Student councils as a safety valve for school values: the relativism of participation rights in Jewish national religious schools for girls

This study explored the intersection of student participation rights and culture within the context of student councils in Jewish national religious secondary schools for girls in Israel. These schools educate within a core religious ideology highlighting female modesty. The study drew on semi-structured interviews with student council members, teacher coordinators, and school principals in three secondary schools. The findings illustrate how schools embedded student participation in collectivist values, urged the councils to prioritise charity work over activities reflecting the students’ personal voices, and engaged students in student-teacher dialogue regarding the boundaries of their participation. The students’ perceptions reflected conformism, often justifying the educators’ restrictions. The study’s conclusions address the tension between the global discourse of participation rights aimed at empowering student voices and the examined councils’ focus on charity that aligns with the schools’ values. This tension underscores broader questions about the cultural relativism of participation rights. On the one hand, contextualising participation rights can lead students to perceive their participation as more meaningful. On the other hand, the charitable activities were initiated by the staff and reinforced traditional gender roles. Furthermore, the conclusions elaborate how open dialogue on participation boundaries can function as a “safety valve” fostering conformity by persuading students that educators’ decisions regarding school rules serve their best interests. This study highlights that contextualising participation rights should be made with caution to ensure that participatory practices incorporate the core components of participation rights, including influence, and mitigate power imbalances between students and educators.