Democratic School Research Articles

Study of Democratic Schools and its Contribution to the Reinvigoration of Democracy

This article presents a simple yet profound idea: the lessons learned through the study of democratic schools can offer key insights into how to reinvigorate democracy. To prove this claim, the authors draw on their experience as co-editors of the book Designing Democratic Schools and Learning Environments - A Global Perspective. The book explores almost forty cases in sixteen countries where educational initiatives have been implemented and designed to foster democratic forms of education. Using the four-frames theoretical approach by Bolman and Deal (2021), the article assesses how the process of producing a book that analyzes democratic schools and learning environments relates to the challenges faced by democratic governance. The article suggests that the difficulties and challenges of building democratic learning environments may correlate with the difficulties of sustaining and protecting a democracy. This has been highlighted through the example of the democratic book creation process that we followed. This article contributes to the broader topic of the purposes of education by examining ways in which schools and education systems can transform distributive leadership, self-governance, and student agency into key aspects of the mission of reinvigorating democracy in the twenty-first century.

ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЙ О СУЩНОСТИ МЕСТНОГО САМОУПРАВЛЕНИЯ В ОБЩЕСТВЕННО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОМ ДИСКУРСЕ

The article analyzes the socio-political discourse of local self-government in the post-Soviet period of Russia’s development. The aim was to study the transformation of ideas about the functions of local government in the socio-political discourse of 2014-2023. The research method was quantitative and qualitative content analysis of texts. As it turned out, in the associative series with the concept of “local self-government”, word forms associated with the meanings of local democracy, civil society, democracy, and political participation of citizens were least used. To a much greater extent, the concept of local self-government turned out to be associated with concepts describing it as local public administration related to the performance of the function of providing services to the population, solving socio-economic problems. As a result of the study, the hypothesis was confirmed that the idea of transforming local self-government is the lowest link in the system of public power has support in political discourse. In the public consciousness, the function of this institution as a “school of democracy” was almost completely replaced by the idea of it as a “grassroots” management unit, engaged mainly in providing services to the population and solving socio-economic problems. Such a painless rejection of the democratic component in a broader context confirms the hypothesis that the formation of local self-government in the first half of the 1990s was not democratic, but politically situational in nature, associated with the interests of a relatively small number of actors, the lack of formation of local communities in the post-Soviet period, and the weakness of the “middle class”, therefore unable to become social the base of local government. This gave rise to the objective inevitability of the subsequent evolution of the institute of local self-government into the “lower floor” of the regional public administration system, bringing the “superstructure” institute of political management in line with its basic basis.

The School for Democracy: Co-operation and the Authoritarian State in 1930s Estonia

The School for Democracy: Co-operation and the Authoritarian State in 1930s Estonia

Democracy and Rationality in Schools: The Three Paradigms of Public School Administration

Democracy and Rationality in Schools: The Three Paradigms of Public School Administration

CONCEPÇÕES DE GESTÃO ESCOLAR DEMOCRÁTICA: ESTUDO FENOMENOGRÁFICO COM DIRETORES DE ESCOLAS PÚBLICAS

ABSTRACT: Given the scarcity of empirical studies on democratic school management in Brazil, the objective of this research is to analyze, according to phenomenography, the different conceptions of democratic school management and their implications for management practices of public school principals. Data collection used in-depth individual interviews with 19 principals of municipal elementary schools. Data were analyzed using a phenomenographic protocol established in the literature. We traced three different conceptions of democratic school management: (1) as fulfillment of roles; (2) as input for decision-making; (3) as meeting the needs of the community. The main contribution of this research is to show how these conceptions lead school principals to adopt different democratic management practices. Another contribution is to provide an alternative interpretation of the role of street-level bureaucrats and other actors who modify public policies when implementing them. The findings also show that the promotion of participation, through dialogue, fosters organizational authorship. Finally, phenomenography is presented as a promising research method for the field of school management.

