Schools are social institutions on the one hand having a mission to recreate social, political, economic, cultural and educational relations and to transfer these to societies’ lives and cultures. On the other hand, these institutions are designed to provide learning areas and environments for teaching activities, in other words to provide education for pupils. From Socrates to Dewey many philosophers emphasized that education in schools has a significant role on reconstruction society.  

Schools are defined as places in where pupils are enabled to improve their cognitive, emotional and psychomotor skills (Klopf, Schelden, and Brennan, 1982) and places in where pupils share their knowledge, beliefs, values, norms and fears with each other (Demir, 2007). The life in school does not only mean pupil-pupil and pupil-teacher interactions, it also means resources and policies of schools, classroom activities along with the way of teaching and gaining knowledge. All these are created and designed by others. It is significant to listen to pupils’ voice in that they are also stakeholders in their schooling.  Listening pupils’ voice can offer insights relating to their lives in schools.

Pupils “know which methods and models work for them, what they see as interesting, and what they do not profit from” (Leren, 2006, p. 367). To this view it could be said that pupils should be considered as participants of changes in a school life. It could be said that when pupils are given opportunity to make decisions about their schooling and their experiences in a school, they may have powerful and significant voices to create new trends in a school life.

Some studies about the school were done to find out or to emphasize how the school should be (Freire, 1970 ve 1998; McLaren, 1998). These studies are theoretical studies.  Additionally some studies investigated what students want for their schooling and how they define their experiences in school (Certo, Cauley and Chafin, 2003; Cushman and Rogers, 2008; Doda and  Knowles, 2008 and Shaunessy and Alvarez-McHatton, 2009). Considering Turkish context, a few studies were done to find out metaphors created by pupils about the school (Demir, 2007; Saban, 2008; Özdemir and Akkaya, 2013).

Taking into account of national and international literature, it seems that there is a need to study pupils’ voices about their lives in schools to discover what pupils like in their school life and what they dislike in their school life. Listening to pupils’ voices can enable pupils to improve their metacognitive and critical thinking skills about schooling (Cook-Sather, 2002). Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to explore pupils’ views about the problems they faced with during their lives in a school and the situations which needed to be taken out in order to help pupils to feel happy in their school life.

In given studies, researchers asked questions to pupils to get their views about the school and their experiences in their school. This study aimed to make additional contribution to the existing studies. This study is also different from the given as this study focuses on pupils’ lives in their school considering teachers, pupils, resources, policies, activities and etc.  The findings of this study can make contribution for given sub-themes. Additionally, listening to pupils’ voices can help policy makers or teachers to notice their lacks in a school. Another contribution of this study is about the way of data collection. By using a movie and a case study about Aladdin’s Magic Lamp, it is tried to enable pupils to use their imaginative skills and to believe their powers in their lives in schools.

Burns, N. and Grove, S.K. (2003).Understanding nursing research. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Company. Certo, J. L., Cauley, K. M., and Chafin, C. (2003). Student’s perspectives on their high school experience. Adolescence, 38, 705-724. Cook-Sather, A. (2002). Authorizing student’s perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue, and change in education. Educational Researcher, 31, 3-14. Cushman, K. and Rogers, L. (2008). Fires in the middle school bathroom: Advice for teachers from middle schoolers. New York, NY: The New Press. Demir, C. E. (2007). Metaphors as a reflection of middle school students’ perception of school: A cross cultural analysis. Educational Research and Evaluation, 13 (2), 89-10 Doda, N., and Knowles, T. (2008). Listening to the voices of young adolescents. Middle School Journal, 39(3), 26-33. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Klopf, G., Schelden, E., and Brennan, K. (1982). The essentials of effectiveness: A job description for principals. Principal, 61(4), 35-38. Knupfer, N. N. and McLellan, H. (1996). Descriptive Research Methodologies. In D. H. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 1196-1212). NewYork: MacMillan. Leren, T.H. (2006). The importance of student voice. International Journal of Leadership in Education. 9(4), 363-367. McLaren, P. (1998). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education (3rd ed.). New York: Longman. Özdemir, S. and Akkaya, E. (2013). Genel Lise Öğrenci ve Öğretmenlerinin Okul ve İdeal Okul Algılarının Metafor Yoluyla Analizi. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi, 19 (2), 295-322. Saban, A. (2008). Okula ilişkin metaforlar. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi, 55, 459-496 Shaunessy, E. and Alvarez-McHatton, P. (2009). Urban students’ perceptions of teachers: Views of students in general, special, and honors education. Urban Review, 41,486-503. doi:10.1007/s11256-008-0112-z