This is a fantastic time to reflect on the power of youth voice in driving educational improvement through practitioner enquiry. Incorporating children and young people as authentic partners in our research isn't just a "nice-to-have"; it's a fundamental shift in practice that aligns directly with our professional values as educators, the principles of children's rights, and the national model for professional learning in Scotland.

Why this matters:

• Practitioner enquiry is a key element of national model of professional learning. The model emphasises 'Learning by enquiring' as a key feature, encouraging educators to adopt an enquiring and critical stance. When you embed youth voice into your enquiry, you are strengthening this process by ensuring the data and insights you are questioning and reflecting upon are directly informed by the learners themselves, leading to deeper, transformative professional learning.

• With the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) being embedded, particularly Article 12 (the right to have your views heard and taken seriously), we have an ethical and legal imperative to ensure youth are actively involved. Practitioner enquiry offers a perfect structure to move from listening to co-researching with young people.

• When practitioners collaborate with children and young people to design questions, gather data (e.g., co-create surveys, run focus groups), and interpret findings, the resulting enquiry is deeper, more relevant, and leads to more impactful change in the classroom and beyond. It moves practice from being done to learners, to being done with them.

A valuable new resource that can support this work is the Youth Voice Toolkit. It is designed to help practitioners guarantee that the ways in which they consult children and young people are meaningful and non-tokenistic. It also provides practical guidance on how to ensure children and young people fully understand what they are being consulted on and how to include the voices of their peers, creating a genuinely more representative approach.

Prompts for reflection:

• How can youth voice be authentically embedded in your current or upcoming practitioner enquiry?

• In what ways does your enquiry align with Article 12 of the UNCRC?

• What tools or strategies (e.g., co-created surveys, learner-led focus groups) could deepen the relevance and impact of your enquiry?

• What change do you hope to bring as a result of practitioner enquiry?