Did you feel important in school?

Across continents, students are told education is the pathway to empowerment, yet their voices often remain peripheral to the institution that claims to serve them. Our project set out to challenge this contradiction by analyzing student governance structures in over 50 countries worldwide. The findings are striking: the myth that Western schools embody democratic ideals, while the Global South is defined by authoritarianism, does not hold up to reality.

The Myth of Western Democratic Superiority

The narrative that the West is more democratic than the Global South is too entrenched in policy, media, and our education systems. Western institutions are often portrayed as paragons of student freedom and civic participation, while schools in the Global South are cast as repressive or “backwards.” However, this myth obscures the lived realities of students on both sides. Western K-12 schools promote surface-level student governance, giving them a false symbol of free speech without having any actual liberty in this regard. An example is America, where in the past few years, free speech has decreased over time, from limited academic conversation on race and sexuality to overall expression of concern, according to PEN America (2023-2025).

To understand this phenomenon, we reviewed one public and one private school from each of the 50 US states and 50 populous countriese. We found that every few schools give students true decision-making capabilities and representation, mainly serving ceremonial roles like dances or spirit weeks, while being excluded from conversations about curriculum, discipline policies, or budget allocations.

By contrast, students in countries like India and Chile have mobilized in powerful movements demanding equitable education funding and systemic reforms (Mitra, 2008; Bellei, 2013). The myth of Western superiority not only misrepresents reality but also delegitimizes the voices of students in the Global South, branding their activism as resistance rather than democracy.

Why Student Voice Matters

The student voice is powerful. Authentic student voice creates opportunities for youth to influence decisions that shape their learning conditions (Mitra 2004). When students feel heard, they are more likely to engage, achieve, and become active citizens beyond school. On the other hand, when their voices are diminished, they internalize the message that their perspectives are unimportant, which translates to “my vote or participation does not matter.”

The harm goes both ways: the West is illusioned to believe their gilded councils represent true democracy, while students in the South are told their struggles for representation are evidence of oppression, not empowerment. This completely silences student agency globally and reinforces the stereotype that the youth are too radical, uneducated, unrealistic on world matters, which further sustains inequality. 

It matters how we frame democracy in education because these narratives influence policy, funding, and cultural legitimacy. We must look at grassroots examples that challenge these myths. The Chilean student movement, which successfully pushed for education reforms in the 2000s, demonstrates the power of collective student agency (Bellei, 2013). In India, local schools have implemented student parliaments that deliberate on real issues of resource allocation and safety (Mitra, 2008). These examples reveal that democratic practices are not confined to geography; they emerge wherever students are empowered to speak and act.

Recommendations

K-12 should dedicate more time to student voices in their handbooks. There should be language that allows students to make decisions on matters impacting their daily lives, and fair representation of students being elected by their peers and partaking in allocation, curriculum planning, etc. For instance, the South African government requires every public school to have a student governance body, also known as a “Representative Council of Learners” (Msweli, 2021). Moreover, international education policy must abandon the simplistic binary of “democratic West” versus “authoritarian South.” This framing not only distorts reality but also actively disempowers students globally. Finally, we need to reframe the question itself: democracy is not a gift from institutions to students but a practice sustained by their voices and actions.

So, did you feel important in school? The answer should be a resounding yes for every student, regardless of geography. But that will only happen when we can answer yes to the question “are you important in your school?” That student voice is not hesitant, but clear. If we truly care about building just and equitable societies, we must dismantle the myth of Western superiority and amplify the real, diverse, and powerful ways students shape their educational futures.

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References

America’s Censored Classrooms 2023. (2023, November 9). PEN America. https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-classrooms-2023/

Bellei, Cristián & Cabalin, Cristian. (2013). Chilean Student Movements: Sustained Struggle to Transform a Market-oriented Educational System. Current Issues in Comparative Education. 15. 10.52214/cice.v15i2.11508. 

‌Mitra, D. L. (2004). The Significance of Students: Can Increasing “Student Voice” in Schools Lead to Gains in Youth Development?. Teachers College Record, 106(4), 651–688. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00354.x

Mitra, D. L. (2008). Student voice in school reform: Building youth-adult partnerships that strengthen schools and empower youth. Suny Press.

Msweli, S. (2021). The Role of Representative Council of Learners in Decision Making Processes in the South African Secondary Schools. International Journal of Education and Research, 9(9). https://www.ijern.com/journal/2021/September-2021/05.pdf

Winkler, B. S. (1944). Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. Phenomenology + Pedagogy, 197–204. https://doi.org/10.29173/pandp14940