A key aspect of inclusive education is empowering all involved actors by giving them a voice in order to become agents of their own affairs, including their own learning process. Recognising and promoting the agency of students and their families ensures that they have a meaningful role in shaping educational processes and decisions. As the European Agency (2022, p. 23) states, “The term ‘agency’ means having influence to make transformational change within the educational environment. Learners and families have agency when their voices are given weight in educational discussions. Furthermore, ‘active agency’ is when learners or families are able to initiate discussions, take action and have shared power to influence decisions and bring about transformative change.”
According to this understanding, students’ agency is about having an influence on the process of transforming aspects of education: being able and having the opportunity to initiate discussions, to influence decisions and to take action about their own learning context (EASNIE, 2022, p. 23)
In the I CO-COPE knowledge base, the key concept “students’ agency” was highlighted along three dimensions: ethics and values, policies, and practice and measurement (Silveira-Maia et al., 2025).
Ethics and values dimension
The concept of students’ agency has been widely discussed and linked to their right to civic participation and to live in a democracy. Based on respective legislations, schools have an important responsibility to prepare students for life in a democracy by creating a context in which they experience and participate democratically as well as become participatory actors in their communities. Participation and active citizenship are “about having the right, the means, the space and the opportunity and where necessary the support to participate in and influence decisions and engage in actions and activities to contribute so as to building a better society.” (Council of Europe, 2015, p. 5)
In the context of inclusive education, it is important to reach all learners as partners (Esteban, 2022). The voices of all students need to be taken into account when making decisions, affecting their learning and development.
Policies dimension
From a policies standpoint, the right of students to be agentic, is claimed as a transformation towards inclusive systems characterized by democratic educational communities that include children in “decision-making on those aspects that affect them, according to their progressive autonomy, while validating their knowledge and experiences” (Esteban, 2022, p.43). Democratisation of school life is then a main driving force of policies concerning students’ agency.
In inclusive schools, a movement towards greater participation and empowerment of young people can be recognized (Rose and Shevlin, 2004; Mitra, 2001; 2018) as a means of developing citizenship, and as appropriate preparation for participation in democratic societies in adult life (Devine, 2002; Roche, 1999, in Lundy, 2007).
Practice and measurement dimension
In the field of practice, the right of students’ agency is realised in creating “a full range of everyday opportunities in which young people can listen and be listened to, make decisions and take responsibility for both the day‐to‐day and for creating a better future” (Fielding, 2011, p. 50).
As proposed by Esteban (2022), the gradual nature of participation can be translated into opportunities that start with spaces for joint deliberation regarding their own learning process as well as in the context of class‐group management, and move progressively towards co‐designing of the curriculum and school spaces and towards co-governance by being informed, consulted and actively and equally involved in school-related decisions.
Click here to see a visualisation of all three dimensions.
References
Council of Europe. (2015). Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. https://rm.coe.int/168071b4d6
Divine, D. (2002). Children’s Citizenship and the Structuring of Adult-child Relations in the Primary School. Childhood, 9(3), 303-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568202009003044
European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2022. Voices into Action – The Voices of Learners and their Families in Educational Decision-Making: Literature Review. (D.C. Murdoch, A. Mangiaracina and A. Kefallinou, eds.). Odense, Denmark
Esteban, M. (2022). Children’s Participation, Progressive Autonomy, and Agency for Inclusive Education in Schools. Social Inclusion, 10(2), 43-53. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v10i2.4936
Fielding, M. (2011). La voz del alumnado y la inclusión educativa: una aproximación democrática radical para el aprendizaje intergeneracional. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 25(1), 31-61. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/274/27419147003.pdf
Mitra, D. (2018). Student voice in secondary schools: the possibility for deeper change. Journal of Educational Administration, 56(1), 473-487. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-01-2018-0007
Mitra, D. L. (2001) Opening the floodgates: Giving students a voice in school reform. Forum, 43(2), 91-94. https://doi.org/10.2304/forum.2001.43.2.14
Rose, R., & Shevlin, M. (2004). Encouraging voices: Listening to young people who have been marginalised. Support for learning, 19(4), 155-161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0268-2141.2004.00341.x
Silveira-Maia, M., Neto, C., Sanches-Ferreira, M., Alves, S., Durães, H., Breyer, C., Vandenbussche, E., Boonen, H., Zacharová, Z., Ferková, Š., Schukoff, P., Unterreiner, S., & Teijsen, E. (2025). Mapping CoP for inclusion: a Knowledge Base. Instituto Politécnico do Porto. https://doi.org/10.26537/e.ipp.136
Lundy, L., 2007. “Voice” is not enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), 927–942.
