The Voice of Students in the Construction of Inclusive Identities, Schools and Societies

Abstract

This research arises from the conviction that inclusive education is not merely a pedagogical principle, but a profoundly political, ethical, and human project. To commit to inclusion means to question the structures, relationships, and school cultures that continue to generate exclusion, and to engage in collective transformation. From this perspective, the study accompanies the process of an intersectional group of sixteen secondary school students — Students for Inclusion — who chose to make their voices heard and to rethink schooling through their lived experiences. Through a combination of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and a biographical-narrative methodology, the young participants became researchers of their own realities. Interviews, conversations, group discussions, and reflective journals shaped an ethical and affective process in which trust, recognition, and care were as vital as analysis. The results reveal how experiences of exclusion can be transformed into collective strength and critical awareness. Their narratives expose the inequalities that cut across schools — gender, class, ethnicity, culture, ability, among others — but also highlight the power of solidarity and love as driving forces of education. This work demonstrates that listening to students’ voices not only improves schools; it also humanizes and transforms them.