Student voices

How are student voices represented in Words of Wisdom?

An important goal of the Words of Wisdom project was to include student voices in both the project planning and outputs. This is because students have a unique perspective on learning and teaching and should therefore have an opportunity to influence how these practices are realised (Tuhkala, A. et al., 2021). Engaging with students helps to support meaningful opportunities to develop the UNESCO sustainability competency of ‘collaboration’ and contributes towards the goal of empowering learners who will one day enable social transformation.

The role that students have played in the Words of Wisdom project is outlined in the image below.

The table shows that student involvement was through student volunteers who reviewed the process and student voting.

The winning Words of Wisdom submission(s) from the 'student voting' stage are indicated with a badge.

Students were also given the choice of an 'opt in' to allow us to use quotes taken from the 'student voting' stage and these have been added throughout each of the areas of the Words of Wisdom compendium.

References

Tuhkala, A., Ekonoja, A. and Hämäläinen, R. (2021). Tensions of student voice in higher education: Involving students in degree programme curricula design. Innovations in education and teaching international. 58(4), 451–461. doi:10.1080/14703297.2020.1763189