1. Defines youth participation formally (Articles 12-15)
Series of rights
Access to information
Expression of views
Freedom to form collective organizations
Legitimizes student voice
Increase mandates for youth participation

2. U.S. Student Voice Contexts
One of three nations in the world that has not committed to ratifying UNCRC
In many states, youth participation on governing boards is illegal
U.S. lacks national standards to structure curricula
“Bottom up” reforms
Authenticity because of reforms by choice
Important of Intermediary Organizations (Non profits) to
Legitimize
Network
Fund
Sustain

3. Adapted from Mitra, D. L. & Kirshner, B. (2012)
Adapted from Mitra, D.L. & Kirshner, B. (2012). Insiders versus outsiders—Examining variability in student voice initiatives and their consequences for school change. In B. McMahon & J. Portelli (Ed.), Student engagement in urban schools: Beyond neoliberal discourses (pp ). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing

4. Student/Learner Voice Participation

5. Civic engagement/ democratic citizenship

6. Youth-adult partnership
Positive Youth Development
“Making a Difference”
Agency
Belonging
Competence

7. Youth Participatory Action Research—YPAR

8. Power studies/ Critical theory/critical race theory

9. Essential Questions: Student change
How does student voice create opportunities:
for fostering positive youth development?
for student-centered learning?
for improved academic outcomes?

10. Essential questions: Systems change
How do student voice activities foster opportunities for:
School reform?
Systems change?
Challenging power dynamics?
Catalyzing activism?

11. Melton: “Freedom of expression is largely meaningless unless one has the forum, the skills, and the self-respect to articulate one’s point of view.” (p. 8)
…it’s “time to change direction from a focus on rights to a focus on the strategies that are most likely to enable students to be meaningful participants in the community.
What might those strategies look like?
What do we take from the UNCRC as a basis for our work?
How do they inform what we decide to do?

12. Melton: “Under what circumstances do children feel like people?”
Melton’s Strong Communities org pledged:
“to ensure that every child and every parent will know that, whenever they have reason to celebrate, worry, or grieve, someone will notice, and someone will care.”
And that “no families will be left outside” and all children will be kept safe….that every “child’s basic needs are met in a setting that is safe, humane, and responsive.”
“Everyone deserves an environment in which they will grow up noticed and cared for as individuals, their families will be supported through a collective expression of good will, and that in the end children will live securely in dignity.”
The local culture “reflects a psychological mindedness that is attuned to the everyday experience of children themselves and of the adults who care for them.”