Empowering student voice in a secondary school: Character Education through project-based learning with students as teachers

This project explores ‘meaningful’ student voice development in an evaluation of project-based Character lessons taught by teachers and students. In the context of a secondary school in a deprived urban ward, within a Multi-Academy Trust using value-based instruction, this evaluation is grounded in the notion that student empowerment is essential for student development. Challenging both consultative approaches to student voice and didactic values teaching, this project demonstrates that schools should create freer spaces for students to collaborate and develop their sense of agency. Based on a participatory action research model, the evaluation employs a combination of ‘students as teachers’ and project-based learning approaches. The findings demonstrate that delivering Character lessons in these ways can encourage students to develop their voices through increased engagement and active listening. Moreover, within a wider school culture valuing meaningful student voice development, these approaches to Character lessons hold the potential to empower students and enable them to become more community minded.