Democratic School Research Articles

Critical consciousness among rural adolescents: the roles of school connection and positive relationships with teachers

Critical consciousness (CC) has been linked to academic and civic engagement for students from marginalized backgrounds, but little work has examined CC for students from more privileged groups. In addition, research indicates that school characteristics may promote the development of CC, but this literature has yet to be fully developed. Specifically, research on school climate has focused primarily on structural and instructional aspects (e.g., democratic school culture, classroom discussions of current events) but has not examined more emotional and relational aspects, such as feelings of connection to teachers and school community. Thus, the current study expands the literature by examining relations between the agency and action components of critical consciousness and two indicators of school climate (school connection and positive relationships with teachers), using a predominantly White sample of middle and high school students (ages 13–18) from a rural school district. Results indicated that both school connection and positive relationships with teachers were positively related to critical agency. School climate variables were generally unrelated to critical action, with the exception of a negative relation between positive relationships with teachers and critical action for middle school students.

A cultura escolar democrática no Colégio Universitário da UFMA (1980-1995)

Aborda-se o conjunto de práticas e representações culturais do Colégio Universitário da Universidade Federal do Maranhão (1980 a 1995), e a materialização da cultura escolar democrática via práticas escolares. Avaliam-se práticas educativas, pedagógicas e culturais que transformadas em rituais escolares denunciam a gramática escolar e sua identidade como Colégio de Aplicação. Utilizam-se pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da história cultural para cruzar dados extraídos de jornais, dispositivos legais, arquivo escolar e entrevistas. Concluiu-se que a integração política entre modos de conhecimento e exercício do poder mediada por táticas de apropriação na busca do sucesso escolar aponta o COLUN como instrumento de inserção/ascensão social num processo de emancipação contínua via educação

An Absolute Power, or A Power Absolutely in Need of Reform? Proposals to Reform the Presidential Pardon Power

The presidential pardon power can serve valuable purposes, but the lack of checks on the power invites abuses. This report by Fordham Law School's Democracy Clinic calls for laws and executive orders to curtail misuses of the pardon power. Congress should pass laws banning the president from pardoning himself or herself and issuing pardons for conduct that has not yet occurred. Executive orders should set detailed procedures for considering pardons and require reports to Congress if the president pardons a family member or close associate.

Improving Communication with Public Officials on Social Media: Proposals for Protecting Social Media Users’ First Amendment Rights

Government officials undermine a key platform for communication with the public when they block users or delete their comments on social media. Those actions also often run afoul of the First Amendment. To address a problem that exists at all levels of government, this report by Fordham Law School's Democracy Clinic recommends legislation that bans public officials using social media for official purposes from blocking users or deleting their comments, except when comments are unprotected by the First Amendment.

Protecting the Supreme Court: Why Safeguarding the Judiciary’s Independence is Crucial to Maintaining its Legitimacy

The stability of the Supreme Court’s size and procedures is a critical source of legitimacy, but reforms might protect the Court’s independence from politics. Perceptions among members of the public that justices are political actors harms the rule of law. This report by Fordham Law School's Democracy Clinic discusses reforms to ensure that each president receives the same number of appointments to the Supreme Court. The report also considers how to guarantee each nominee a Senate hearing and reforms to the retirement stage of justices’ tenures.

Effects of Mindset, Democratic Parenting, Teaching, and School Environment on Global Citizenship of Ninth-grade Students

<p>This research intended to examine the effect of mindset, democratic parenting, democratic teaching, and school environment on global citizenship among 2,226 ninth-grade students and 80 social studies teachers from 80 classrooms in public schools. The research instruments included a student questionnaire to measure global citizenship, democratic parenting, fixed and growth mindset, and a teacher questionnaire to measure democratic teaching and school environment and to analyze the data based on multilevel structural equation modeling. The significant findings revealed that democratic parenting and school environment positively affected global citizenship, whereas democratic teaching had a negative effect on global citizenship. In addition, the outstanding students with a growth mindset tend to lead to a positive effect and act as a mediating role through global citizenship than those with outstanding fixed mindset clearly. All factors in the model collaboratively explained the variance of global citizenship accounted for 62.8% and 47.5% at student and classroom levels, respectively. Finally, the discussions and suggestions section suggested the recommendations according to the findings of the research.</p>

