ABSTRACT
Much has been written about embedding voice within educational settings, but little has been written about how this might be undertaken as a whole school approach. Drawing on theoretical ideas from Wenger's notions of ‘communities of practice’ and Kemmis’ notions of ‘architectures of practice’, the chapter describes emergent findings of ‘relatings’, ‘doings’ and ‘sayings’. The research indicated that professional trust between teachers within a whole school community of trust is essential for the development of effective and holistic ‘relatings’ within a school. Focusing on ‘doings’ surfaced the importance of two pedagogical tools utilised by the school community: the Spirals of Inquiry Approach and a commitment to children contributing to leading the learning. Finally, when focusing on ‘saying’, the analysis indicated the importance for the whole school community to value multiple modes of communication and the requirement to honour diversity within the community. Findings from this research project confirm that only through including both staff and children in the process would this approach be effectively embedded across the whole school and can voice be used as a means of making an educational community more inclusive.
