Why Listen? Student Voice Work Defended: Students as ‘Expert Witnesses’ to Their Experiences in Schools and Other Sites of Learning

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for educative practice in which teachers and learners unite in a form of participative inquiry with an emphasis upon inclusion and social justice. It will demonstrate that taking this stance acts as an interruption to pedagogical power relations and hierarchical governance leading to a reconsideration of the typical assemblages of engagement on the part of all participating in the dance of education. The chapter honours the capability of young people to witness the manner in which educative practices can and should take place in a world worth living in. It will illuminate its assertions by offering a range of examples varying in levels of participation and the scale of the engagement in participative inquiry with a focus upon mutual learning that attends to a variety of voices including those often marginalised, even silenced.