Promoting active student participation in secondary schools with the ASPIRE intervention

Educational research consistently emphasizes the importance of creating favorable conditions for students to be active participants in their school life. However, evidence of interventions aimed at achieving this major educational goal is scarce. This work presents an overview of the first implementation of the ASPIRE (Active Student Participation to Improve the leaRning Environment) program, a whole-school intervention designed to enhance active student participation (ASP) in secondary schools. The program aims to actively engage students in a process based on reflective discussions and role-playing activities. In this paper, we describe the ASPIRE program and present the results of its implementation in eight 10th grade classes of two high schools located in Northern Italy, based on qualitative data. Focusing on students' voices concerning school climate improvement, the results underline the problems students felt as most pressing in their school life, the strategies they found for solving their problems and the challenges they expected to encounter. The role-playing process emerged as a particularly effective tool, helping students to strengthen interpersonal communication skills for exerting ASP in school. The feasibility and power of ASPIRE in the promotion of ASP are discussed in the light of the program's implications for research and practice.