Reframing student agency: from voice to design in South Korea’s competency-based curriculum reform

A notable concept in the global discourse on curriculum reform is that of ‘student agency’. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) introduced this concept in its Education 2030 project, a vision for curriculum—especially the curriculum in schools—in an increasingly uncertain future. Since the introduction of the project, the emphasis on the individual student’s role in learning has grown in global significance. The issues of how to interpret this somewhat unfamiliar concept in the East and how to reflect it in national curriculum policy have emerged as important matters. Within South Korea’s unique education system, the discourse about student agency has exerted a rhetorical power that emphasizes student choice and student voice in Korean national curriculum policy. This article aims to examine how the global curricular vision of student agency has been interpreted in South Korea’s particular context and to criticize the philosophical assumptions embedded in it with respect to the establishment of the individual student’s subjectivity in learning. To achieve this purpose, first I explore the meaning and characteristics of student agency in the OECD Education 2030 project. Next, I examine the dynamics of constructing student identity in Korean educational policies. Finally, I critically review the philosophical assumptions underlying the issue of students’ subjectivity in learning.

Increasing opportunities for student agency helps to improve students' ownership of their learning, ability to advocate for themselves, engagement, and application of real-world concepts. Many factors influence students' motivation to learn-including opportunities to experience agency and teachers' backgrounds in utilizing student agency. When students have agency and are interested in what they are learning, their learning accelerates. It is necessary to provide explicit instruction on how to learn and create authentic learning opportunities for students in this paradigm shift. This study required an understanding of teachers' shared lived experiences and the opportunities provided for students to act as agents of their learning, as well as teachers' perceptions of the value of student agency within their classrooms. This phenomenological study explored eight teachers' shared lived experiences with student agency in their classrooms at a democratic school. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, the researcher's field notes, and an artifact review. The data was analyzed using Descriptive and In Vivo coding. The findings of this phenomenological study resulted in three themes: (a) Student Voice, (b) Freedoms and Responsibilities, and (c) Teacher Engagement. Three results emerged from the data: (a) shared vision and philosophy are essential to establish a culture that values student agency; (b) schools must intentionally dedicate time and opportunities for students to practice using their agency, and (c) teachers must model expectations while providing explicit instruction in student agency for students to be successful agents of their own learning. Recommendations for increasing the use of student agency developed from the results of this qualitative study: (a) teachers require professional learning opportunities for how to engage students in using agency; (b) schools must model intrinsically motivating behaviors for teachers by teaching them to be agents of their learning; (c) schools must build explicit agentic learning experiences into the curriculum, and (d) teachers must provide intentional time and opportunities for students to use their agency. The results of this study can further the discussion of increasing students' ability to act as agents of their learning.

With growing attention to student agency in academic and policy discourse, international education has become a prominent context for examining how students navigate new cultural, academic, linguistic and social environments. However, much of this discussion attributes student agency to the ‘international’ aspect, while overlooking the transformative experiences of the ‘education’ inherent in higher education itself. This study explores international mobility as an embodiment of agency for student self‐formation through engagement with academic knowledge—what I term academic self‐formation. Drawing on multi‐sited ethnography with six South Korean students in the United Kingdom and seven in South Korea, this study examines how mobility enables students to reposition themselves in relation to disciplinary knowledge structures. The findings demonstrate that mobility is both shaped by and shapes students' engagement with knowledge. This paper reconceptualises cross‐border mobility as student agency situated within knowledge structures, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the academic and epistemic dimensions of international higher education.

Student voice has the potential to prompt creative and transformative teacher professional learning and practice. However, contemporary conditions of education – including policy priorities and institutional constraints – shape how student voice is taken up. This article draws on data from an evaluation study of a student voice programme (‘Teach the Teacher’) as enacted in two Australian schools. Notwithstanding the possibilities of student voice, reductive interpretations of teacher’s work risk translating student voice into thin practices; the teacher becomes envisioned as technician who needs to fill their ‘toolbox’ and find ‘what works’ by listening to students. Analysing what is said and unsaid about student voice for teacher professional learning in interviews with school leaders and teachers, as well as focus groups with students, this article explores the problematics of mobilising student voice for teacher professional learning. Questions are raised for those seeking to promote reciprocal intergenerational learning in democratic schools.

