Student Leadership and Student Government

Year 2022, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 1 - 37, 31.03.2022

Justin Patrick

https://doi.org/10.30828/real.951165

Cited By: 7

Abstract

Student leadership is often misconceptualized as merely a pedagogical exercise revolving around simulated political arenas with little to no immediate real political consequence. Other scholarship normalizes students as political outsiders who have to resort to dangerous, exhausting activism tactics for even minute advocacy victories due to their lack of structural representation in education decision-making. An analysis of student leadership in research and practice is presented according to an identified spectrum of low to high student power. This article argues that student leadership has great potential for real political action. The best structure for student leadership is argued to be democratic student government, as well as students having standing roles within education leadership structures. Furthermore, effective conceptions of student leadership must not only acknowledge its developmental aspects, but also account for the real politics inherent in student leadership activities. To conclude, a more political conception of student leadership and student government is advocated for so student leaders’ real political activities can be recognized and studied as such in education leadership discourse to prevent student exploitation and tokenism.

Keywords

student leadership, student government, student movements, education politics, political education, student activism

Supporting Institution

University of Toronto

References

• Altbach, P. G. (1970). The Student Internationals: An Analysis of International and Regional Student Organizations. Madison: Wisconsin University Department of Educational Policy Studies; Office of Education, Washington D.C. Bureau of Research.
• —. (1989). Perspectives on Student Political Activism. Comparative Education, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 97- 110.
• —. (1997). Student politics in America: A historical analysis. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, Inc.
• —. (2016). The Importance and Complexity of Students in Higher Education Governance. In Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism. Oxford: African Books Collective, pp. xi-xii.
• Altbach, P. G. & Luescher, T. M. (2020). Another Student Revolution? International Higher Education, no. 101, pp. 3–4.
• Archard, N. (2012). Student leadership development in Australian and New Zealand secondary girls’ schools: A staff perspective. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 15(1), 23–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.605472
• Ayers, B. (2013). Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident. Beacon Press.
• Bear Chief, A. (2016). My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: AU Press.
• Berman, H. A., Richardson/Kinewesquao, C., Canas, E., & Elliott, K. (Eds.). (2020). Everyday Violence in the Lives of Youth: Speaking Out and Pushing Back. Fernwood Publishing Company, Limited.
• Boren, M. E. (2001). Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203700242
• Brennan, J. & Shah, T. (2000). Quality assessment and institutional change: Experiences from 14 countries. Higher Education, Vol. 40.
• Brophy, M. (2017). Undergraduates Are Workers, Too. Jacobin https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/unions-campus-higher-education-organizing-college-students
• Brown, W., Gordon, P. E., & Pensky, M. (2018). Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries in Critical Theory (1st edition). University of Chicago Press.
• Bukowski, T. (1990). “Siger of Brabant, Anti-Theologian.” Franciscan Studies 50, p. 57-82.
• Burkett, J. (2014). The National Union of Students and transnational solidarity, 1958–1968. European Review of History: Revue Européenne d’histoire, 21(4), 539–555. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2014.933180
• Byrnes, C. (2010). Student Press Law Center | Editors fear funding cuts after stories on Ore. Student government corruption. Student Press Law Center. https://splc.org/2010/11/editors-fear-funding-cuts-after-stories-on-ore-student-government-corruption/
• Cain, B., Budke, J. M., Wood, K. J., Sweeney, N. T., & Schwessinger, B. (2014). How postdocs benefit from building a union. ELife, 3, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05614
• Calossi, E., & Coticchia, F. (2018). Students’ knowledge and perceptions of international relations and the ‘Model United Nations’: An empirical analysis. Acta Politica, 53(3), 409–428. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-017-0058-9
• Canadian Heritage. (2018). Prime Minister’s Youth Council. https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/prime-ministers-youth-council.html
• Caple, R. B. (1998). To mark the beginning. A social history of college student affairs. American Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc
• Carvallo, C. (2020). “Cooperate to win”: The influence of the Chilean student movement on the 2012 Budget Law. Social Movement Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1770066
• Cini, L. (2019). Disrupting the neoliberal university in South Africa: The #FeesMustFall movement in 2015. Current Sociology, 67(7), 942–959. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392119865766
