How Can We Improve Through Pupil Participation? An Infants School Experience

This paper is part of a research project and forms part of a doctoral thesis in development whose aim was to promote and encourage improvement in schools based on the student voice. We believe that student participation is essential in order to progress towards inclusive educational communities. We present the main conclusions obtained in two experiences developed in infant education which took place in Cantabria (Spain). These have enabled us to demonstrate how children's age is not an obstacle to listening to the student voice. We will focus on the analysis of reflections concerning the choice and development of different strategies for student consultation, specially which we have called indirect or mediated consultation strategies and the main difficulties encountered in the process of authentic listening to the voice of the youngest students.