Characteristics of Participation of Secondary School Students with Respect to Their Education Programme and Academic Achievement

Student participation in school is considered an important value and part of every school's culture, not only in terms of improvement of school as a community, but also as an opportunity to put into practice civic skills and political literacy. The aim of this paper is to determine if there are differences in certain characteristics of participation in terms of the secondary school education programmes and academic achievement, as well as to determine the level of interaction between these variables and characteristics of participation. The examined characteristics of participation included awareness about the right to participation, readiness to participate, participation satisfaction in school and perception of teacher support for student participation. The research was conducted on a sample consisting of 1,545 students from 20 secondary schools in the Republic of Croatia. The results indicate that students with lower academic achievement tend to be less informed and less ready to participate. They also seem to be dissatisfied with opportunities for participation and perceive a lower level of teacher support for student participation, in comparison with students with very good or excellent academic achievement. It was revealed that students in vocational and art schools perceive a higher level of teacher support for student participation in comparison with students in grammar schools. The results also indicate insufficiently used student's potential for participation. In further efforts to ensure the right to participation, it is important to examine the current methods of student participation and make it more inclusive, especially for students with lower academic achievement, regardless of their education programme. Secondary schools, regardless of the type and duration of the education programme, should create more opportunities for participation of all students, offer various participation activities and promote quality forms of dialogue between teachers and students.