The Moroccan Bachelor New Reform: the Incorporation of Soft Skills through Project-Based Learning

Recent debates about the bachelor in Morocco show that teaching learners to maintain positive attitudes and take over responsibilities for social and political processes is an essential educational asset of soft skills, mainly for schools that adopt project-based instructions. To engage students in this newest reform, significant preconditions of democratic school culture are set as effective outcomes to generate ethical behaviors. Today, social and political issues tend to provide meaningful opportunities to engage students in proper activities, specifically by using project-based learning. This paper aims at examining important venues that Moroccan school leaders, along with the bachelor outcomes, wish to implement to foster democratic participation within and outside school life by adopting project-based learning. It questions the challenges and perspectives of this implementation along with the progress of Moroccan educational institutions. Hence, the paper adheres to a meta-analysis technique, whereby a unique examination of the various already conducted studies came out with conclusions: perspectives and challenges. The typical meta-analysis method disengages readings of various scholarly academic sources related to school effectiveness concerning the implementation of project-based instruction, specifically after a long journey of debates about the bachelor. Because of its descriptive nature, this method allows the researcher to explore the wide-range of pitfalls that provide potential opportunities for alternative conclusions which are adopted in restructured and well-run approaches. The significant results and conclusions drawn from this paper are profoundly and qualitatively discussed and analyzed.

Images of Educational Leadership: How Principals Make Sense of Democracy and Social Justice in Two Distinct Policy Contexts

Purpose: This article investigates how school leaders make sense of social justice and democracy in their practice in two settings, a high-stakes testing and accountability context, the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and a low-stakes testing and accountability context, Norway. It demonstrates how leaders view relationships among education, democracy, and social justice, when located in a neoliberal democracy with a minimalist welfare state or in a social democracy with a robust welfare state. Design and Evidence: Through a comparative design, we analyze qualitative data from two international principal exchanges designed to capture outsiders’ impressions of schools in each context. Participants included alumni from an American and a Norwegian university’s principal preparation programs. Through preobservation and postobservation interviews and focus groups, we explore observations by practitioners, who acted as coconstructors in the research. Findings and Implications: The article presents three findings: (1) While principals in both systems conceptualized equity similarly, their conceptions of democracy were aligned with the type of democracy in which they were embedded; (2) Schools’ norms, climate, structures, and leadership, as well as students’ daily lives, reflected the values implicit in their respective political contexts; (3) Principals perceived elements of their macro- and micro-level settings to enable or constrain their ability to craft democratic, socially just schools. These findings help scholars move beyond discourse about the need for leaders to advocate for equity, to deeper understandings about conditions that shape democratic schools, such as values about collectivism, welfarism, and the common good—tenets of a socially just civic society.

Seleção de diretores escolares no Estado do Rio de Janeiro: hibernação da democracia na agenda política dos municípios

Neste artigo apresenta-se uma análise da participação da comunidade nos processos de seleção de diretores em municípios do Estado Rio de Janeiro considerados de baixa fidelidade normativa. O Plano Nacional de Educação - PNE - constitui-se como a política indutora da regulamentação da gestão democrática e a pesquisa operou-se no desdobramento desse com relação aos municípios. A partir do pressuposto da participação para uma escola democrática, problematizamos o sentido de comunidade que circula no campo educacional e nas políticas. Sobre o processo de hibernação da gestão democrática ponderamos sobre os efeitos dessa ação do município a partir do PNE. Apesar de regulamentada a gestão, não é possível situar os municípios pesquisados no contexto que tende à democracia.Palavras-chave: gestão democrática; participação; seleção de diretores; consulta pública; eleição.

Social self-organization in Russia in the 2nd half of the XIX – the beginning of XX centuries. The problem of aggregating of political interest

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of social self-organization in Russian society in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. According to the example of the Moscow Law Society, created in the sixties of the XIX century, the trends of the development of voluntary associations in societies that did not have experience of representation until that time, are revealed. It is noted that the members of the MLS – the first domestic public organization of a legal profile - made a significant contribution to the formation of the liberal movement, the development of legal culture, the formation of the rule of law in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. It is concluded that the Moscow Law Society and other voluntary public associations, gradually acquiring the features of pro-party organizations, served as a kind of "school of democracy" for Russian society at the turn of the century.

