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                                collegiality. In learner agency discourse, students determine their own learning,
make their own decisions, and “take action demonstrating command of personal,
social and discursive resources” (Charteris & Smardon, 2018, p. 100). A discourse
of personalised learning describes the ability to recognise the voice of students
in order to be able to make the connection between the learning process and
each individual student’s experiences. And a discourse of radical collegiality
suggests shared power relations where a student’s consultative participation is
valued (Charteris & Smardon, 2018). It is with this type of discourse that we align 3 ourselves in this current chapter.
3.1.2 Perspectives of student voice inclusion in educational research
In 1992, Hart published an essay commissioned by UNICEF in which he reported a way of analysing the involvement of young people in society along a specific continuum. This so-called Ladder of Participation diagram, designed to “serve as a beginning typology for thinking about children’s participation in projects” (Hart, 1992, p. 9), consists of eight degrees of participation (including non-participation; see Table 3.1). Hart’s (1992) typology has been uniquely influential, reproduced and adapted in different fields, especially public health (Funk, van Borek, Taylor, Grewal, Tzemis, & Buxton, 2012; Moules & O’Brien, 2012), but also in the field of education, such as Wyse (2001), or as the object of research in Horwath, Efrosini, and Spyros (2012). Hart’s typology has also been influential in adaptations that took a different angle, such as Treseder (1997), who developed a circular model (as opposed to Hart’s linear ladder) or Kirby, Lanyon, Cronin, and Sinclair (2003) who proposed four different categories of participation.
Focusing on the field of educational research and reform, several of these adaptations have been developed over the years in order to understand the various ways in which student voice can be included. In Table 3.1, we present Hart’s typology as well as four additional ones, all of which focus on secondary education. This selection is not intended as a systematic review or to achieve theoretical saturation, but rather as a comparison of a number of important typologies within the field of educational research and reform originating from different educational contexts in different countries (i.e. Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom) and developed at different times over more than a decade (between 1992 and 2005). Lee and Zimmerman (1999), introduce their student voice continuum as part of the Manitoba School Improvement Program in Canada. Holdsworth (2000), a former secondary school teacher and researcher, discusses two arenas
Connecting students and researchers
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