Student influence as a threat or a possibility? : An interview study of teachers' ideas about student influence in elementary school

This report describes an interview study of Swedish elementary school teacher’s view on stu-dent influence. The objective is to find out about teachers' approach to student influence, what do they think happens with students that are allowed to influence and what are the negotiables and non-negotiables when it comes to student influence in elementary education? And do the teachers really want their students to have influence? According to the official policy documents for the Swedish school system the Swedish school shall work towards a democratic school. Not only should the students be educated about de-mocracy but they should also learn to use democratic values and processes. However, in these policy documents there are no concrete guidelines as to which extent or how a teacher should work with student influence. It is up to the individual teacher to interpret this on his/her own. In my report I wanted to show what the teachers say about the possibilities and threats that they feel and experience with the practice of student influence over the school teaching. The report shows that the approach that teachers have towards student influence affects to what extent their students are allowed to influence over the school teaching. The conclusion of the report is that the Swedish school still has old values that are hard to shake and that teachers are afraid of what might happen if they allow their students to influence the school teaching too much