What we learn when we listen to students

What we learn when we listen to students

From Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators by Jeff Utecht & Tricia Friedman

April 26, 2026 · 16 min · Season 9 · Episode 345

About this episode

The episode explores the insights gained when educators listen directly to students about their needs in school.

What happens when you stop talking about students and start talking with them? In this episode, Jeff Utecht sits down with high schoolers and asks a question most adults skip: what do you actually need from school right now? Not what teachers think they need. Not what the policy documents say. What the students themselves would name if someone gave them the mic. What they share is honest, specific, and worth slowing down for. Some of it will confirm what you already suspected. Some of it will catch you off guard. All of it is a reminder that the people closest to the experience of learning have been telling us things we haven't always made room to hear. If you're a school leader, classroom teacher, or anyone shaping the conditions students learn inside, this is a conversation worth bringing into your next team meeting. What would shift in your school if student perspective wasn't a survey question, but the starting point?

People in this episode

Host: Jeff Utecht

Guest: high schoolers

Topics covered

  • student voice
  • education reform
  • listening to students
  • school leadership
  • student needs

Keywords

  • student perspective
  • education
  • listening
  • school
  • student needs
  • high school
  • teacher-student communication

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