Student voice across contexts: Fostering student agency in today's schools

Student voice is a concept and a set of approaches that position students alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice. Student voice and student agency are closely linked when school stakeholders connect the sound of students speaking with students having the power to influence practices and analyses of education. In this article I draw on empirical studies conducted in a range of contexts to present an overview of approaches to student voice that foster student agency. These approaches focus on students working with teachers and researchers to analyze classroom practice, engage in research through various methods, and author and coauthor texts, all with the goal of maximizing and democratizing education for everyone involved. Implications of this discussion include suggestions for teachers, school principals, teacher educators, and researchers regarding how to support student voice such that it fosters student agency.