A voice for life: nurturing civic participation through oracy education

This brief “talking point” article makes a case for the role of oracy education in developing the attributes needed for civic voice. At a moment of opportunity, as evidenced in widespread policy-level endorsement, it is timely to retain a focus on meaningful purposes and contexts for oracy in the face of possible reductive, performative interpretations. Drawing on Douglas Barnes’s call to ground oracy in living issues and the world outside the school, the article argues for the historical and potential alignment of many aspects of learning to, through and about talk with the cultivation of civic participation. Five attributes associated with civic voice are proposed: personal confidence and agency; authentic self-expression; an openness to multiple perspectives; a deliberative orientation to ideas and arguments and a commitment to making a positive difference. The article illustrates how, while aspirational, these attributes are also discernible in moments of everyday practice, which can form their foundations. It is suggested that consideration of these attributes might be used by schools in three ways: to create occasions for civic talk more consciously; to deconstruct and understand examples of well-developed practice and to recognise the everyday foundational elements of civic voice existing already in everyday classroom practice.