ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces pupil voice by presenting different ways of understanding what pupil voice is and the inclusion of pupil voice in policy and legislation. Pupil voice is a concept which tries to capture and formalise the natural tendency teachers and other educational professionals have towards listening to children and young people. M. Fielding, a leading author in pupil voice, outlined these different perspectives as person centred versus high performance. The appeal of a person-centred/empowerment conceptualisation of pupil voice is the belief that recognising pupils have valid perspectives and opinions is humanising and democratizing. The high performance/policy technology narrative for pupil voice can be viewed as an antidote to these critiques, as children and young people are not consulted as a moral obligation. There is little research exploring co-production with children and young people within educational services in comparison to the health and care services.