• Coffey, A., & Lavery, S. (2018). Student leadership in the middle years: A matter of concern. Improving Schools, 21(2), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480217732223
• Commonwealth Secretariat. (2016). The State of Student Governance in the Commonwealth. https://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/inline/STATE%20OF%20STUDENT%20GOVERNANCE%20REPORT_FINAL%20PRINT%20VERSION.pdf Crane, R. M. (1969). Student governance and the issue of student freedom. In L. C. Vaccaro & J. T. Covert (Eds.), Student Freedom in American Higher Education. Columbia University: Teachers College Press
• Croft, L., & Seemiller, C. (2017). Developing Leadership Competencies. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2017(156), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20267
• Cuyjet, M. J. (1994). Student government as a provider of student services. New Directions for Student Services, 1994(66), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.37119946608
• Dunya News. (2020). National Youth Council to be formed under PM’s Chairmanship: Asad Umar. https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/574284-National-Youth-Council-to-be-formed-under-PM-Chairmanship-Asad-Umar
• Eagan, E. (2004). Teaching Student Activism. In Taking back the academy!: history of activism, history as activism. Edited by Jim Downs and Jennifer Manion. New York: Routledge, pp. 11-24.
• Fields, A. B. (1970) Student Politics in France; a Study of the Union Nationale Des Étudiants De France. New York: Basic.
• George, R. C. (2020). Holding It Down? The Silencing of Black Female Students in the Educational Discourses of the Greater Toronto Area. Canadian Journal of Education; Toronto, 43(1), 32–58.
• Global Student Government. (2021). Global Student Government. https://globalstudentgovernment.org/
• Godrej, F. (2014). Neoliberalism, militarization, and the price of dissent: Policing protest at the University of California. In P. Chatterjee & S. Maira (Eds.), The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent (pp. 125–144). University of Minnesota Press.
• Golden, D. C., & Schwartz, H. L. (1994). Building an ethical and effective relationship with student government leaders. New Directions for Student Services, 1994(66), 19–30.
• Gonzalez Vaillant, G., & Schwartz, M. (2019). Student Movements and the Power of Disruption. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 12(1), 112–141. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i1p112 Gordon, S. (1994). Encouraging Student Leadership. The International Schools Journal, 14(1), 43–51.
• Gosling, D. & D’Andrea, V. (2001). Quality Development: a new concept for higher education, The Sixth QHE Seminar: The End of Quality? Birmingham, May 25-26, 2001.
• Gould, J. L. (2009). Solidarity Under Siege: the Latin American Left, 1968. The American Historical Review 114, no. 2, pp. 348-375.
• Gregory, T. (2013). Solidarity for Their Own Good: Self-determination and the Canadian Federation of Students. studentunion.ca. http://www.studentunion.ca/solidarity-paper.pdf
• Griebler, U., & Nowak, P. (2012). Student councils: a tool for health promoting schools? Characteristics and effects. Health Education, vol. 112, no. 2, pp. 105-132.
• Hart, R. (1992). Children’s participation from tokenism to citizenship (Innocenti Papers 4). Florence, Italy: UNICEF.
• Harvey, L. (2002). The End of Quality? Quality in Higher Education, Vol. 8, No. 1.
• Haskins, C. H. (1975). The Rise of Universities. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Hevel, M. (2016). Toward a History of Student Affairs: A Synthesis of Research, 1996–2015. Journal of College Student Development, 57, 844–862. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2016.0082 Hodges, D., & Ross G. (2002). Mexico Under Siege: Popular Resistance to Presidential Despotism. London: Zed Books.
• Human Resources Director. (2014). Stealing employee sentenced to prison time. https://www.hcamag.com/ca/news/general/stealing-employee-sentenced-to-prison-time/125512
• International Association for Political Science Students. (2021). US Presidential Inauguration Panel. https://www.facebook.com/IAPSS/videos/866228594229379/
• International Association for Political Science Students Asia (2020). Young Politician's Round Table: Analyzing Student Politics in Asia https://www.facebook.com/334659810430745/videos/2676941332584210
• International Union of Students. (2000). Report of the Executive Secretariat to the Council and 17th Congress of the International Union of Students for the Period from February 1992 to March 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20070607031437/http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/gruppen/ius/congress/pdf/report.pdf
• Jackson, K. (1999). Voluntary Student Unionism. Parliament of Australia. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hotissueVSU
• Janin, H. (2008). The University in Medieval Life, 1179-1499. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
• Johnston, A. (2015). Student Protests, Then and Now. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/student-protests-then-and-now/
• Katz, J. (1968). No time for youth: Growth and constraint in college students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
