultures where people could ‘have fun’ while working
purposefully;
• pedagogical strategies that facilitated practical work,
• learning related to students everyday lives where possible,
• work that challenged students’ capabilities but met their own idiosyncratic
preferences for learning.
• Students also welcomed clear explanations of the work and a clear structure to
their work.
• Students welcomed support in understanding work when they needed it especially
when struggling to understand an aspect of their work

Conclusions
• Students’ negative perspectives of schooling and lessons … abuses of
power… disciplining of their bodies and restriction of their agency …
• What students disliked reflected their disengagement from aspects of
schooling: certain subjects, other students’ anti-social behaviour, such as
bullying or shouting, some teachers’ behaviours which were perceived as
unfair or disrespectful of students that ignored students’ agency, and
teachers who were perceived as incompetent.
• It suggests that the projection of power to enact, emblematise and sustain
particular values is an important element in the construction of school
cultures (Busher et al., 2007).
• It also offer teachers severe warnings on what needs to be eradicated if
schools are to improve. The aspects of schooling which students in these
studies disliked bear many resemblances to those characteristics related
to schools described as ‘stuck’ (Stoll, 2007).

Contact
Hugh Busher, School of Education, University of Leicester
hugh.busher@le.ac.uk
Suggested follow up reading:
Nabhani, M., Busher, H. and Bahous, R. (2012) Cultures of
engagement in challenging circumstances: Four Lebanese
Primary Schools in urban Beirut. School Leadership and
Management, 32 (1) 37-55
Montgomery, A. and Kehoe, I. (Eds.) Reimagining Schooling.
Springer (March 2015)
Fielding, M. & Moss, P. (2011) Radical education and the
common school: a democratic alternative Abingdon,
Routledge.

Ecer 2014 busher-students voices

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