Beyond the margins of silence: Pride Groups as opportunities for student voice

Abstract Student voice and participation are widely promoted within educational research and policy; however, the voices of LGBT+ students, and the systems through which they might meaningfully participate, remain under‐theorised. Drawing on scholarship that conceptualises voice as multimodal and symbolic, and on literature that understands silence as sometimes strategic and protective rather than mere absence, this paper argues that LGBT+ students are frequently positioned at the margins of silence within schools, as traditional systems for voice fail to capture their lived experiences. Employing an original Dialogic Framework, synthesising Lundy's model of participation with Robinson and Taylor's core values of student voice, this paper explores whether LGBT+ Pride Groups can operate as meaningful opportunities for student voice and participation. The study draws on data collected over two years across four schools in England and Wales, including focus groups, interviews and observations. The findings demonstrate that Pride Groups can provide safe spaces for dialogue, reduce unequal power relations and enable access to audience and influence. Crucially, students exercise voice not only through talk, but also through symbolic and collective forms such as badges, zines, assemblies, performances and the naming of their own groups, and participants attributed tangible school‐level change to these practices where groups were intentionally and structurally embedded. The paper concludes by arguing for a reframing of Pride Groups more broadly, not just as spaces for pastoral support, but as crucial opportunities for collective and agentic student voice.