Democratic School Research Articles

Problematização da escolarização doméstica: uma defesa da escola pública enquanto espaço comum e democrático

Abstract This paper problematizes home schooling by analyzing bills currently under review in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as reports by mothers on the intensification of homeschooling during the coronavirus crisis. We understand that the proposal of homeschooling is aligned with a conservative neoliberal governmentality with a focus on the processes of individualization, exclusion, and teacher de-professionalization, which have prevented the schooling process from being shared in the common, public, and democratic school setting. As a form of resistance to such a process, we have brought up the concept of common as proposed by Dardot and Laval, which has enabled us to think of school as a non-appropriable setting.

Nietzschean perceptions of Democratic School Management: a possible theoretical conjunction

RESUMO O presente estudo tem como objetivo geral compreender as críticas construídas por Friedrich Nietzsche à democracia e suas relações com a Gestão Escolar Democrática no Brasil. E como específicos: contextualizar a democracia quanto ao seu conceito e história; interpretar os princípios democráticos sob o enfrentamento do pensamento nietzschiano; analisar a Gestão Escolar Democrática brasileira sob a perspectiva nietzschiana. Ler, compreender e relacionar as ideias sobre a Gestão Escolar Democrática, apresentadas nos estudos bibliográficos e documentais, com as críticas de Nietzsche sobre a democracia, necessitou de um percurso metodológico singular. Em cada momento da pesquisa, a metodologia revelou não somente interpretações abstratas, mas uma realidade escolar que necessita ser constantemente reanalisada, em decorrência das contradições políticas e institucionais que afetam diretamente a democracia. Mesmo amparada legalmente, a gestão escolar historicamente vem sendo moldada conforme os princípios democráticos burgueses, adaptada a um viés meritocrático que espelha o ressentimento de uns e o júbilo de outros.

Student council and democratic school management in control societies

Resumo Este texto apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa com estudantes membros de um grêmio estudantil de uma escola pública de Santa Catarina, buscando responder à questão: que sujeito a escola tem produzido na contemporaneidade democrática? Ancorados em base epistemológica pós-estruturalista, objetiva-se problematizar práticas democráticas de um grêmio estudantil. Os principais teóricos utilizados foram Deleuze, Guattari e Foucault. A ferramenta de produção dos dados foi o diário de campo, composto por áudios registrados em reuniões do grêmio. Apesar de o grêmio refletir a gestão democrática e se constituir em um espaço de múltiplas possibilidades, infere-se que ele opera, simultaneamente, como extensão do currículo, ao produzir os sujeitos demandados neste tempo. Sujeitos dóceis, úteis e participativos.

A PSICOLOGIA E A CONSTRUÇÃO DA ESCOLA DEMOCRÁTICA

SUMMARY This text refers to the conference presented by the author at the opening of the XV CONPE, promoted by ABRAPEE, in July 2022. In the first part, the main conceptions about the role of the school in capitalist societies and their impacts on the practices developed are presented. We sought to understand whether the school represents a space for the performance of educators committed to the formation of critical and transformative citizens. Next, data are presented on the Brazilian educational reality, marked by the contradictions of a dualistic system and divided between privatist and publicist interests. In the second part, the concept of democratic school is analyzed from three dimensions: quantitative (school for all and permanence), qualitative (function and quality of teaching) and internal relations (collective work). Finally, it is argued that Psychology can have a fundamental contribution to the construction of the democratic school, provided that some conditions are assumed by psychologists: interdisciplinary action with educators, basically preventive work directed to educational planning and the overcoming of conservative theoretical conceptions, as the Medical Model.

Demokratyzacja edukacji w liceach – jak ją rozumieją uczniowie?

The subject matter addressed in this paper, also appearing in theoretical considerations and research carried out over the past 30 years, seems to be particularly relevant from the viewpoint of the democratic changes in Polish schools. The COVID-19 pandemic, lasting for over two years, was a time which brought specific experiences to young people, also related to education. The article starts with theoretical considerations focusing on the values, which are of particular relevance for assessing the state of the democratic changes in this institution. The text also focuses on various issues related to the organs of school democracy, i.e., student self-government and school council. The next part of the article explains the procedure used in the current study. In its central part, the article presents findings of the study assessing how secondary school students understood democratic changes in education in their schools during the specific time of the COVID-19 pandemic (during distance learning and face-to-face interactions at school). The text ends with conclusions from the present study, followed by pedagogical recommendations for secondary school headmasters, teachers and educators as well as students.