• Klemenčič, M.. (2012). The Changing Conceptions of Student Participation in HE Governance in the EHEA. In A. Curaj, P. Scott, L. Vlasceanu, & L. Wilson (Eds.), European Higher Education at the Crossroads: Between the Bologna Process and National Reforms (pp. 631–653). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_34
• —. (2018). The student voice in quality assessment and improvement. Research Handbook on Quality, Performance and Accountability in Higher Education. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781785369742/9781785369742.00035.xml
• Koller, D., & Schugurensky, D. (2011). Examining the developmental impact of youth participation in education governance: The case of student trustees. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(2), 350-360. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00673.x
• Kouba, K. (2018). Determinants of Student Participation in Higher Education Governance: The Case of Student Turnout in Academic Senate Elections in Czechia. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, 76(1), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0194-1
• Kuh, G. D., & Lund, J. P. (1994). What students gain from participating in student government. New Directions for Student Services, 1994(66), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.37119946603
• Landes, D. (2009). Government wants to scrap mandatory student unions. The Local Sweden. https://www.thelocal.se/20090225/17822/
• Lemay, V. & Laperriere, M. (2012). Contestation étudiante Et Soubresauts étatiques: Le Printemps Québécois Sous Une Perspective Droit Et Sociéte. Canadian Journal of Law and Society/Revue Canadienne Droit Et Societe. Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 427-438.
• Lipset, S. M. (1968). Students and Politics in Comparative Perspective. Daedalus. Vol 97, no. 1, pp. 1-20.
• Luescher-Mamashela, T. M. (2012). Student representation in university decision making: Good reasons, a new lens? Studies in Higher Education, 38(10), 1442–1456. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.625496
• —. (2015). Theorising student activism in and beyond the 20th century: The contribution of Philip G. Altbach. In M. Klemenčič, S. Bergan, & R. Primožič (Eds.), Student Engagement in Europe: Society, Higher Education and Student Governance (pp. 33–49). Council of Europe. Meads, C. & Smith, S. (2018). The Hand that Feeds Us. New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations.
• Miller, J. (2019). uOttawa students vote out student federation accused of mismanagement. Ottawa Citizen. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/uottawa-students-vote-out-student-federation-accused-of-mismanagement
• Mugume, T. & Katusiimeh, M. W. (2016). Private higher education and student representation in Uganda: A comparative analysis of Makerere University and Uganda Christian University. In Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism. Oxford: African Books Collective, pp. 162-181.
• Navot, D. (2016). Real Politics and the Concept of Political Corruption. Political Studies Review, 14(4), 544–554. https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12079
• Naylor, R. & Mifsud, N. (2019). Structural inequality in higher education: Creating institutional cultures that enable all students. Perth: National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education.
• Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. (2019). Act relating to universities and university colleges—Lovdata. https://lovdata.no/dokument/NLE/lov/2005-04-01-15
• Núñez, J., & Leiva, B. (2018). The effects of a tripartite ‘participative’ university senate on university governance: The case of the University of Chile. Cambridge Journal of Education, 48(6), 749–767. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2017.1418832
• Pabian, P., & Minksová, L. (2011). Students in Higher Education Governance in Europe: Contrasts, commonalities and controversies. Tertiary Education and Management, 17(3), 261–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2011.588722
• Patrick, J. (2021). Helene Berman Catherine Richardson Kate Elliott Eugenia Canas Everyday Violence in the Lives of Youth: Speaking Out and Pushing Back. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2020. $25.00 USD. pp. 232. ISBN 9781773631035. World Medical & Health Policy, 13(4), 776–778. https://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.406
• Pegues, F. (1977). “Philanthropy and the Universities in France and England in the Later Middle Ages.” In The Economic and Material Frame of the Mediaeval University, edited by Astrik Gabriel. Notre Dame: International Commission for the History of Universities, p. 68-78.
• Pennock, L., Jones, G. A., Leclerc, J. M., & Li, S. X. (2015). Assessing the role and structure of academic senates in Canadian universities, 2000–2012. Higher Education, 70(3), 503–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9852-8
• Ramzy, A., & Cheung, E. (2019, November 8). Anger in Hong Kong After Student Dies From Fall Following Clash With Police. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/world/asia/hong-kong-protest-student-dies.html
• Rheingans, R., & Hollands, R. (2013). “There is no alternative?”: Challenging dominant understandings of youth politics in late modernity through a case study of the 2010 UK student occupation movement. Journal of Youth Studies, 16(4), 546–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.733811
