Empowering Voices in Contemporary School Settings: Understanding Secondary School Students’ Involvement in Decision-Making

chapter 1

Exploring the Context

Background, Problem and Objectives

The relationship between students and teachers in schools has been interpreted both socially and professionally. Professionally, the interaction between students and teachers is that of a provider and a receiver of knowledge and acceptable behaviors, influencing the future lives of both. Socially, the interaction resembles that of a parent and a child, with the teacher taking on a nurturing role to ensure the student’s growth and future success. However, in both interpretations, teachers should maintain their power and authority as leaders of students on behalf of parents and the entire society. Yu emphasizes that, teachers should always pay attention to student’s voices, but they should also maintain their power and authority in front of students to prevent misbehaviors. The relationship between them would not be harmed if teachers handle their authority and power with proper means, and pedagogies.

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In this kind of relationship, the question arises: How do the power and authority of teachers affect the freedom of students in the school environment? Before answering this question, we need to conceptualize what freedom in the school environment means. The term freedom in the school environment is associated with what others have called academic freedom. Osman describes the term academic freedom in its teaching aspects as fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the students for their freedom to learn. Schools should be committed to protecting the rights of free speech in a meaningful sense of the term without coercion or hindrance. The school administration should allow free exchange of ideas to flourish. The teachers, students and the school administrators should have respect for the rights of all individuals to speak their views freely and be heard.

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Based on Osman’s interpretation regarding freedom in the school environment, tolerance of behavioral effects among school community members is vital. This is clearly demonstrated by Ozer who disclosed that, most of the behaviors that some teachers found disturbing in the classroom were perceived as acts of freedom by some students. In his suggestion, Ozer comments that, one should be careful while interpreting the behaviours of the students: the same behavior can be seen as a violation of discipline by the teacher or an act of freedom by the student. With insistence, Ozer affirmed that, instead of putting out rules at first, teachers and students need to find a common ground about classroom management with mutual understanding to have a healthy environment.

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Based on Osman and Ozer’s insights regarding the issue of freedom in the school environment and the question of how does the power and authority of teachers affect the freedom of students, it is argued that teachers’ power and authority should positively influence students’ freedom and decision-making abilities while at school. In this context, the principles of freedom at school include freedom of thought and expression. In his study, Taşkın found that, the opinions of students on the freedom of thought and expression were collected in the categories of speech and participation.

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The two categories that interpret freedom of thought and expression imply the power of participating in decision-making. According to Perry-Hazan and Somech, the rationales behind promoting student participative decision making (pragmatic, moral, or developmental/pedagogical) will determine its dimensions, which, in turn, will affect student, teacher, and school outcomes.

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Moreover, in order to examine the level of student participative decision making, Perry-Hazan and Somech have proposed to lean on the children’s and students’ participation literature, which has addressed both top-down participation (such as student councils) and bottom-up participation (self-advocacy practices such as protests or informal pressure).

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The freedom in the school environment, with its tenets, has become more pronounced as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) continues to grow. During the era of ICT development, students have been able to access various information regarding their educational rights. Fu affirms that a longer exposure in the ICT environment can foster students’ higher critical thinking skills.

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In the same contour, Murawski insists that, the power and speed of technology has created a world where information changes quickly, and new ideas can be distributed and adapted almost instantaneously.

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With such higher critical thinking capabilities, students stay motivated to expose their thoughts and express them with free mind. Additionally, Murawski give remarks that, typically, students who implement critical thinking skills approach the courseware in a more thoughtful and effective manner, ask more challenging questions and participate in the learning process more intensely.

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Hence, as critical thinkers due to their access to information regarding their rights, students have become more enthusiastic about being involved in decision-making on various issues concerning their rights.

However, the academic freedom in the school environment, enhanced by the development of ICT, interferes with the traditional relationship between students and teachers, which for a long time had a dictatorial connotation. Mgonda discloses that, despite the policy and administrative anticipation that teachers should be able to confidently handle relationships in schools, there is evidence of poor and unpromising relationships in schools.

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Such a status quo discourages the participation of students in the decision-making process at school. The collision between traditional and modern perceptions of the relationship between students and teachers prompted researchers to conduct this study to explore the involvement of students in decision-making in the contemporary school setting in Tanzania. Therefore, to conclude the general objective of this study, the following questions were addressed. Firstly. To what extent are students involved in decision-making at schools? Secondly. How do students contribute their opinions and ideas at school? Thirdly. What challenges do students face in giving their opinions and ideas at school?

Ultimately, based on these questions, the reality of students’ participation in decision-making matters while at school and how their participation can be improved, especially in the contemporary school settings, will have been revealed.