Page 60 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 3
about, explaining how we integrated the student voice into the development of a model of English as a foreign language (EFL) literature teaching and learning in the context of Dutch secondary education.
In much of the literature the concern is with either learners who are children or with learners who are adults. In our own study the learners are teenagers and young adults (age 15 - 18). Nevertheless, we use the generic term student because we believe that the underlying principles discussed in the literature and the issues we highlight apply to all age groups.
3.1.1 The importance of student voice research
Including student voice in the design (and re-design) of educational curricula can have a positive impact on the instructional environment (Brown, 2009; Könings, Brand-Gruwel, & van Merriënboer, 2005; Vermunt & Verloop, 1999) because the way students perceive their learning environment has an effect on the way they approach learning and thereby the quality of the actual learning outcomes (Entwistle & Tait, 1990). However, how students and teachers perceive the instructional environment does not always align. For example, in a study where students’ and teachers’ perceptions of effective foreign language teaching were compared, Brown (2009) found that whereas students favour a grammar-based approach, the teachers favoured a more communicative approach to language learning. These significant discrepancies need to be addressed in order to avoid so-called destructive frictions (Vermunt & Verloop, 1999) and move toward a situation of congruence, a situation preferred by students (Vermetten, Vermunt, & Lodewijks, 2002).
An important distinction is made by Charteris and Smardon (2018), who emphasize that it is likely that students enact agency differently as a function of the type of discourse on student voice: institutionally focused discourses, or learner-oriented discourses. Within institutionally focused discourses, which Charteris and Smardon (2018) identified as governmentality, accountability, and institutional transformation and reform, student voice is used as a means to monitor effectiveness and quality assurance, focusing on “the transformation of schooling settings to raise student achievement” (Charteris & Smardon, 2018, p. 8). In learner-oriented discourses, however, students are active participators or co-researchers engaging in “student-teacher partnerships where there is a joint construction of knowledge” (Charteris & Smardon, 2018, p.10). This second type of discourse distinguishes learner agency, personalised learning, and radical
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