Abstract
Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic. It can also be a conveniently loose term that can be used by some to position themselves above others and to ‘teach them’ lessons about how to ‘do’ democracy, often creating unjustified hierarchies and moralistic judgements. Based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of 'authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse', this article examines how the contested idea of democracy is constructed and negotiated at a key International Conference on democratic education. Excerpts from talks given at the conference serve as case studies in this paper, without the intention to generalise about discourses of democracy in education. The results hint at uncritical attempts, often based on pathos, to totalise and generalise ‘democracy/the democratic’ especially within discourses on ‘democratic schools’. Such discourses can contribute to cultural othering and stereotyping, as well as, simplistic assumptions about how ‘democracy’ functions and comes-into-being. They can also help the utterer hide their sentiments. Thus, the aim of this paper is to deconstruct an essentialised and somewhat empty vision of democracy discourse in education. The fact that the idea of ‘freedom’ is often used as a synonym for ‘democracy’ during the conference is also discussed.
Highlights
Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic
Heteroglossia refers to the fact that one’s own utterances always contain ‘another’s speech in another’s language (Bakhtin, 1981, p 324)—the other[s]-in-theself are articulated through the discourses we utter
Heteroglossia can be understood as the constant refraction and metamorphoses of utterances within one’s speech (Bakhtin, 1981)
Summary
Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic. Basing our discussion of what we consider to be simultaneous aspects in Bakhtin’s work, authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse, we use excerpts and images taken from the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC 2016).
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