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The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose different sources concerning educational experiments embarked on by an English primary school teacher, Muriel Pyrah. Pyrah taught at Airedale School, Castleford, Yorkshire, UK, from the 1950s until 1972. Her approach was celebrated in the fields of oracy and arts education in the final years of her working life. Airedale was a Local Education Authority (LEA) school within the West Riding of Yorkshire, an LEA led by Alec Clegg, from 1945 to 1974.

Using film footage, sound recordings, artwork and topic books produced by her pupils, the paper entangles these archival sources with recent interviews from Pyrah’s former pupils and a former school inspector (HMI). Pyrah’s actual name has been used, as has that of the HMI. The names of pupils who contributed insights are anonymised.

The former pupils provide accounts that encourage a move away from a revisiting of progressivism that is predominantly anchored in studying the intentions and hopes of high profile educationalists postwar.

The number of former pupils willing to discuss their memories was small, so no claims are made that their perspectives represent the dominant views of former pupils. However, these interviews reveal details that are absent in the other surviving archival sources.

The paper lays the foundation for further research on the voices of former pupils, inviting a focus on the way those participants reflect on the long-term impact of being involved in an educational experiment. Thus far, the representation of Pyrah’s pedagogy has been choreographed in print to build the legacy of the LEA. The pupils’ stories resonate differently.

The overall aim of this article is to discuss the conditions and character of collective protest in schools. When do pupils as a collective gain the ability to express critical views on the policies of schools, and what is that criticism about? Using Sweden as an example, I discuss this question by studying the collective organisation of pupils from the 1920s to the 1980s.

The article discusses and compares two phases of pupils' collective organisation in Sweden: one dominated by pupil councils, one by national organisations. The article discusses how pupil councils at individual schools arose in the wake of the 1928 grammar school charter, and illustrates its influence using a case study of a grammar school in Stockholm. Furthermore, the article investigates how national organisations, first formed in 1952, expressed their concerns about national school policies.

The first phase (ca. 1928–1951) was dominated by the idea of discipline, and the main task of pupil councils was to help teachers in maintaining discipline. The second phase (ca. 1952–1989) was instead characterised by a heightened focus on protests and democracy. From then on, the main idea was that pupil councils and national pupil organisations should change the school, making it more suited to the needs of the pupils.

There is much research on university students and student uprisings. However, much of the previous research on the student voice is related to the upheavals of the long 1968. By concentrating its efforts on a limited time period when protest was more obvious, previous research has arguably not been able to discuss transformations over time.

An alliance of schools and researchers formed a collaborative community of practice in order to understand and improve the sensory school environment for pupils on the autistic spectrum, and incorporate the findings into school improvement planning. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Representatives of special and mainstream schools in South London and a team of researchers formed the project team, including an autistic researcher. The researchers and a named staff member from each of the schools met regularly over the course of 18 months in order to work on an iterative process to improve the sensory experience pupils had of the school environment. Each school completed sensory audits and observations, and was visited by members of the research team. Parents were involved via meetings with the research team and two conferences were organised to share findings.

Useful outcomes included: developing and sharing of good practice between schools; opportunities for parents of autistic pupils to discuss their concerns, particularly with someone with insider perspective; and exploration of creative ways to achieve pupil involvement and the idea that good autism practice has the potential to benefit all pupils. A resource pack was produced for the schools to access. Plans are in place to revisit the initiative in 12 months’ time in order to ascertain whether there have been long-term benefits.

Projects building communities of practice involving autistic people as core team members are rare, yet feedback from those involved in the project showed this to be a key aspect of shared learning.

The study was based around the following three research questions: What factors affect teacher well-being and mental health? How does teacher well-being and mental health impact on the progress of students? What resilience strategies are used by highly effective teachers with poor mental health to ensure that their students thrive? The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The research study was qualitative in nature and involved ten primary schools in England. Teachers and head teachers were interviewed. Each school visit also included a pupil discussion group with children from Years 3. In total, the research team interviewed 35 education professionals and 64 pupils.

Teachers reported a number of work-related stress triggers including busy times of the year, such as assessment periods, the pressure of extra curricula activities, the unexpected, keeping up with the pace of change and changes in school leadership. Children were attuned to their teacher’s mood and could usually pick up when they were feeling stressed, even if teachers tried to hide it.

No studies have used pupil voice to explore pupil perspectives of the impact of teacher mental health on their learning and progress. This is the first study of its kind.

Pupil autonomy, empowerment and clarity of school rules are factors underpied that the schools subscribed to different philosophies regarding pupil management. One school was largely authoritarian in its approach and the other was overly lenient. This paper emphasises the importance of furthering democratic principles of pupil participation within the context of clear rules and boundaries.

The purpose of this paper is to consider recent developments in student engagement practices within higher education institutions (HEIs) and to reflect upon the practical reality and challenges faced by HEIs as they develop such practices.

