Those most affected by a policy should have the greatest say in shaping it, the adage goes. Yet students--those whom education policies affect most--are far too frequently excluded from decision making. Even when students' voices are included, they are often only symbolically considered. In Washington, DC, student involvement in policymaking is…

Youth councils bring together students to drive meaningful change in schools by strengthening school policies and practices that serve all students. By fostering authentic student leadership, these councils empower young people to shape policies that directly impact their learning environments. Given that students experience shifts in the…

Student voice (SV), referring to the concept and practices of involving students in educational decisions, has been gaining popularity due to its promising effects on student need satisfaction and academic motivation. Definitions of SV approaches, their variety, and the benefits that various approaches have for students' need satisfaction and…

The study of student participation in decision making has been characterised by conceptual vagueness and an absence of empirical tools to compare participatory practices in various contexts and to determine when they achieve their goals. This study presents an integrative theoretical model grounded in the organisational literature on participative…

Although the goals of consensus-based decision-making (CBDM) and the academic theological classroom are quite distinct (most notably that in the classroom, there is no need to come to a group decision), both share the aim of honoring all voices and perspectives and ensuring that marginalized voices and experiences are elevated. It is an important…

Although services are critical for many transition-aged youth, it is unclear the extent to which autistic youth participate in decisions about their services. By exploring the perceptions of autistic youth about their role in services, interventions can be developed to improve their participation. In this study, we interviewed 43 transition-aged…

Transformer architectures contribute to managing long-term dependencies for natural language processing, representing one of the most recent changes in the field. These architectures are the basis of the innovative, cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) that have produced a huge buzz in several fields and industrial sectors, among the ones…

Climate change presents a global challenge requiring innovative and collaborative approaches to mitigate its impact. This article explores the intersection of community engagement, infrastructure management, and student involvement in addressing climate change. Engaging communities in decision-making initiatives fosters a sense of shared…

This review presents a reasoned synthesis of whole-school interventions seeking to improve the overall school environment by fostering active student participation (ASP) in school activities and decision-making processes. The aims are to describe the selected programs, assess their methodological quality, and analyze the activities soliciting ASP.…

This article explores the parallels experienced when pre-service teachers and those teaching multilingual students in elementary school design classroom spaces around the Right of the Learner to speak, listen, and be heard. We share examples of democratic commitments and shifts in our own understandings of the role of the teacher and professor. We…

Bullying remains a serious problem in schools in England and internationally despite the plethora of research, interventions and policies which aim to address it. The majority of research and interventions are based on a traditional approach where school bullying is constructed as involving a clear imbalance of power between individuals. Recently,…

This paper explores the impact of student participation in staff recruitment processes at a UK distance learning Higher Education Institution, examining its contribution to quality in teaching and learning. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, the study investigates how students' involvement in high-level decision-making affects their sense of…

This qualitative study employs thematic analysis of open-ended survey data to examine how 187 low-income college students in a need- based scholarship and support program perceive contributors to their success and barriers they face. Using an abductive approach that integrates inductive coding with theoretical alignment, we identified key themes,…

What motivates students to participate in student organizations, how students participate in university administration decision-making, and how such participation influences students' overall development is under-researched in Bangladesh. Therefore, to uncover such dynamics we employed document analyses, observations, and in-depth interviews with…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to enhance the quality of education in rural management through the inclusion of students' voices, namely, active participation in the curriculum development intervention. This approach aims to foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity, thereby enhancing student engagement and in…