Should Government Agencies Be Trusted? Developing Students’ Civic Narrative Competence Through Social Science Education

Democratic school systems are expected to equip students with the knowledge, abilities, and attitudes needed for life as citizens, particularly through social science education. Disciplinary knowledge, derived from the academic counterparts to school subjects, is essential in developing these skills. However, research has also emphasized the importance of life-world perspectives, where students’ experiences are included and taken seriously in teaching. This study suggests that the theory of (civic) narrative competence can function as a bridge between the disciplinary domain and the life-world domain in its focus on how students’ civic reasoning can be developed through teaching. The article uses narrative theory to explore how the students’ civic narratives changed and became more nuanced after a teaching segment focusing on social and political trust. In the article, we demonstrate how the students’ personal experiences colored their interpretations and orientations before the teaching segment and how their civic narratives were developed through the implemented teaching, which provided them with concepts, a theoretical model, and empirical examples. We found that the students did not discard previous perceptions after the teaching segment, but integrated them into their new knowledge and orientations, thus integrating the life-world and disciplinary domains.

학교민주주의의 재개념화를 위한 시론: 신유물론 관점에 입각한 성원권 확장을 중심으로

This study aimed to explore what insights new materialism might provide for advancing the discussion on school democracy with a specific focus on the issue of extending membership to nonhuman beings. It reviews the literature that sought to move away from a minimalist approach to school democracy and confirms that schools could be a place for experimentation and imagination for a new democracy. Then, it discusses what it might mean to extend the membership of school democracy to nonhuman beings through a theoretical framework informed by new materialism as follows. First, extending the membership of school democracy to nonhuman beings requires an onto-epistemological turn. Second, it shifts democratic subjectivity from something fixed to something created “through” actions performed in a specific context. Last, it is critical to cultivate response-ability in order to practice school democracy based on this onto-epistemology. Based on these discussions, this study re-conceptualizes school democracy as a space-time in which all school members, including nonhuman beings, renew their subjectivity as a democratic citizen by attending and responding to each other with a sense of entanglemt.

인류세에서의 장소성과 생태교육 : 제천간디학교를 중심으로

Jecheon Gandhi School, which opened in 1997, is the only alternative school in Korea with an integrated middle and high-school curriculum. This school has been providing ecological education under the democratic school philosophy of growing into happy and mature citizens. Ecological toilets, farming, operating a curriculum based on love and spontaneity, and active social participation form a model of a future school that coexists with the local community by prioritizing the will of students. Based on Timothy Morton's concept of a place with potential, we can understand the Jecheon Gandhi School from cultural geography and aesthetic aspects. We aimed to create a village community that goes against civilization, and educational activities both inside and outside the school that resonated with the ideology of ecological art. The Jecheon Gandhi School can beused as an excellent school model for the future to overcome climate crises and regional extinction.

Review of Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools by Cara Furman and Cecelia Traugh for Studies in Philosophy and Education

Review of Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools by Cara Furman and Cecelia Traugh for Studies in Philosophy and Education

Volunteering in three cohorts of Czech adolescents: the socialization roles of family, school, and associations

This study aims to identify the proximal socialization processes that are consistently related to adolescents’ volunteering across changing macrosocial conditions. We focused on three groups of Czech adolescents: one living in an early post-communist society (1995) and two living in developed democratic conditions (2010 and 2019). Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed survey-based data from 14-year to 17-year-olds (Ns = 833, 893, and 2,836, respectively). Identical scales with established measurement invariance were used. The results showed that volunteering in all three groups was consistently predicted by prosocial parenting and adolescents’ associational involvement. Another consistent predictor was democratic school climate, although its effect gradually declined across the cohorts. Contrary to our expectations, we found no consistent effects of family cohesion, parental education, or family economic well-being. Overall, adolescents’ volunteering seems to be stimulated by environments promoting prosocial and democratic values and providing sufficient opportunities to become involved with different associations.