Student voice is so much more than feedback and evaluations; rather, it involves bringing students into the teaching-learning conversation: welcoming them as they are, valuing their experiences and contributions, and socially co-constructing knowledge within the curriculum space itself. Pedagogy and ethics need to be nurtured and developed to facilitate student agency and voice - and that is the role of our Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (PGCert) in Higher Education programme. This conceptual paper explores the transformative impact of the programme as a case study of liberatory and experiential pedagogy that fosters student voice from within: with staff-as-students. Drawing on collaborative contributions from current and past PGCert participants, the paper weaves together short vignettes to reveal how co-created teaching, learning, and assessment practices have fostered student voice within participants - and how this, in turn, has allowed them to meaningfully integrate student voice, agency, and action into their own teaching and in support of their students.

ABSTRACTStudent voice is a concept and a set of approaches that position students alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice. Student voice and student agency are closely linked when school stakeholders connect the sound of students speaking with students having the power to influence practices and analyses of education. In this article I draw on empirical studies conducted in a range of contexts to present an overview of approaches to student voice that foster student agency. These approaches focus on students working with teachers and researchers to analyze classroom practice, engage in research through various methods, and author and coauthor texts, all with the goal of maximizing and democratizing education for everyone involved. Implications of this discussion include suggestions for teachers, school principals, teacher educators, and researchers regarding how to support student voice such that it fosters student agency.

In the realm of Philippine education, the status of student voice remains a subject of academic inquiry and policy discourses. The central goal of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the extent to which the voice of senior high school students at St. Paul University Manila is included in academic and non-academic decision-making processes of the school. The study collected pertinent data from A total of 164 respondents who participated in the survey, comprising 145 senior high school students, 7 full-time teachers, 8 support personnel, and 4 administrators. For the qualitative phase, 54 participants were involved in the interview process. This group included 35 SHS students, 7 full-time teachers, 8 support personnel, and 4 administrators., as their perspectives are integral to formulating an effective student voice inclusion model. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, specifically utilizing the exploratory sequential design. Surveys and interviews were used to gather data on the perceptions and experiences of stakeholders regarding student voice. The findings indicate that senior high school students, teachers, support personnel, and administrators recognize student voice as an essential element that fosters inclusion, connection, and impacts overall well-being. The study identifies various facilitators and challenges to student voice within the school community, with communication barriers being a significant obstacle. The proposed student voice inclusion model emphasizes creating dedicated spaces for student expression, promoting active student participation in class discussions, valuing and engaging with student ideas, and translating student feedback into tangible actions. The study provides recommendations, including organizing workshops, establishing a task force, implementing a structured feedback mechanism, creating a Student Voice Committee, and developing a formal policy to guide student voice inclusion. The findings and recommendations contribute to the understanding and implementation of student voice in educational settings, promoting inclusivity and empowerment.

The past decade has seen an increased focus on student voice in physical education; yet, the majority reflects the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of agency of secondary-level students. It has been suggested that the perspectives and experiences of students in primary physical education remain largely absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to answer the question “what peer-reviewed data on student voice in primary physical education was published between January 1990 and March 2020?” This article provides a map of 89 articles that accessed student voice in primary physical education. Conclusions highlight a need for democratic possibilities for primary students to engage and contribute to their physical education learning experiences as well as a continued exploration of the implementation and impact of authentic methods of accessing and responding to student voice in primary physical education.

Evolving conceptions of the purposes of higher education suggest the need for assessment practices that contribute to preparing students to navigate complex social-ecological challenges. Though shifts in assessment discourse have begun to respond to this need, further examination of the role of students in assessment processes is required. One strategy that has been highlighted is rubric co-design, in which students and instructors interactively deliberate assessment criteria. However, the literature shows that student voices are typically limited in these processes. To address this gap, this study advances a student-led rubric co-design process to promote student agency and learning. Principles from sustainability are applied to orient the activities of students in this approach by emphasizing the participative, normative and integrative features of the process. A formative intervention was conducted in an undergraduate course focused on professional skill development. Data were collected through individual and group reflections, with reflexive thematic analysis applied to develop themes that represented the ways that students navigated their experiences in the assessment process. Findings demonstrate the promise of the approach in enhancing student agency and promoting self-formation as emerging professionals, while articulating the phases and strategies that shape students’ leading role in rubric co-design processes.