Relation Between School Journalism and Democracy

This article mainly studies the role of media on campus. Almost all schools have student organizations, but there is little to monitor them and report the truth. As one of the students, I founded the school newspaper We Say, which became the largest media in the school. Through this paper, I hope to explore whether the media can help promote democracy and the role of the media in social groups. Although the school only has a few thousand people, I still hope to use the school as a model for a small society. Whether it is of great significance to study our journalism through practice. Finally, I found the answer. Our journalism serves three very important functions in our schools: informing people, investigating and making the students organization democratic, and building a forum for everyone.

A typology of educational democratic values: perspectives from teachers and students in Vietnamese secondary schools

ABSTRACT Educational democratic (ED) values and their manifestation in school are related to the school context and the socio-political-cultural setting. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine participants, including two principals, four teachers, and three students in two secondary schools in Da Nang city, Central Vietnam. The participants indicated sixteen ED values, either instrumental (e.g., friendliness, autonomy) or terminal (e.g., fairness, equality). These ED values can be recognized in both formal and informal school spaces. The findings shed light on the Vietnamese stakeholders’ views on ED values, their manifestation, and their contribution to the democratic school, which could be a premise for further exploring stakeholders’ democratic commitment in the Vietnamese educational context.

Advancing a Democratic Pedagogy and Supervision Framework: An Illustrative Case of Teacher Questioning in Secondary Mathematics Instruction

This article pushes back against the evalu-centric view of improvement (Hazi, 2018; 2020) in the supervision literature by advocating for a democratic pedagogy and supervision framework developed to support instructional supervision and evaluation dialogue between teachers and leaders. This democratized approach honors and centers the teacher’s expertise and learning as well as the leader’s in the observation, debrief, and reflection process. Through this decentering of expertise in the instructional supervision cycle, our goal is to build leaders’ and teachers’ mutual capacity to develop, implement, and sustain democratic instructional supervision cultures in classrooms and schools. Additionally, we illustrate our framework through a subject/discipline-specific case of instructional supervision in secondary mathematics instruction. Through this illustrative case, we demonstrate how the framework provides school leaders and teachers with specific, shared pedagogical language to engage in standards-based mathematical dialogue during the instructional supervision process. Finally, we discuss the implications of our questioning framework for democratic school leadership, supervisors’ leadership content knowledge, teachers’ discipline-specific work of teaching, and instructional supervision practices, which are often stifled by accountability-driven teacher evaluation education policies that suppress schools’ leadership capacity to apply democratic instructional supervision standards and principles.

Democratic Principal (Kula Babong) Leadership Model: Examining the Role of Du'a Moan Watu Pitu in Sikka Krowe Community

Preserving culture is an important aspect of the life of indigenous peoples because it is identical to a lifestyle that is still guided by local customs. The process of cultural preservation in indigenous peoples cannot be separated from the important role of the community as an academic locus and Du'a Mo'an Watu Pitu as the responsible one. Based on this reality, this study aims to determine the leadership model of a democratic school principal based on local wisdom and examine the role of du'a moan watu pitu in maintaining the Kula babong culture (democracy) in the Sikka Krowe community. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with an ethnographic approach. The subjects in this study were 4 principals of private and public schools, four Sikka krowe traditional leaders who inhabit each region, and culturalists in the Krowe Ethnic community, Sikka krowe Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Data collection techniques used are observation, interviews and documentation. The results showed that the school principal's leadership model was based on the values of Sikka Krowe's local wisdom: the value of honesty, the value of courage, the value of kula babong, and charisma. Du'a Mo'an Watu Pitu's role in preserving the Kula Babong culture (democracy) is to maintain the integrity of traditional institutions, perform traditional rituals, resolve social conflicts and uphold justice.