Adolescents’ participation opportunities and student well-being in school

At school, it is important that young people are in an environment in which they feel well and have a positive attitude. To increase the positive attitude toward school as an indicator of the well-being of students, it is essential to know which factors influence it. Recent studies have indicated that participation opportunities at school might have a positive impact on the well-being of students. However, participation encompasses a wide range of different actions, decision-making processes, and forms of communication. This article explores different aspects of student participation—democratic school culture, active co-design, pseudo-participation, and the co-determination of students in the classroom and in teaching—and its relationships to student well-being. This article has an exploratory design and uses representative secondary data (n = 1,526) of students in the 8th to 10th grades in Vorarlberg (Austria) for a multilevel analysis to examine different aspects of student participation that promote or reduce student well-being. The results show that a democratic school culture has the strongest correlation with student well-being. Students’ co-determination and active co-design in the classroom and in teaching are also positively related to student well-being. Pseudo-participation has a weak negative effect on student well-being. The results suggest that in order to promote student well-being, it is important to increase the democratic culture of schools, to involve students in as many decisions as possible, and to let them have a real say in the class.

Using Technology to Expand Communities of Practice and Support Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Music Education

Technology can help expand communities of practice in music education and promote a democratic schooling process vital to culturally sustaining pedagogy. Through careful and effective implementation, technology helps connect students to relevant musical communities and supports educators in achieving student-centered thinking and practices. The increased use of technology during the pandemic created a unique opportunity for music educators to reflect on both the educational benefits and challenges of implementing technological resources in the music classroom. From smaller activities to large-scale projects, there are strong implications for how technology can play a role in transformative music education.

‘You Can Sue for Anything’: Student Rights to Participate in School Disciplinary Procedures and Legal Socialisation

This study explored how participatory disciplinary systems in democratic (open) schools reflect distinct models of students’ collective rights to participate in decision making embedded in different patterns of legal socialisation. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with students, educators, and parents from three democratic schools in Israel, the study revealed contradictory approaches. One student participation model subscribes to a strictly legalistic approach, grounded in a criminal justice discourse and encompassing all aspects of the school's everyday life as well as after-school hours. A second model of participatory practices operates a flexible disciplinary system derived from mediative and therapeutic principles, applying procedural rules only in severe cases. The differences between the models indicate that participation does not inherently shape the contours of schools’ disciplinary systems. They challenge the dichotomous discourse in the literature on participation rights and legal socialisation, contrasting punitive vs. participative disciplinary methods and coercive vs. consensual approaches towards rules.

Civic education in informal settings: Black voluntary associations as schools for democracy, 1898-1959

ABSTRACT Historians of social studies and race have focused overwhelmingly on formal educational settings, textbooks, and curriculum, thereby overlooking the informal educational spaces valued by African Americans. This study examines civic education in informal settings by considering the educational programs of Black voluntary organizations. Hundreds of civic voluntary associations were formed after the Civil War, and they gave African Americans a counterpublic space to undertake racial uplift, promote education, and learn how to be a citizen. In this article, I focus on the activities of one organization, the Improved, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, or Black Elks, to reveal how African American communities valued education for democratic participation and taught civics to youth and adults through their educational programming. I argue that the civic education supported and taught by voluntary associations was perceived by African American communities as just as important as the lessons taught in school. This study holds implications for contemporary social studies researchers by revealing the fluidity of learning sites among home, school, and communities for African Americans.

Constructing ‘the parents’ in primary schools in Greece: special education teachers’ whispers

The Greek educational system is highly centralized and the communication between parents and teachers is considered as a marginal or a grey area in the school function. Educational legislation favours parents’ involvement rather than participation and implies an imbalance between parents and professionals. Drawing on a study using a life history approach, this paper considers the ways in which special education teachers in both special education schools and integration units perceive the parents of their students. The boundaries between expert knowledge and personal experience form a contested terrain of power relationships. These relationships are shaped by circumstances and are highly contextualized. Special school teachers deem parents in a deficit discourse while Integration unit teachers deem parents in a client discourse. The construction of the “parents” seems to be a gendered and social class issue as well. This work also reveals some implications for the teachers’ training programmes in order to ensure a more equal partnership at more inclusive and democratic schools.