With advancements in technological innovation, the interconnectedness of the global economies and citizens is now inextricable. Education has been affected by globalisation, opening opportunities for more participation, particularly through online learning. Social cleavages and access for social justice are often addressed through admission-policy reform in the higher-education sector. While this is one aspect of increasing access to higher education, this chapter explores inequality as epistemic injustice in online programmes. Curriculum design and pedagogical approaches that embrace diverse students' epistemic positions enrich the learning experience while including students' realities. Student agency may allow for visibility of diverse students and also provide for the inclusion of their epistemic stances. Student agency can also lead to flexible, inclusive curriculum content. Based on literature, this chapter presents ways in which the student voice may be included in online learning curriculum, pedagogy and learning content.

Student agency in assessment is evident when students make assessment choices, and their voices inform decisions. This paper presents an in-depth case study of a high performing school that sought student voice to reform its assessment culture to enhance student agency. Secondary students in an Australian school were invited to draw a visual metaphor: if assessment were a food, what would it be? Responses were analysed to identify: What can be learnt about assessment culture from students’ drawings and comments? And how did student voice inform changes in school assessment practices and assessment culture? Six years later, the student ideas were revisited by a school leader to identify how cultural and structural conditions for student agency within the assessment culture had changed. Using visual methodologies with students provided insightful commentary on how assessment practices may be modified to support learning and the challenges of engaging in assessment culture reform.

This research examines the nature, enactment, and assessment of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) models in the United States and South Korea to highlight lessons and strategies that Kenya can utilize to improve CBC implementation. A scoping review of various databases was conducted to search for peer-reviewed articles documenting empirical evidence on implementing and assessing CBC education models in the USA, South Korea, and Kenya. Two researchers from each country screened, extracted the data, and evaluated the records using a custom quality rating scale following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension checklist for scoping reviews. Evidence from the USA and South Korea indicated that the implementation of CBC resulted in improved problem-solving skills, lifelong learning skills, self-efficacy, and autonomy in learners. There is limited evidence from Kenya on the effect of CBC models on learners’ key competencies. Challenges in the three countries include lack of teacher training opportunities, low funding for implementation, inconsistent pedagogical approaches and assessment techniques. The Kenyan government and education stakeholders can address the CBC implementation challenges by using evidence from other studies and countries on teacher training and aligning goals at the school, local authority, regional authority, and national levels.

Calls for educators to promote student voice and agency in classrooms often overlook the importance of the policy milieu in which teaching and learning is performed. In this article we interrogate the constitution of student, teacher and researcher subjectivities within student voice research. Working with Stephen Ball’s neoliberal technologies of reform (technologies of the market and performativity (including technologies of the self); implemented through acculturation), we take up the notion that those of us working in education are complicit in the reforms we work to disrupt and conceptualise research as a technology of reform. We analyse performativity mechanisms at play in our student voice research that produced students, teachers and researchers as neoliberal policy subjects even whilst working toward the democratic intent of student voice. We contribute a heuristic with which scholars and educators can interrogate technologies of reform at work in their student voice work.

The purpose of this article is to discuss student voice as a meaningful pedagogical practice in elementary physical education to promote student agency and learning. Four questions are answered: What is student voice? How can authentic student voice be accessed? How and where might student voice be enacted in practice? And, how can student voice be listened and responded to inform our practice? Scaffolded strategies that can be implemented in practice, over time, to build the capacity of students to genuinely express their voice as well as the capacity of teachers to genuinely access and enact student voice to impact practice and student outcomes are suggested.

This article reports on an international mixed-method study on student leadership that sought to maximize opportunities for students to be engaged as researchers. Applying the conceptual lens of student voice, we reflect on students’ contributions to each stage of the research. This included efforts to integrate the components of Mitra’s ‘pyramid of student’ voice – listening, collaboration, and leadership – into the research design, data collection, and analysis. We worked with ‘research ambassador’ teams consisting of two students and one teacher at 12 schools in Australia, Argentina, China, Chile, India (two schools), New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United States. The students enhanced the research quality by playing an integral role in an online survey (n = 8,455) and interviews (n = 114) with students and teachers worldwide. The successes involved illuminating student perspectives, gathering contextual knowledge, and (potentially) overcoming power disparities. The pitfalls were a steep learning curve, navigating cross-cultural differences, and persistent power disparities. Our recommendations centred on maintaining a balance between adult researchers sharing foundational knowledge and fostering student voice. To conclude, we discuss the role of student-adult research partnerships and student representation in furthering student voice, as well as how other school stakeholders could contribute to research.