The movement of student voice has gained prominence over the last two decades, especially after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 (United Nations, 1989). The term “student voice” has varied meanings in different sources of literature and within different countries, ranging from simple expression of views either through verbal or non-verbal means, while at the same time referring to the idea of participation and having an active role in decision-making processes (Cook-Sather, 2006).

Students’ voices and inclusive education are interconnected ideas (Messiou, 2019). Adopting Ainscow’s definition of inclusion as an ongoing process (Ainscow, 2007), focusing on identifying barriers within contexts that may limit the presence, participation, and achievement of all learners (Ainscow, Booth and Ainscow, 2006), we argue that listening to students’ voices is an avenue through which we can identify such barriers and ultimately a manifestation of being inclusive (Messiou, 2006).  Inclusion is a challenging process and requires the involvement of different stakeholders, including students in schools. Where this happens, possibilities for developing more inclusive school contexts can be created, through processes of dialogues between all involved. At the same time, as Kozleski, Artiles, and Waitoller (2014) argue progress in relation to inclusion is complex and context-specific.

Starting from the belief that students must have a central role in education, to promote equity and inclusion in schools, and the conviction that they can take leading roles in research and in schools, we wanted to know what is already happening in the field in different countries that belong in a World Educational Research International Network (WERA IRN): “Student Voice for Promoting Equity and Inclusion in Schools”.  The countries are:Austria, Australia, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA.

We therefore carried out scoping reviews in each country for the years 2020 – 2025, aiming to identify the key concepts underpinning our research areas. We followed Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five-step framework: Stage 1:  identifying the research question, Stage 2:  identifying relevant studies Stage 3:  study selection Stage 4:  charting the data Stage 5:  collating, summarizing and reporting the results.  Our key terms were student voice, inclusion, equity and schools.  In addition to student voice, we used other relevant terms such as student participation and student agency to ensure identification of all relevant sources.

During this first part of the symposium, we will explore the following questions:

-       What conceptualisations of student voice can we identify through the reviews of studies in each of the four countries?

-       How does the political and educational context of each country influence studies carried out in each context?

-       To what extent do methodologies employed in research involving students correspond to the meanings attributed to student voice?

-       What areas emerge that deserve further exploration in the field of student voice research?

Through our analysis, we highlight how different contexts adopt different conceptualisations of student voice and that there is a variation of methodological approaches, influenced by the context within which studies are conducted and by researchers’ positionalities. Though four countries’ findings are presented in detail, we will be referring to findings from other countries too, since scoping reviews have been carried in all the countries of our international network. We will highlight how different countries have adopted different conceptualisations of the terms that we explore and the implications that this has both on research and in practice within each context. We will also highlight how the structures and policies in the different contexts impact on student voice in schools and in research.

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