Research involving schools is usually dominated by truths explored and brought to the surface by either university researchers, or those that are co-constructed between researchers and teachers. What is less common is having students in schools being part of such processes (Hadfield and Haw, 2001). Students’ voices, have been given a prominent role in research and in education, especially since the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989), which was ratified by almost every country in the world. Student voice has been linked to active and meaningful participation, and having an active role in decision-making processes (Cook-Sather, 2006). Doing so in schools requires dialogues between teachers and students through which shared narratives (Lodge, 2005) and understandings are developed. This presentation will draw from a set of interconnected studies, where university researchers worked collaborative with teachers and children and young people in schools. The first two studies were carried out in thirty-eight schools (primary and secondary) in five European countries (Austria, Denmark, England, Portugal and Spain) (Messiou and Ainscow, 2020) and had as a central feature student voice approaches (Cook-Sather, 2006) and student-teacher dialogues. The last study was carried out with a network of five primary schools in England and involved significant involvement by the research participants in decision-making processes, including setting the research agendas. All of this Collaborative action research processes were employed in all studies that involve “different stakeholders functioning as co-researchers’ (p. 345, Mitchell, Reilly, & Logue, 2009). Teachers and school students took the role of co-researchers in the various school contexts (both primary and secondary school students). Data analysed from the various school contexts involved: lesson observations, planning meetings, training of student researchers and planning meetings between teachers and children, interviews with student researchers and interviews with teachers. ‘Group interpretive processes’ (Ainscow, Booth and Dyson, 2006) were used for analysis and interpretation. These processes established trustworthiness, using the member check approach recommended by Lincoln and Guba (1985). Understandings gained through the analysis of the data in these studies highlight the importance of involving students and teachers in dialogues in schools. These can facilitate efforts towards inclusion by highlighting different possibilities about what is happening in schools, including details about learning and teaching. At the same time, challenges involved in this kind of research will be explored, such as issues of power between the various research participants and the researchers and how these can be addressed.

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