Editorial: The challenge of student engagement: Beyond mainstream conceptions and practices

McGill Journal of Education, Spring 2003 by Butler-Kisber, Lynn, Portelli, John P

The final article by Earl and Sutherland provides a helpful summary of the results that most educational communities are experiencing because of the widespread, and sometimes turbulent change that is occurring as countries revision the relationships among government, schools, and parents in the process of educational reform. They suggest that in order to understand the profound impact that reform may be having on students it is necessary to listen to the students. They did this by conducting focus groups with students in six secondary schools in Ontario. Students indicated that the secondary school reform there had a serious impact on their lives. Among other things, the students experienced an increased amount of pressure and stress because of the compressed nature of the new curriculum. They expressed dissatisfaction with the reduction in curriculum choice, and worried about the impact early decisions would have on their futures. They shared how the reform raised the anxiety level in teachers, which had an indirect impact on them as well, and they lamented the loss of some of their favourite teachers who gave up their jobs as a result of these changes. Many of these responses resonate with the experiences of teachers and students who have gone through educational reform in other provinces and countries. Earl and Sutherland's work poignantly suggests another important avenue for involving the voices of students - that of educational change.

Our interest in student engagement and related issues was greatly influenced by our relatively recent involvement in a national project on "Student Engagement in Learning and School Life," a project funded by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation with additional support from the Vancouver Foundation. It was a privilege for us to work with a team of dedicated colleagues (Linda J. LaRocque, Carolyn M. Shields, William J. Smith, principal investigator, and Ann B. Vibert) and educators from all parts of the country. We learned a great deal from the conversations and discussions among ourselves, and with educators from the schools that participated in the project. But probably most importantly, we learned from the delegation of students from across the country that visited project schools and gave feedback on what we were finding to help us hone our work. In many ways the articles in this issue extend the work initiated by this project and examine some of the major questions that, partly due to time constraints, were not examined in the project.

Our own views about student engagement have changed as our involvement in this project progressed. And our positions continue to change. For us, the essays in this collection demonstrate that challenging and meaningful work about student engagement has to go beyond the mainstream conceptions and practices of engagement. The complexities of student engagement indicate that one cannot seriously deal with this concept without also inquiring into different ways of envisioning curriculum other than the accepted standardized one, seriously considering students perspectives and involvement, and the need to take democratic values more seriously both in curriculum and leadership matters. Ultimately, as Anderson, Bentley, Gallegos et al (1998) argue, "[i]n engaged classrooms both teachers and students must be willing to push themselves to uncover and examine authoritative discourses and how certain knowledges become 'subjugated knowledges'. . . . [S]tudents and teachers are engaged in a critique of power." (p.275). The same applies for research and inquiries into student engagement. Editing this collection has helped us to inquire further into central questions about engagement. We hope that these essays will be equally profitable to the readers.