Session Information
07 SES 07 A, Critical Democratic Citizenship
Paper Session
Contribution
This communication is based on information gathered during the two last years of R & D research project "Democracy, Participation and Inclusive Education in Schools" (EDU2012-39556-C02-01-02). The aim of this paper is to analyse and identify the characteristics of the structures and practices in which democracy is developed in an educational centre from the perspective of the faculty.
To consider the school and high school democratic institutions is, in general, an assumed generic proposal but many often reduced to a declaration of intentions which sets the foundation of what Zyngier (2012) has conceptualized as thin democracy. On the one hand, democracy is associated indistinctly to governability, altruism, equality, common good, collaboration and participation (Allan, 2003; Grossman, 2008; Murphy, 2004; Osler & Starkey, 2004) without having too much precise a criteria to establish relationships between each one of the concepts with democracy. On the other hand, the edges are demarcated, boxing democracy exclusively to the presence of the different educational community sectors in the formal established bodies. And, in the end deepening in the democratic practices is avoided under the excuse of the impossibility of equating the roles of teachers, students and families. When, in reality, a democratic relationship does not mean the dissolution of each position but it means, precisely, the recognition of each of the positions and the willingness that each involved agent in the life of the centre has a physical and symbolic space with the aim of having their participation respected with regards to its mission (Lawy, Biesta, 2006). The scarce achievements reached by the educational policies interested in introducing democracy and participation in the centres is due to several factors: certain carelessness by the faculty; a use of didactical strategies and relationships vaguely appropriate; legal limitations, etc. In other occasions, the educational institution does not promote the implications of all its members since for a larger part of the faculty their work involves passing on knowledge packed in disconnected subjects among them. This implies that each teacher is responsible of their classroom and they do not want to become involved in anything that goes beyond it, hallways, coexistence, relationships with the context (Feito, 2010: 35).
Vieno et al. (2005), assert that the quality and intensity of democracy depends on certain structural questions (like for example the size of the centre, aptitude and characteristics of the spaces, etc.) and other more malleable like: level of interactions between the members of the community, number and characteristics of the after school activities, participation of the students in the decisions making of the centre, participation of the students in the making of the norms of the school. And in another level it should be also taken into account the freedom of expression, the equity of the norms in the centre, etc.
This paper analyses, in the framework of a larger research on democracy in the school centres, how the strategies and democratic practices are valued by the teachers on the basis of the following items:
-To know the concept they have on democracy
-Identify the spaces and places where, according to the teachers, democracy is practiced in the centre
-Capture, according to the teachers, the role that they have in the practice of democracy
-Determine the level of satisfaction on the democratic practice in the centre
-Contrasting the point of view of teachers on the experiences that are useful to learn in depth about the democratic practice.
-Value the level of teaching and learning of the democratic practices on students from the teacher’s perspective
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Allan, J. (ed.) (2003). Inclusion, Participation, and Democracy: What Is the Purpose? Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Apple, M. W.; Beane, J. A. (Comps) (1997). Democratic Schools. Virginia: ASCD. Biesta G.; Lawy, R. (2006) Citizenship-as-practice: the educational implications of an inclusive and relational understanding of citizenship. British Journal of Educational Studies, 54:1, 34-50. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: MacMillan Edelstein, W. (2011) Education for Democracy: reasons and strategies. European Journal of Education, 46:1, 127-137. Elmore, R. (2004). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Boston: Harvard Educational Press. European Language Portfolio (2003). Council of Europe. Strasbourg: Language Policy Unit. Feito, R., López Ruiz, J. I. (2010). Construyendo escuelas democráticas. Barcelona: Hipatia. Grossman, D.L. (2008) Democracy, citizenship education and inclusion: a multidi-mensional approach. Prospects, 38: 35-46, UNESCO IBE. MacBeath, J. (2012). Collaborate, innovate and lead. The future of the teaching profession. Debats d’Educació. Barcelona: Fundació Jaume Bofill. Marsick, V. J. et al. (2013). Schools as learning communities. A Huang, R. et al. (eds.). Reshaping Learning. New Frontiers of Educational Research (pp. 71-88). Murphy, T.A. (2004) Deliberative civic education and civil society: a consideration of ideals and actualities in democracy and communication education, Communication Education, 53:1, 74–91. Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (2008). The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice. Paris: CERI/OECD. Osler, A.; Starkey, H. (2004). Changing citizenship: Democracy and Inclusion in Education. Leicester: University of Leicester Samdal, O., Nutbeam, D., Wold, B. and Kannas, L. (1998), “Achieving health and educational goals through school – a study of the importance of school climate and student satisfaction”, Health Education Research, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 383-97. Simovska, V. (2004), “Student participation: a democratic education perspective – experience from the health-promoting schools in Macedonia”, Health Education Research, Vol. 19, pp. 198-207. Spillane, J. P. (2005). Distributed Leadership. The Educational Forum (vol. 69, pp. 143-150). Vieno, A.; Perkins, DD.; Smith, TM.; Santinello, M. (2005). “Democratic school climate and sense of community in school: A multilevel analysis.” American journal of community psychology 36 (3-4), 327-34 Zyngier, D. (2012). Rethinking the Thinking on Democracy in Education: What Are Educators Thinking (and Doing) About Democracy. Education 2012, 2, 1-21; doi:10.3390/educ2010001.
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