Student-driven teaching and educational action research combined: an approach to teaching development and student empowerment

This paper presents an action research study in a student-driven context at a university. The study focused on students organizing and leading workshops for other students. We aimed to support students in their teaching, facilitate their reflection on their teaching experiences, and contribute to their self-esteem and empowerment. The basis for our research became reflection sessions with two student groups responsible for a series of workshops (six students in total), in addition to gathering data about our context – student-driven teaching in workshops. Context data included open questionnaires for students, staff interviews, planning group meetings and a focus group discussion with other students involved in workshop organization. Reflection sessions were intended to create awareness about students' practices as well as provide a possibility to develop their teaching. Our data demonstrate how this student-driven context had implications for the educational approach in the workshops, organizing, and the educational action research project. Ultimately, we discuss how the educational action research contributed to student agency and empowerment and what we learned about developing supportive processes in a student-driven context.