DEMOCRATIC SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN CURRENT EDUCATION: PARTICIPATION, COMMUNICATION AND MEDIATION

DEMOCRATIC SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN CURRENT EDUCATION: PARTICIPATION, COMMUNICATION AND MEDIATION

Reinventing Freire in the 21st century:

This year we remember three centennials that inspire many progressive educators around the world. First, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Summerhill, one of the first experiments (if not the first) on school democracy in the world. Second, this year we celebrate the 100th birthday of Edgar Morin, a French sociologist and philosopher who dedicated his life to the pursuit of social justice and made insightful contributions to the role of education to promote democracy, equality, social transformation, and sustainability (see, for instance, Morin 2002). Third, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Paulo Freire (1921-1997), one of the most influential educational thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. Given space constraints and the theme of this special issue of CICE, in this paper we will focus on the connections between some of Paulo Freire’s ideas (particularly those related to citizenship education and school democracy) and a process known as School Participatory Budgeting.
 “I don't want to be followed; I want to be reinvented”, Paulo Freire said on several occasions. It is in this spirit that we approach this paper. Inspired by Freire’s ideas, and especially by his practice as an educator in Brazil (both before his exile and after his return), in this paper we discuss the recent development and expansion of a process known as School Participatory Budgeting (School PB). This model emanates from Freire’s project of Escola Cidadã, which constitutes an interesting school- or district-wide experience from the global south that can be adapted to many contexts. Since its modest origins in Brazil, School PB has now been taken up in other cities and states across the US (e.g. Chicago, New York) and in many other countries across the globe, from Argentina and Mexico to Colombia, Spain, Russia, France, Italy, Zambia, South Korea, and Portugal. We argue that School PB aligns well with Freire’s ideas on dialogue, participation, collaboration, creativity, student agency, and change. In this paper we focus on the experience of School PB in Arizona, not only because it was in Arizona where the first School PB process in the U.S. was designed and implemented, but also because it has been a place for continuous experimentation and innovation.

Pupils as subjects or objects: Policy changes in the area of pupils influence

The aim of this article is to describe and analyse how policy changes in the three latest Swedish compulsory school, preschool class, and school-age educare curricula affect the political goal of pupil influence. This is done with an interest in implications for utterances of power relations and for didactical considerations for living and learning democracy in school. This article analyses pupil influence by using theories of democracy, power, and didactics. The method used is content analysis. The empirical results show that pupil influence in the curricula is linked to seven concepts: democracy, value, norm, rights, responsibility, influence, participation. Our conclusion is that only small differences exist in terms of the central concepts mentioned in the curricula linked to pupil influence. Secondly, we found a policy shift with respect to the pupils, i.e., viewing pupils as subjects or objects. Thirdly, we found a shift in how learning is viewed in the curricula and the type of didactical questions that are in focus, which illuminates a change in utterances of power relations that challenges possibilities for living and learning democracy in Swedish school education.

Critiquing the use of children’s voice as a means of forging the community in a Polish democratic school

ABSTRACT The paper examines school meetings held in a small democratic school in Poland in order to explore how school communities are formed. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of power, the authors analyse fieldnotes and interview excerpts to reveal how voice and scripted bodily expressions accompanying verbal utterances are privileged in these school meetings to forge a community. Rather than being merely a space where students can act as empowered participants in democratic school governance, the school meetings are also argued to reduce the modalities of participation to voice and embodied forms of action and attention. Voiced participation is thereby instrumentalised to construct a democratic community with its dynamics of inclusions and exclusions. The paper concludes by pointing to reflexive engagements with utilising voice in democratic communities.

Is another democracy possible in schools? Challenges to create a truly democratic school

In most schools everywhere, democracy and participation continue to be carried out through the usual channels based on representative democracy and the vote of elected representatives. However, this reality is not monolithic, and we do find centers committed to practise a full and more profound democracy. Based on a case study, the article analyzes the theoretical and practical approach of Germinal School. Despite some difficulties, this school has successfully implemented a project of radical democracy, both through micropolitics and daily pedagogical action. This article also examines why it is so difficult to democratize school and how to create a truly democratic institution. Finally, we address the possibility of extending the democratic model presented here to other schools.

