Developing a Pedagogy of Voice
The cornerstone of equity work
Care is also the actions we take that say “You matter to me. What you think, how you feel, what is happening in your life is important to me, too.”
- Dr. Shawn A. Ginwright
The cornerstone of equity work, and really a core aspect of healing and promoting well-being, is empowering and amplifying voices, especially the voices of people who have long been silenced by those in power. Empowering voice is an essential way to show people that they are valuable and worthy of being seen, heard, and understood - a way to honor their dignity. It’s important to consider, “Whose voices are most unheard and yet potentially most instrumental to solving the equity challenges you face?”1
To do this in education, we need to be developing a pedagogy of voice. According to Shane Safir in Street Data, pedagogy of voice “shifts the locus of learning and power to the student. [It creates] learning experiences that foster healing, cognitive growth, and agency.” It sees students as co-designers in their own education and values student dialogue and rich student work.2
A pedagogy of voice stands in contrast to the more prevalent (and often expected) pedagogy of compliance. Common characteristics of a pedagogy of compliance include:
Lecture-style instruction
Students in rows looking at the teacher as a knowledge expert
Teachers carrying the cognitive load
Minimal instructional conversations (both teacher-student and student-student)
Brazilian educator and philosopher Paolo Freire described a pedagogy of compliance as a “banking model of education.” In the banking model, the teacher (the main subject and active participant) deposits knowledge into the students’ brains (passive participants) with little, if any, consideration of preexisting knowledge. The purpose of this model is to develop compliant, manageable students who will continue to be compliant and manageable as they enter the workforce. As Safir says, “Compliance-driven pedagogy leads to student disengagement.”3
In order to break free of the pedagogy of compliance, we need to feel a sense of agency as educators. One barrier to this is the ever-present pressure that test scores and grades are the sum-total of what matters for students (which only serve to uphold the “testing-industrial complex”). In order to develop a pedagogy of voice, we must resist that pressure and focus on viewing students as whole human beings, not merely a grade or a test score. Additionally, we need to address the fears that arise as we pursue this work. There is always a fear of change, butmore salient in this case, is the fear of losing control. We sense that if we co-create learning in our classroom, things will spin out of control. Often, however, students become more engaged when they are able to have a say in at least some aspect of their learning.
Safir shares six rules to guide a pedagogy of voice that “will release you from the shackles of compliance.”4 I’ll highlight two:
Ritualize reflection and revision: Regular opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and revise their work (especially after receiving feedback) can accelerate growth over time. One way I’ve been putting this into practice is by using exit tickets (or sometimes an entry task the next day). My current favorite prompt is “Something I found interesting and/or surprising about _____ is….”
Circle up: As Safir says, “Circles represent the village coming together for dialogue and signal to the learner: ‘You belong here, just as everyone around you belongs here. I want to see your face and hear your voice.’ “ 5The circle conversations can have an academic/content focus or can be about the classroom community. In all my classroom circles right now, we’ve been sharing “It bugs me when people…. I wish they would….” Then we talk about how we can be more considerate of others based on what we’re hearing everyone share.
In titling this essay, I wrote developing - meaning in process - on purpose. This is a work in progress. Two things are important to keep in mind as well. First, a pedagogy of voice happens in connection and is most authentic when relationships are built on trust. Students won’t share honestly with people they don’t trust, and there isn’t true pedagogy of voice without honesty. Secondly, it’s important to have some type of feedback loop. If we’re seeking to hear student voice and want to co-create learning with them, they need to see that their input is making a difference. They may notice the changes taking place, but it's important to be explicit that the changes are based on their voice.
What are ways you already have a pedagogy of voice? What’s a small next step you can take to further develop it?
I’m excited for us to be able to learn from each other as I share what I’ve learned. It’s important that sharing and learning be welcoming and inclusive.
Expectations for comments:
Be curious
Be kind
In case you missed it - recent essays from Cultivating Justice:
Safir, S., Dugan, J., & Wilson, C. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (pp. 73). Corwin.
Safir, S., Dugan, J., & Wilson, C. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (pp. 107). Corwin.
Safir, S., Dugan, J., & Wilson, C. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (pp. 108). Corwin.
Safir, S., Dugan, J., & Wilson, C. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (pp. 108). Corwin.
Safir, S., Dugan, J., & Wilson, C. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (pp. 115). Corwin.