The purpose of this symposium is to share an innovative and creative pilot study of a project that aims to fill a gap in the theory and practice about teachers’ and students’ participation and/or consultation in their educational institution’s processes and practices (Ruddock and McIntyre, 2007). Each nation state will report on a pilot study in a school. Educational policy is a public good associated with human rights. Individuals in different nation states require education, yet there are issues that arise with regard to participation. Each nation state has rules and considerations of those rules that shape their values and beliefs about participation. These are rooted in complex histories, economic structures, cultures, religions and power struggles. The research focuses This is important because learning new knowledge and skills, equips individuals to operate flexibly within labour markets, and participate in decision making within their communities and ‘big society’ The discussant will bring together the case-studies by comparing and contrasting emergent themes. 

Each case-study is a pilot of the first phase of action research within secondary schools. This builds on research presented at ECER 2012 where valuable feedback on policy contexts informed the pilot case-studies.

The pilot case-studies report the views of teachers, and students of educational institutions to find out who is included, and excluded in the engagement of institutional processes and practices. The voices heard represent diverse views and reveal patterns of participation and how these influence decision making. The pilot studies established that the research is meaningful, worthwhile and feasible in its aims to reveal the limits of participation and how particular groups exercise influence over decision making. The full project will illuminate what leadership strategies, and intervention strategies underpin patterns of stakeholder participation in educational institutions in different contexts.

The limitations of the research are that it is a pilot study of the first phase of the research, and does not include administrators.

Three practical and social implications emerged from the pilot case-studies. First, they promoted the exchange of stories of participation and consultation from one context to another. Second, they strengthened a network to facilitate knowledge exchange, mobilization, and dissemination activities. Finally, they demonstrated the interviews effectively met the aims and addressed the following six questions. First, what cultures, practices and leadership systems influence the participation of different stake-holders in decision making in their institution? Second, in which institutional characteristics do institutional stake holders place value? Third, how do teachers and students engage with different participatory processes in their institution? Fourth, through what processes and practices do teachers and students consider their institutions embody their values? Fifth, what similarities, and differences are there in processes of sense making, strategic leadership and change in relation to optimizing stakeholder participation and consultation? Finally, how much is regarded as optimal by different stakeholder groups and what informs their judgement of this?

Oplatka, I. (2004) The principalship in developing countries: Context, characteristics and reality. Comparative Education, 40 (3).

Ruddock, J., and McIntyre, D. (2007). Improving Learning through Consulting Pupils. Oxon:Routledge.