Acting upon student voice-based teaching assessment initiatives: an account of participatory action research for teacher professional learning

Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching for student learning improvement. However, research suggests no significant change in teachers’ practices following such student voice-based assessment initiatives, noting their struggle to act upon it. Utilizing the pyramid of student voice as a key framework, we investigate how a Participatory Action Research (PAR)-based professional development (PD) shapes a group of Australian secondary teachers’ interaction with SPS and professional learning. Analyses of the teachers’ interviews, research projects, and reflective notes about their use of SPS illustrate how the PAR-based PD informed their practice, specifically: (i) transforming ‘survey fatigue’ to increased student voice; (ii) contemplating personal, professional, and political entanglements; and (iii) (re)building teacher agency—employing SPS as collective learning tools of professional empowerment rather than accountability measures of teaching. Implications include pathways to strengthen teachers’ agency—honoring their professionalism—in assessment spaces increasingly shaped by student voices.