I am student hear me roar

I hear a lot about the Student Voice.  But how many schools actually provide platforms for this, as opposed to pay lip service or provide a platform that is highly mediated by teachers or the school executive?

I have been reading Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed,  which calls for a radical response to what he calls the Banking Model of education, where teachers (and the school system generally) ‘deposit’ knowledge into passive students. 

Freire advocated a model of learning that was developed within the cultural contexts of students, which based curriculum resources on students’ everyday concrete environment and experiences, and which were utilised to develop students’ learning. The process was 1) highly dialogic, primarily consisting of egalitarian class discussion, and 2) emphasised action – new knowledge was implemented by the students in a meaningful way, and which had an impact on their communities.

This is a highly authentic model of the Student Voice: it recognises the need for students to ‘speak’ in order to learn and it also enables students to utilise their voice with genuine agency. Freire’s students were poor, largely illiterate ‘workers’ (he was, obviously, Marxist) in Brazil. How might this transfer to the first-world, secondary school environment? We need a platform that students themselves can use: 

MailChimp!

This is a free, online service that enables you to design and distribute email newsletters. Unlike a traditional email format, it essentially delivers a web page that is embedded in the email. This includes the features that a regular web page offers: images, static text, URL links or links to external social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Distribution is via subscription, controlled by the owner of the newsletter. The owner is also able to view subscriber activity such as the number of newsletters delivered, the number of unique and repeat access to newsletters, the number of users who accessed links within the newsletters, etc. These are displayed within clear graphs and maps and unique parameters can be set, to glean more specific information.

Back to Freire-ian plans...

There is real scope here for student-led newsletters for students. These could be developed out of a specific class as part of a unit of work OR tapping into interest groups across the school (the development of a new newsletter may even be the instigator for such a group).

Because students must opt to subscribe to the newsletter to receive it, they can be informed of it, and given the opportunity to help produce it or submit content, via the school-wide formal newsletter. 

Students could form an editorial committee and make decisions on content and learn how to take responsibility for creating the newsletter. This process would probably be supervised by a teacher, who would assist in developing students’ skills, capacity and knowledge and ensure access to resources. Also, the teacher would focus on creating a sustainable autonomy amongst the students, with the hope that they will eventually be able to train and mentor any new members of the group. It seems important that editorial decision making rests with the students.

This process would develop numerous skills in students. The need to produce a polished newsletter for a wider readership would require the development of technical, writing, editing, proofreading and design skills. In particular, the brief format of the newsletter would require them to make often difficult decisions about content and design. 

Also, a regular distribution would require students to develop skills in time management, delegation and teamwork. They would need to manage the administrative elements relating to subscriptions, usage and communication. They would need to be able to canvass and implement feedback.

The process would also develop certain capacities. Some or all of the students would need to have a capacity for leadership. The students would need to learn to communicate tactfully with students who submit content. They would need to work harmoniously and productively with each other.


The process would have to be effectively managed and supported at the school level and the spirit of the venture – giving a voice and agency to students – would have to remain at its core.

Students writing for other students on topics and issues that are important to them and in their own words: I think Freire would approve. 


And of course the question must be answered: why MailChimp over a hardcopy newsletter? Because students are ON THE WEB. And we all love the Unread mail notice in our inbox, hoping it will bring something interesting.

Finally, though, the impact must extend beyond the core editorial group. After all, Freire sought nothing less than a transformation of society! One idea for a newsletter that might have a broader impact:

A monthly book review 

The review format puts students at ease because anyone can write one – there is no sense of right or wrong, just what you think. A review also has utility. It gives fellow students information they can use.

To allow multiple contributors within a brief space, the newsletter might include single paragraph —or even single sentence or word! — reviews of books, or a group review of a book. It might also include multiple elements, such as illustrations of books, or the much loved book lists (My Top Ten Books or Five Best Books for When You Are [on a deserted island/etc] or Five Best Books About [Love/Friendship/War/] or Top Five [Sci-Fi/Romance/Goth/Fantasy/Non-Fiction] Books, etc.)

This idea has the potential to create, no matter how small, a committed community around a love of books and reading. Every new subscriber to that newsletter, provided they read the material, is another student engaging with literacy and literature in a way that is meaningful and engaging for them. (Freire would definitely be happy.) If it gets one student scuttling off to the school library to hunt down a book, it’s a success.

And the Librarian, if he/she isn’t already leading the group, will be sending you love letters.