With or without you? Exploring student perception survey assessment data as a teacher-student (un)shared process

Student voice initiatives such as Student Perception Surveys (SPS) are increasingly promoted by education authorities to assess teaching for learning improvement. Nevertheless, considerable ambiguity surrounds teacher and student consultation and involvement during the implementation of and response to SPS, suggesting students’ scepticism in the power of their voice and teachers’ struggle to act upon this important assessment data. Utilising Fielding’s Students as Researchers framework —complemented with Dewey’s Problem-Solving method —this study explores Australian secondary teachers’ experiences of researching SPS with their students, as co-researchers, in their efforts to act on such surveys. Teachers’ interviews and their SPS-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects reveal two key findings regarding the teacher-student consultation and involvement in the survey unpacking process. Firstly, the teachers promoted students as SPS discussants and co-researchers but avoided them as researchers (initiators); advancing democratic participation for educational development yet employing an active conscious strategy to protect themselves and/or their students in the SPS research process. Secondly, findings portray assessment puzzles of practice, demonstrating how despite declaring ‘survey fatigue,’ the teachers administered additional surveys as a heuristic SPS problem solving approach. Implications include guidance for education authorities regarding improvement of teacher learning through the dissemination of student voice assessment data-based research.