Democracy and Inclusive Education Policy in Post-1994 South African Schools: Goal, Tension, and Struggle

Globally, the idea of inclusive democracy is synonymous with the participation, deliberation, and representation of citizens in the management of the affairs of nation-states. In the light of this global picture, South Africa's constitutional democracy and its inclusive education policy ensure the right to education for school-going children (from foundation, to the intermediate and senior phases). Unfortunately, the zones of exclusion (i.e. difficulties to exercise the right to education) have shown that in post-apartheid South African schools, inclusive education gains have not been enjoyed by the intended recipients-the learners. This means that despite the formalisation of inclusive education policies by the state, substantive inclusion (i.e. active participation, deliberative engagement, and participatory representation) remains a distant dream for many school-going children in South Africa. Against this backdrop, the authors show that formal inclusive policy in schools in South Africa is split between social changes on one hand, and political democracy on the other. Consequently, the authors support the call for a continual struggle by (or for) educable learners who fall within the zones of exclusion in post-1994 South Africa. Ultimately, the authors argue that the realisation of substantive inclusive education depends on the protests of the excluded, who struggle in the interstices of zones of exclusion that have created and deepened the gulf between the ideal and the achievement because democratic inclusive education is at a crossroad; it is extended and dragged in opposite directions in post-1994 South Africa schools.

Gender context matters: The hidden gender equality problem of school democracy

The aim of this article was to examine how gender and gender context affect students’ experiences of democracy in upper secondary school. The study was based on survey responses from about 1500 students. The students’ experiences of school democracy were operationalized as a collective deliberative communication among fellow students and teachers. Three different explanatory factors were considered: the significance of gender, gender context and the gendered content of the educational programmes. The results showed that a higher share of male students in a class is associated with poorer experiences of democracy. However, educational programmes with a traditional male content were proven favourable regarding school democracy. Since the gender context has one effect and the contents of the education programme affects in the opposite direction, the analytical separation of the variables was necessary to reveal the hidden equality problem of school democracy. Gender context does matter.

Civic Sovereignty: Indigenous Civic Constructs in Public School Spaces

Context:This study examines how urban American Indian high school students negotiate their civic identities within the settler colonial structures of urban American public schools.Research Question:How do urban American Indian students negotiate civic identities in spaces where civic concepts are taught, such as American history classes in an urban public high school and a Native Youth Council (Native YC)?Research Design:This critical participatory ethnographic study examines the negotiation of civic identity by 11 urban Indigenous students in social studies classes, a Native YC, and a school in Washington State, where the STI curriculum is taught. Safety zone theory and tribal critical race theory were used to understand students’ experiences and their stories from observations, participant interviews, and focus groups, which were employed as data.Conclusions/Recommendations:The study found that the social studies classes and Native YC were zones of sovereignty (ZoS), forwarding survivance and self-determination for Native students. Students learned about the Indigenous civic constructs of sovereignty, self-determination, dual citizenship, tribal self-government, and federal Indian policy inside and outside of school, all of which supported Native students in civic identity development. Recommendations on teaching Indigenous civic constructs to all students as part of teaching for critical democracy in public schools as a component of social studies classes and extracurricular activities are discussed.

Student participation: between the twilight of the liberal model of democracy and the rise of neoliberal policies

ABSTRACT Student participation has become a relevant topic in the international debate on education. However, the conceptions of the meaning of participation and its practical implications are very heterogeneous. This article reviews how educational policies have conceived student participation in Western countries. Having conceptualised student participation, the role of the liberal model in shaping school democracy and student participation is explored. It is suggested that this model is in crisis due to two main factors. On the one hand, the organisation of democratic processes in schools has well recognised limitations. On the other hand, the pressure of the neoliberal agenda on standardisation and the emphasis on individual success omit any interest in democratic aims. The evolution of education policies concerning student participation is illustrated with reference to a case analysis of Spanish state educational legislation. The future of student participation is reflected on.

Democracy in school: Democracy in the eyes of the little ones!

Democracy in school: Democracy in the eyes of the little ones!