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The Politics of Student Voice: Conceptualizing a Model for Critical Analysis

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Critical Approaches to Education Policy Analysis

Part of the book series: Education, Equity, Economy ((EEEC,volume 4))

Abstract

For 2 years we worked with a high school class focused on social justice education where students conducted their own research in order to develop policy solutions for issues of injustice that mattered most to them. This class helped initiate school level interest in how student voice can be integral to school improvement and policy processes. However, we observed how the full potential of students’ voice in school policy was not realized due, primarily, to the politics of power. For our study we use critical policy analysis (CPA) as a method to reveal the politics of student voice as it pertains to power and school policy. We also conduct a CPA of our work with the social justice class to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the politics of student voice in schools. Finally, this chapter is different from traditional co-authored papers in that we seek to honor the politics of student voice by including two students, as co-authors and a legitimate source of knowledge, one that is often times overlooked or dismissed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The scholars who designed the frameworks social justice youth policy and social justice development use similar principles to define each framework. Therefore, we merged these two frameworks in our overview of various critical theoretical perspectives on youth.

  2. 2.

    Demographic data was retrieved from the county website, but is not cited for purposes of maintaining the anonymity of the research site.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA

    Anjalé D. Welton & Tiffany O. Harris

  2. Parkland College, Champaign, IL, USA

    Karla Altamirano

  3. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA

    Tierra Williams

Authors
  1. Anjalé D. Welton
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  2. Tiffany O. Harris
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  3. Karla Altamirano
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  4. Tierra Williams
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anjalé D. Welton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    Michelle D. Young

  2. Dept. of Educ. Lead'ship & Pol. Analysis, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

    Sarah Diem

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Welton, A.D., Harris, T.O., Altamirano, K., Williams, T. (2017). The Politics of Student Voice: Conceptualizing a Model for Critical Analysis. In: Young, M., Diem, S. (eds) Critical Approaches to Education Policy Analysis. Education, Equity, Economy, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39643-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39643-9_5

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