Understanding philosophical perspectives of ‘voice’ for better student staff co-creation

Co-creation has widely been accepted as an essential model of student engagement in teaching, learning, and governance in higher education. It is embedded in a number of spaces within the classroom and institutional structures for improving quality and governance, processes and opportunities, for nurturing greater personal engagement with studies and facilitating student success, belonging and inclusion. In this paper, we bring a philosophical lens to the discussion by highlighting issues of authority, power, inequality and injustice of voice and present relational pedagogies of voice as a way of ensuring foundations of equality and inclusion for successful co-creation. In doing so, we draw on philosopher Stanley Cavell's notion of acknowledgement to develop an understanding of voice that places demands on the listener. In whatever context, it is only by developing spaces to be heard and acknowledged that teachers and learners can forge connections and mutual respect at the heart of co-creation.