The Involvement of Student Associations in Quality Assurance Mechanisms of Educational Reforms in Italy

Abstract

This paper analyses the role and impact of the involvement of secondary-level student associations in the policy-making and evaluation processes of educational and training policies. From involvement in the issues of the right to education, to the impact on the curriculum and the evaluation and certification of skills and qualifications, the involvement of student association actors remains a highly unexplored area in the Italian political-institutional context. Considering the last decade, from the “Buona Scuola” reform to the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) reforms, student’s voice at the national level has sought a space for institutional dialogue in the processes of policy-making, evaluation, and quality assurance of educational reforms: what conditions can facilitate feedback effects in quality assurance processes? The acknowledgement of student voice by national policy-makers can be viewed both through the lenses of legitimising the agency of the policies’ beneficiaries and as a search for reasoned input from sector experts. From a historical perspective, this paper therefore proposes a reflection on the role of an isolated agent who is always present to some extent, despite being dispersed in the modes of action and difficult to conceptualise and reduce to a single voice.