Learning about Learner Voice in Other Contexts 

Our panel provided a space for researchers to come together to discuss Learner Voice mechanisms for adult learners in different contexts. 

Giulia Elardo shared her research on using “dialogue tables” across Italian universities to explore students’ attitudes towards personal and collective participation in Learner Voice structures.  

Carmel Berendi spoke about how the practice of learning festivals, within the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, facilitates ‘bottom up’ spaces of democratic participation and democratic learning for adult learners.  

Kevin McCabe showed how the increased use of digital application systems for course registration excludes digitally vulnerable learners, arguing that learners need to be meaningfully heard in decision-making processes about the designs of these systems.  

Making Connections with Researchers 

Beyond our specific panel, the conference provided a fantastic opportunity to engage with contemporary education research in social inclusion, inequalities, and democracy, and to make connections with researchers working in similar fields.  

My own highlights included learning about “Casetta Rossa”, a self-managed community space located in Rome, where a community led Italian language school provides the basis for mutual recognition, intercultural learning, and everyday practices of democratic engagement.  

Similarly, the everyday practice of democracy animated reflections on a sit-strike organised by Afghan refugee youth in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2017. These interventions were a form of democratic learning in which the shared lived experience of participants translated into understanding about justice, rights and belonging.  

In-between the presentation panels, there were opportunities to talk with colleagues and learn more about the research they carry out, for example, discussing the challenges faced in carrying out a learner voice project in an Italian secondary school, or how collaborative research with learners can lead to shared understandings of the world.