Good seed makes a good crop? The relationship between civil society and post-independence democracy levels

ABSTRACT The impact of civil society on democracy is contested. Some argue that Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are important ‘schools of democracy’ and may foster democratic consolidation. Others emphasize that anti-democratic CSOs may undermine democracy. This debate is particularly relevant in the context of newly independent states. At that critical juncture, both democratic and authoritarian regime trajectories are possible. Societal preconditions – such as the state of civil society – can therefore be particularly relevant for the way forward. To what extent does the nature of CSOs prior to independence has an impact on the subsequent level of democracy? We argue that the existence of democratic CSOs prior to independence strengthens post-independence democracy whereas non-democratic CSOs have a detrimental effect. For the first time, this argument is empirically tested, using Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data on 91 cases of independence since 1905. The empirical results demonstrate that the presence of democratic CSOs prior to independence is positively correlated, whereas non-democratic CSOs are negatively correlated to democracy levels following independence.

Parental choice, collective identity and neoliberalism in alternative education: new free democratic schools in Poland

The article analyses a new educational development in Poland, that is, free democratic schools, which are grassroots initiatives of parents seeking an alternative to the traditional pedagogies of the public schooling. These schools form a broader network. Based on ethnographic research carried out at eight such schools over five years, the authors discuss the formation of schools, parents’ motivations, collective identity constructions, and internal tensions of inclusion and belonging. Regarding the potential impact of the schools on a broader educational sphere, the authors argue that the alternative schooling as an option for parental choice parallel to the expansion of neoliberal policies and new inequalities creates tensions between the notions of democracy and the consumer logic. However, as observed practices suggest, democratic school communities face internal political dynamics intertwined with societal issues and may seek involvement outside their circles. While these communities are constantly being reformulated, the question of exit and voice becomes their permanent feature.

Towards an understanding of curricular justice and democratic schooling

ABSTRACT Curricular justice, achieved through a counter-hegemonic curriculum that serves the needs of the least rather than most advantaged members of society, plays a central role in providing more equitable access to meaningful education for all young people. We contend that the defining features of the contemporary schooling context in many parts of the globe, including Australia, are growing inequality and increasing disparity between students who have access to educational opportunities and outcomes, and those who do not. We take Connell’s claims—made in Schools and Social Justice, published in 1993—of the centrality of social justice in schooling and consider its relevance nearly 30 years later. In particular, we argue that curricular justice must sit at the heart of schooling that fosters democratic participation and meaningful opportunities for civic participation and belonging within society.

Cara E. Furman and Cecelia E. Traugh. Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 2021. 216 pp. $105.00 (cloth); $34.95 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewCara E. Furman and Cecelia E. Traugh. Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 2021. 216 pp. $105.00 (cloth); $34.95 (paper).Stephane BarileStephane Barile Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Schools Volume 18, Number 2Fall 2021 Published in association with the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/716630 Views: 16Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

College, career, and civic readiness: Building school communities that prepare youth to thrive as 21st century citizens

ABSTRACT In the United States, advances in information technology and globalization present new social and political terrain for citizens to navigate. Preparing well-rounded young adults who are ready to meet the demands of citizenship in the 21st century—thinking critically, communicating, collaborating, and creating—is an imperative function of education. Findings from this multiple case study of “positive outlier” schools, or those with better-than-expected graduation outcomes among youth with historically disparate rates, utilize practices that incorporate Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Deeper Learning (DL) strategies. PYD and DL facilitate students’ development of skills, abilities, and dispositions that define 21st century citizenship. Though the schools in this study were selected for their better college and career preparation as measured by graduation outcomes, educators in positive outlier schools, in contrast to typically performing schools, emphasized student preparation for citizenship along with college and career preparation. The unique features of positive outlier schools include: commitment to pluralism, ethic of shared sacrifice and responsibility, community-directed critical thinking, and democratic school governance. For these schools, the college, career, and civic readiness replaced the exclusive college and career readiness paradigm.

Working with teachers on culturally affirming instruction in Guatemala

ABSTRACT This study examines 96 Guatemalan teachers’ perspectives on the viability of educational mandates from Guatemala’s Ministry of Education and explores their perceived ability to advocate in the schoolhouse. Data included focus groups prior to, and after, workshops on topics related to effective literacy interventions in diverse contexts. Findings indicate positive changes from pre to post-workshop focus groups in participants’ beliefs of their potential to become allies with students, improve their pedagogy, and build democratic schools.