• Rosch, D. M., & Collins, J. D. (2017). The Significance of Student Organizations to Leadership Development. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2017(155), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20246
• Rowen, I. (2015). Inside Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement: Twenty-Four Days in a Student- Occupied Parliament, and the Future of the Region. The Journal of Asian Studies, 74(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911814002174
• Sanchez, L. (2020). The Great Sham of Student Affairs: How the Power of Storytelling Ignited a Student Movement and Revealed the Darkside in Reaching Higher [M.A., California State University, Fullerton]. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2415742146/abstract/2DDB0BAC86D44972PQ/1
• Schuiteman, S., Ibrahim, N. I., Hammoud, A., Kruger, L., Mangrulkar, R. S., & Daniel, M. (2020). The Role of Medical Student Government in Responding to COVID-19. Academic Medicine, 96(1), 62–67. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000003542
• Scott, J. (1992). The Influence of the Medieval University on the Latin Church and Secular government Politics: from the Later Middle Ages to Early Modern Times. San Francisco, CA: Mellen Research University Press.
• Seth, A. (2004). Unionizing for a More Democratic and Responsive University. In Taking back the academy!: history of activism, history as activism. Edited by Jim Downs and Jennifer Manion. New York: Routledge, pp. 57-68.
• Snider, C. M. (2018). “Deficient Education,” “Academic Questions,” and Student Movements: Universities and the Politics of the Everyday in Brazil’s Military Dictatorship, 1969–1979. The Americas (Washington. 1944), 75(4), 699–732. https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2018.38
• Soria, K. M., & Johnson, M. R. (2020). A Conceptual Framework for Evidence-Based Leadership Development Practices. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2020(168), 9–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20404
• State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. (2020). Student Advisory Committee. https://www.schev.edu/index/agency-info/advisory-committees/student-advisory-committee
• Stolarik, M. M. (2010). The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later. Mundelein: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
• Stover, M., & Cawthorne, J. (2008). Library/student partnerships redefine tomorrow’s libraries. http://dspace.calstate.edu/handle/10211.2/1559
• Thune, C. (1996). The Alliance of Accountability and Improvement: the Danish experience. Quality in Higher Education, Vol. 2, No. 1.
• United Nations. (2019). About Model UN | outreach.un.org.mun. https://web.archive.org/web/20190704104534/https://outreach.un.org/mun/content/about-model-un
• — (2020). Model United Nations: Agenda, Workplan, Documents and Rules of Procedure. https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/agenda-workplan-documents-and-rules-procedure
• —. (2015). United Nations Youth Delegate Programme | United Nations For Youth. https://www.un.org/development/desa/youth/what-we-do/youth-delegate-programme.html/
• United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2019). 9th Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education 2030 Educating for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future. UNESCO. https://www.soroptimistinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Report-CCNGO-9th-Global-meeting-Dec-2019.pdf
• United Nations Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. (2015). UN Youth Advisory Panel Established in Belarus. https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/tag/un-youth-advisory-panel/
• United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination. (2012). Total Staff by Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20200806080130/https://unsceb.org/content/total-staff-organization
• University of Gothenburg. (2021). Student Unions – Student Portal. http://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/hum/Student_Unions/?skipSSOCheck=true&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
• Warner, M. (1996). Sophisticated spies: CIA’s links to liberal anti‐communists, 1949–1967. International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 9(4), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/08850609608435326
• Webbstock, D., & Luescher, T. M. (2020). Reflections of South African Student Leaders: 1994 to 2017 (N. Bhengu, Ed.). African Minds.
• Williams, J. (2014). Student Feedback on the Experience of Higher Education: A Significant Component of Institutional Research Data. In Using Data to Improve Higher Education (pp. 65–80). Brill Sense. http://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789462097940/BP000006.xml
• Williamson, E. G. et al. (1949). The Student Personnel Point of View. Student Personnel Work 6(13). American Council of Education Studies. https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/Student_Personnel_Point_of_View_1949.pdf
• Wilshire, L. (1997). “The Condemnations of 1277 and the Intellectual Climate of the Medieval University.” In The Intellectual Climate of the Early University. Edited by Nancy Van Deusen. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, p. 151-194.
• Ziafati, N. (2017). CFS Hidden Bank Account Details Revealed. The Eyeopener. Retrieved from https://theeyeopener.com/2017/10/summary-review-of-cfs-hidden-bank-account-revealed/