ABSTRACT
Due to the structure of the education system today, educators are often too mired in politics, policies and procedures to consider the broad possibilities of student engagement in higher education. Luckily, emerging literature supports the positive, powerful potential of going beyond simply allowing students to express themselves by strategically, systematically positioning them as sustained partners throughout the entirety of education systems. This chapter introduces meaningful student involvement, a theory of change that affects student voice and student engagement by catalyzing roles for students through meta-level education transformation, highlighting best practices, and examining roadblocks along the way. Examining research and practice around the world, it will show how students have been proven to be effective agents of change when they are genuinely authorized to transform education through deliberate efforts to engage them as partners.