Democracy in spanish schools: conceptions of teachers and students

Las concepciones de docentes y estudiantes sobre la democracia influyen en las actitudes, las expectativas y las posibilidades de esta forma de gobierno, por ello resulta fundamental conocerlas. El objetivo de esta investigación es describir las concepciones de democracia en el centro educativo que tienen docentes y estudiantes en España. Para ello se realizó una investigación fenomenográfica cuyos participantes fueron 15 profesores y 15 alumnos de centros educativos españoles. Los resultados sugieren tres concepciones sobre la democracia en el centro escolar, aunque con ligeras diferencias entre ambos grupos. En primer lugar, una concepción elitista que reduce la democracia a la libre competencia y elección de centro por parte de las familias, cuyos discursos jerarquizados resultan afines a la filosofía neoliberal. Una representativa que enfatiza el voto como mecanismo de decisión. Las principales diferencias entre docentes y estudiantes se encuentran bajo esta concepción, ya que mientras el profesorado tiende a desestimar el poder real del estudiantado, el alumnado llega a reclamar injerencia en decisiones trascendentales del centro. Finalmente, una concepción participativa que se caracteriza por la horizontalidad y la toma de decisiones consensuada. Promover esta concepción participativa resulta fundamental para fomentar el pensamiento crítico y la intervención de todas las personas en los asuntos comunes, avanzando así hacia sociedades más justas y equitativas.

Edited by Masamichi Ueno, <i>School Reform and Democracy in East Asia</i>

Edited by Masamichi Ueno, <i>School Reform and Democracy in East Asia</i>

Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes in Primary Schools in Francophone Africa

Inspired by the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child, educational policy makers in Africa are requesting schools to implement democratic practices in the classroom. This study attempts to shed light on the effects of classroom democratic practices on cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes using cross-sectional data from Francophone African countries. To simultaneously account for endogeneity and the nested nature of the data which are issues inherent in the schooling process, use is made of the error components-two stage least squares estimator. The results confirm the endogenous nature of learning outcomes and indicate that teachers and parents are the most important stakeholders in the process of having children internalize democracy in the classroom. It is recommended that teachers develop skills to assign and supervise pupils work in small groups in the classroom. Education stakeholders should take measures to preserve and promote indigenous cultural values because they facilitate learning achievements.

Using Project-Based Learning to Develop Social and Political Practices as Life-Long Learning Skills

Recent research shows that teaching learners to maintain positive attitudes and engage in social and political practices is an important educational asset, mainly for schools that adopt project-based learning. To set an efficient background for schools to support students’ understanding of both political and social participation, important preconditions of democratic school culture form effective outcomes to generate ethical behaviors. Today, social and political measures of project-based learning in schools provide important opportunities to engage learners in life-long activities. Thus, the central aim of these measures is to promote the efficiency of decision-making within schools, which shape all classic criteria for both functioning political and social integrity. This paper aims at examining important venues that school leaders wish to implement to foster new ethical participation within and outside school life by adopting project-based learning. It attempts to unravel the timely challenges of such implementation and the different perspectives for the progress of many educational institutions. Hence, the paper adheres to a meta-analysis technique, whereby a special examination of the various already conducted studies came out with conclusions: perspectives and challenges. Owing to its generative, and diagnostic nature, this method allows the researcher to explore some pitfalls which provide potential opportunities for alternative conclusions to be adopted in well-run approaches. The major results and conclusions drawn from this paper are to be deeply and qualitatively discussed and analyzed.

The democratic school experiences framework: A tool for the design and self-assessment of democratic experiences in formal education

In many democratic societies, schools are expected to prepare their students for participation in democratic societies. (Self)assessment frameworks, designed by scholars and curriculum developers, support the development of school initiated democratic experiences. Existing frameworks, however, are not designed to capture the interplay between the practices organized, related educational activities, and the types of aims pursued in education programs. To address this void, this paper presents an eight-sectored framework that captures the multiplicity of democratic education and participation in schools.

