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What:
A focus group is a small group discussion guided by a leader. It is used to learn about opinions on a designated topic and to guide future action.
How to do it:
Choose your topic of discussion and questions or discussion prompts.
Appoint a notetaker and facilitator.
Recruit and schedule participants (no more than 10-12).
Ask your questions in a way that allows all voices to be heard.
End the meeting at the appointed time.
Analyze and incorporate feedback.
Examples:
Sharing views on classroom or school policies and rules.
Getting feedback on particular activities and initiatives.
When preparing for a new initiative in something like academics, behavior intervention, mental health, social emotional learning, etc. asking students about their concerns and perspectives.
Example Questions:
What words or feelings come to mind when you think about our class or school?
What suggestions do you have for improving our classroom/school climate?
What is most important to you when receiving support and guidance at school?
What challenges should we be addressing?
What do we need to know about students to better support student needs?
What else would be helpful to share?
Things to Consider:
You may want to run several focus groups that each reflect a different demographic of participants or fewer groups with intentional cross section of demographic representation (e.g. race, gender, mental/physical ability, socio-economic status, academic performance, etc.). This is an important opportunity to identify students whose voices may not typically be elevated
Focus groups can occur over a virtual setting.
You may consider providing questions ahead of time for deeper reflection or time for thinking/journaling prior to participants sharing out.
You can invite all participants to share on all questions, or invite a few participants to share on each questions (just be careful to ensure you are getting feedback from all participants).
Laying out the guidelines for participation and respect in the space will be important to create a safe and brave space for participation.
Participants can be invited to create this group agreement and guidelines at the start of the session.
Take It to the Next Level:
Leveling Up Towards the Leadership End of the Spectrum of Student Voice-Oriented Activity
Engage students in identifying the topic, question, and/or prompt.
Invite students to create guidelines and group norms.
Consider how students can provide leadership from facilitating the activity, making meaning of the data collected, and advising how the data is used.
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