French philosopher Jacques Rancière argues that an act of speech qualifies who is able to think and participate in society. A school classroom is a social space where an act of speech is important part of learning and communicating as well. But is there any room for pupils’ own discourse and participating or are they just making meaningless noise?

I will discuss about classroom teaching in terms of participatory culture and community of practice where pupils are respected as independent individuals and recognized for the worth of their contribution and voice, the value of their ideas and the skills of their trade. I will argue that the voice of pupils has to be heard from the perspective of pupils’ participation in the outside world; especially popular and media culture and pupils’ everyday creative practices.

My paper is drawn from my empirical study Youth, Literacies, and Changing Media Environment, funded by the Academy of Finland. This research applies educational ethnography to study the literacy practices of 13–16 year-old children in one secondary basic education school in the western part of Finland.

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