Impact of Mobile Phone in Life Style of Gaddi Tribes

The strong correlation between education and democracy has been widely accepted and explored in many ways. This study is inspired by the quest for the democratization of school education through the lenses of social science learning at the secondary education level in the Indian context. The study tried to visualize to what extent schooling contributes to the making of democratic beings. Education for democratic citizenship is directed by various factors such as school education policies, curriculum frameworks, curricular and co-curricular activities or indirectly by attitudes and practices through which democratic knowledge, skills, values and attitudes is constructed to create a future democratic citizen. Thus, to give light to this area, a qualitative study has been designed to look at the selected components of education for democratic citizenship in school settings. The Research investigated social science teachers and student’s views on democracy and its practices to examine how close these schools were to become ‘democratic schools’. Results showed that teaching of teaching for democracy is not as it is presented in literature and educational document. This study is meant to grab a severe concern towards current conceptualization and school practices related to democracy, to create active and democratic citizens in thoughts and practices both, by taking simple steps at the school level to bring significant differences to create a democratic society.

Recreación educativa en la escuela: desde la actividad física hacia el fortalecimiento de la convivencia escolar

Esta investigación presenta una propuesta para la comprensión de la recreación educativa y su relación con la convivencia en las escuelas. La propuesta se desarrolló a partir de un proceso de evaluación realizada a un programa gubernamental chileno, ejecutado desde el año 2017 en 371 escuelas a lo largo del país. Esta evaluación implicó una revisión bibliográfica, la aplicación de encuestas a sus participantes y una aproximación cualitativa con estudio de casos múltiple en tres escuelas. Si bien el programa comenzó con una orientación que enfatizó la actividad física como espacio de recreación y promotor de salud, los resultados sugieren avanzar hacia una concepción de recreación educativa que tiene implicaciones no sólo sobre la salud integral de los estudiantes sino también en el fortalecimiento de procesos sociales transversales en la comunidad educativa como son los relacionados con el despliegue de una convivencia inclusiva, democrática y pacífica en las escuelas.

デンマークの若者の「民主主義の学校」での主体形成に関する考察 ―デンマーク若者連盟におけるハル・コックの思想に着目して―

デンマークの若者の「民主主義の学校」での主体形成に関する考察 ―デンマーク若者連盟におけるハル・コックの思想に着目して―

Um discurso sobre democratização da escola pública: contribuições à emergência do debate

O discurso sobre a democratização da escola pública constitui peça-chave em campanhas e projetos político-educacionais no Brasil, evidenciando a necessidade de investimentos no setor, no entanto, historicamente, também paralelo a esse discurso, vivencia-se uma prática marcada pelo negligenciamento e pela falta de sistematização de políticas públicas que avancem nesse ideal. Diante desse problema, neste estudo discute-se alguns impasses e controvérsias inerentes ao processo de democratização do ensino na escola pública, apontando para a necessidade de superação desse dilema, com vistas a um espaço democrático de construção e socialização de saberes. Realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica, de abordagem qualitativa, à luz das leituras de Behrens (2005), Chizzotti; Almeida (2019), Gadotti; Torres (2001), Dewey (1959), Freire (1998; 1997; 2003; 2006), Mello (2003; 2014; 2018), Saviani (2003; 2007; 2012; 2013), entre outros. Na construção de um debate sobre o tema, destaca-se a pedagogia da autonomia, de Paulo Freire, teórico fundamental na elucidação de um modelo de escola democrática e cidadã, e que hoje, face a atual configuração político-educacional do país, sofre graves ataques, deflagrando assim, a inércia governamental na estruturação dos sistemas de ensino público e na valorização dos professores, aspectos que fragmentam e distanciam a escola pública de um ideário de democracia social.

Free Children and Democratic Schools: A Philosophical Study of Liberty and Education (Rosemary Chamberlin)

Free Children and Democratic Schools: A Philosophical Study of Liberty and Education (Rosemary Chamberlin)