Pupil Voice

National Research Conference
Pupil Voice and Participation: pleasures, promises and pitfalls

May 22nd-23rd 2006, University of Nottingham

For photos, papers and presentations, click here.

This free conference arose from the ESRC seminar series ‘Engaging Critically with Pupil Voice’ and brought together a number of strands of involvement of diverse individuals and organisations with an interest in and commitment to what is collectively known as Pupil Voice.

Issues that were addressed through papers, symposia, workshops and poster sessions include the following:

Rethinking school improvement to include pupils
Making children’s rights a reality
Visual research with children and young people
Changing school leadership communities

Keynote speakers:
Roger Holdsworth, Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne
Virginia Morrow, Institute of Education, London University
Madeleine Arnot, University of Cambridge
Practitioners from the Bedfordshire School Improvement Partnership

Maps and a list of recommended hotels are available on the programme website http://www.pupil-voice.org.uk. Please download and complete a registration form and send to Uta Feinstein, School of Education, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, The Dearing Building, Wollaton Road, Nottingham NG8 1BB or email it to Uta.Feinstein@nottingham.ac.uk.

A confirmed programme and full list of abstracts are posted on this site.

Contact for further information:

Dr Jane McGregor 01223 841458; mobile: 07909844984e-mail: jane.mcgregor@educationresearch.co.uk

Keynote Speakers:

Roger Holdsworth is a Senior Research Associate at the Australian Youth Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also editor and publisher of Connect magazine, a bi-monthly journal supporting student participation, that evaluations of Student Action Teams projects for the Victorian State Department of Education and has become an advocate and strategist around such approaches. For the past few years, he has been working intensively with some local clusters of primary and secondary schools around these approaches, and this work has culminated in a newly published book on Student Action Teams as productive practices in classrooms, schools and clusters.

Roger has also presented a world music radio program called Global Village on Melbourne community station PBS-FM for the past 16 years.

Madeleine Arnot is Professor of Sociology of Education at Cambridge University and Fellow of Jesus College and the Academy of Social Sciences. Publications include Consultation in the Classroom (with D. McIntyre, D. Pedder and D. Reay; Pearson, 2004); Reproducing Gender? Selected Essays on Educational Theory and Feminist Politics (RoutledgeFalmer, 2002); Challenging Democracy: International Perspectives on Gender, Education and Citizenship (co-edited with J. Dillabough; RoutledgeFalmer, 2000); Closing the Gender Gap: post war education and social change (with M.David and G.Weiner, Polity, 1999). She is currently writing a book on Education and the Gendered Citizen (Routledge, 2007).

Ginny Morrow is Lecturer and Course organiser of MA Childhood Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Previously she worked at Brunel University, London School of Economics (LSE Gender Institute and Sociology Dept), and Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge. Children and young people have been the primary focus of her research activities since 1988. Her research interests include qualitative research methods and the ethics of social research with children; the history and sociology of childhood; social capital; child labour, children's work and children's economic roles; children's and young people's perspectives on their environments; children's rights. Recent publications include Networks and neighborhoods; children and young people's perspectives (2001) for the Health Development Agency; and with Professor Priscilla Alderson Ethics, social research and consulting with children and young people, published by Barnado's (2004). She is an editor of Childhood: A global journal of child research, published by Sage.

Bedfordshire School Improvement Partnership (BSIP) is part ot the Local Authority's School Improvement Network, within the Bedfordshire Children's Services. Central to the work is the aim of supporting the four strands of activity in Learning Communities; Teaching and Learning, Curriculum Development, Student Involvement and Leadership Development.

BSIP leads and facilitates a range of School Improvement Activities, such as:

Professional Study Groups
Student Involvement Initiatives and Training
Research and Evaluation processes
Networking and dissemination of effective practice
Facilitation of Learning Communities
Leadership Programmes
Collaborative Leadership Learning
Primary Learning Networks
Personalised Learning Initiatives

Much of the work is underpinned by the provision of a wide range of Continuing Professional Development and training programmes. The employment of Gap Year Student Voice Consultants within the Partnership is critical to raising levels of participation for all young people.