Schools in Croatia – training module on student voice with teachers
On Tuesday 25th of November, we gathered with 14 teachers from five partner schools for one day in Zagreb to wrapp up our Teacher training program that started two weeks ago.
The final module covered the following topic: “START THE CHANGE – From voice to the action: how young people initiate changes“ that focused on deeper understanding of the concept of students voice, its historical perspective and also sharing examples of good practice.
The lead trainer Ana Munivrana facilitated one session with teachers by exploring their own voice in changes they would like to see in their schools. This session helped participants to identify the changes they would like to work on in their schools during the duration of project and it helped to develop discussions and exchange of experiences among schools. Višnja Pavlović introduced and emphasized the meaning of student voice and its connection to the Article 12 of Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and gave insights on the existing research on student voice, its benefits and challenges. Together with teachers we explored the impact of student voice on students’ wellbeing and also influence on the school community if the student voice is used to bring out diversity of voices that exist in each school.
On that issue, Marina Brkić was explaining the support for student projects and the role of the school in the process of working with student on their project ideas. She also presented teachers with the opportunities of identifying the topics of next training sessions as they can better identify what kind of support they need in next phases in the project.
We took advantage of live training and following epidemiological recommendations, teachers worked together in their school groups on several issues. These were some of their impressions regarding the module:
“It was important to me that I heard examples of good practice and got to know the synthesis of active participation and the voice of students even better.“
“An opportunity to share experiences, to hear the problems of other schools.“
“This module was interesting to me, it was interactive, we heard and shared good and bad practices from schools and we learned a lot that way.“
In showing some concrete examples of good practices that already had happened in some schools, we hope to boost teacher’s confidence and motivation for their school actions and future project activities. Further meetings are going to continue in January 2021 and in meanwhile the participants will be introduced with the findings of focus groups implemented with students in their schools, as this report will be informative for planning the further work with students.