Consideration is given to theoretical understandings around institutional and social power relations and to the influence such relationships can have on the development of student engagement practices within HEIs. The work of Giroux, Freire and Foucault is drawn upon to help develop and deepen understanding of the power relationships at play within HEI student engagement practices.

It is argued that the power imbalance ingrained within student‐tutor relationships serves to constrain how students act and respond in the presence of tutors, and this can have significant implications in terms of the extent to which student engagement practices genuinely capture the perspectives, interests and visions of students.

Thought needs to be given to how HEIs will balance student engagement with academic work. The historical hierarchical staff‐student relationship will need to be challenged and re‐defined as some staff and students move outside of their comfort zones in order to work as partners and develop mutual understandings around, for example, practices of assessment, curriculum and teaching, and seek to improve the quality of student's HEI experiences.

The paper develops and deepens our understanding of the power relationships at play within HEI student engagement practices and opens up debates about the potential of student engagement practices in HEIs and the related dilemmas which surround the development of such practices.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the organizational mechanisms by which schools can increase opportunities for student leadership.

A review of the student voice literature conducted in high schools was used to identify organizational mechanisms for enhancing student leadership.

Five leadership-fostering organizational mechanisms were identified: consistency, research, group makeup, governance structure and recognition.

This paper examines the existing body of student voice research to identify organizational mechanisms for fostering student leadership in schools. Researchers can use this to operationalize student leadership mechanisms and study their impact. Practitioners can implement these mechanisms in schools to support youth leadership development.

In Israel, the decision which educational framework is most suitable for pupils with special needs is made by a placement committee. In January 2005, the eighth amendment of the Israeli Special Education Law determined that all pupils have the legal right to participate in their placement committee’s deliberations. This paper aims to examine the implementation of this liberal reform that let young people’s voices be heard. Specifically, the focus is on the attitudes of involved professionals (committee chairs, educational supervisors, teachers, etc.) regarding the law, and whether and in what ways their views influence the extent to which this law is implemented.

The research used an eight-step linear scale to investigate both the desired and actual levels of children’s participation in the committee’s discussions, as evaluated by professionals. In addition, the pupils’ satisfaction with the discussion process was evaluated, based on the professionals’ perceptions. Furthermore, the research analyzed which socioeconomic, cultural and occupational variables correlated with the degree of students’ participation in and satisfaction with the process.

The major finding was that many of the adults responsible for the implementation of the reform do not believe in its principles and are even opposed to child participation. In their discussions, child participation was poor.

The conclusion drawn from the study is that legislation alone is not enough when implementing a controversial reform. Spreading of this new social norm must be accompanied by efforts to promote the concept of child participation among the professionals who implement it.

Most research on information and communication technologies (ICT) differences has been related to gender and ethnicity, and to a lesser extent religious affiliation. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this field of research by situating the discussion in the context of British Muslims and extending current research into ICT differences beyond gender and ethnicity.

This paper explores the ICT differences in access and use by British Muslim teenage girls at Islamic faith schools, and ICTs’ perceived influence on learning. The qualitative research was undertaken by conducting 45 semi-structured interviews with British Muslim teenage girls in Islamic faith schools.

The study provides tentative findings that Islamic faith schools are not only framed by the wider diverse Muslim community, but also by the supplementary schooling of madrasahs. The findings suggest that the home use of ICTs was reinforced rather than compensated for by the Islamic faith schools. This seemed to inhibit many pupils’ access to online educational resources. The authors found that didactic instruction was prevalent and this provided tentative insights into the types of digital inequity experienced by many pupils.

The research into ICT differences in the UK adopted the premise that the unity in Muslim identity increasingly transcends ethnicity and gender in the Muslim community.

Pupils with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) face many challenges to achieving their educational potential, including difficulties with social interaction, communication, flexibility of thought and anxiety management. Handheld interactive technologies such as iDevices (iPods, iPhones and iPads) could offer a non‐stigmatising tool that could be used to complement or replace existing support strategies. This study aims to investigate how iDevices could be used by teaching assistants (TAs) to support pupils with ASD in a mainstream secondary school.

The project used an action research approach. Six TAs used the iDevices and selected applications (apps) in their work with pupils with ASD. The TAs commented on how the iDevices supported their role and the usefulness of different apps and features by using daily diary sheets. The apps supported pupils in the following ways: curriculum support, visual structure, organisation, communication, social interaction, anxiety reduction, relaxation, reward, and motivation.

A thematic analysis of the diary sheets showed that the most frequent uses of the iDevices were to develop communication, practise key skills, increase independence and to offer alternative activities. Quantitative analysis showed that TAs considered the iDevices to be very useful or useful on the overwhelming majority of occasions.

Future considerations of implementing interactive technological interventions in schools include the provision of training, IT support and individual planning to ensure iDevices are best utilised to address individual pupil needs.

The paper shows some of the ways that TAs can use this increasingly popular technology to support ASD pupils in mainstream schools.