International Journal of Education for Social Justice, 2019, 8(2), Voice and Action in School: How Secondary School Students Perceive their Participation

Participation is one of the core areas of social justice and inclusion as it involves one of the children and adolescents’ rights. A prospective ex-post-facto study was carried out aiming at identifying the practices and meaning of participation among adolescents. A total of 71 volunteer students (13-17 years of age; 63% girls) from three state-funded secondary schools in the Community of Madrid were interviewed. Most students associate participation with a voluntary process, which reflects their need for giving their opinions on issues that concern them. The idea of searching for the groups’ wellbeing as an aim of participation is supported by the students. Moreover, they see participation as necessary for the school’s well-functioning, although they evaluate their participation as reactive, as compliance with the teachers’ proposals. Students’ conceptions are consistent with a model of social justice and inclusion in which students’ right to participation is guaranteed within the educational system, mostly among girls. However, students do not seem to be proactive in their participation pointing at a timid exercise of their role as agents.