We Have a Voice: From Research to Action

One of the most meaningful experiences of the school year was the participation of the students of the third class of Promitheas Private Secondary School in Volos in the “I YOU WE” Student Conference in Thessaloniki, under the central message “WE HAVE A VOICE.”

Taking part in the conference was much more than presenting a school project. It gave the students the opportunity to present research they had carried out themselves, speak publicly about an issue that affects them and share their effort to create a school environment where no one feels alone or unable to speak up.

Everything began during the previous school year, when the students wanted to explore how they and their classmates experienced school bullying. Instead of discussing the issue only in theory, they decided to listen to the students themselves. Forty classmates took part anonymously in the initial research, allowing the students to see the reality of their school through the eyes of their peers.

The results made them think deeply. One in three students reported experiencing verbal attacks frequently, while what concerned them most was that several students considered such behavior to be “just a joke”. This became an important starting point. The students understood that addressing violence is not only about recognizing that it exists. It is also about understanding the feelings behind behavior, developing empathy and creating a school environment where everyone feels that they belong and can speak up.

The students therefore developed five basic principles, based on the idea that there is a feeling behind every behavior and that meaningful solutions can only be found through cooperation. During the first stage of the project, they explored and practiced mindfulness techniques such as guided breathing, visualization, mindful listening and mindful eating. Through these activities, they learned to recognize their emotions, manage frustration and stay focused on what was happening around them.

During the following school year, the project continued in a more structured way through the “PNOI” programme, an educational programme approved by the Greek Ministry of Education. The students took part in activities that helped them explore anger, violence and forgiveness, not as abstract concepts but as experiences that can occur in everyday life. Through the image of the iceberg, they understood that the anger we see is often only the visible part. Beneath it there may be fear, insecurity, the need for acceptance and the need to feel that we belong to a group.

In the unit about violence, the students became young researchers. Instead of simply asking who was to blame or who should be punished, they learned to ask what happened, why it happened and how everyone involved felt. This helped them look at conflicts from different perspectives and try to put themselves in another person's place. The unit on forgiveness completed this journey by encouraging them to think about how a relationship can be repaired after a mistake and how people can move forward without remaining trapped in anger and resentment.

The project also had a strong research component. Fifty-seven students took part and were divided into two groups. One group participated in the proposed activities, while the other continued with the regular school programme. This allowed the students to examine whether and to what extent the intervention influenced the classroom climate and relationships between students.

Taking part in the Student Conference in Thessaloniki gave the students the opportunity to present their work, speak publicly about an issue that concerns them and express their own views. Through this experience, they developed cooperation, active participation and democratic expression. “WE HAVE A VOICE” became more than the message of the conference: it became an experience that showed them that when we give children the space to speak, their voices can become a starting point for dialogue and change.