Student experiences of democratic education and the implications for social justice

Using data from a case-study school as a springboard, this article explores how enactments of democratic education might both problematise and illuminate new possibilities for the way we conceptualise social justice in education. Nancy Fraser’s tripartite framework of social justice is used to analyse in-depth interviews with students aged 14–16 from a democratic school in the United Kingdom. The article makes two key arguments: first, it highlights the interdependence of ‘recognition’ and ‘representation’ and, consequently, calls on mainstream policy and practice to make a substantive commitment to participatory democracy as part of the ‘inclusive education’ agenda. Second, it points to the tensions between ‘redistributive’ justice and other social justice aims which may be particularly stark in democratic education (and other progressive education) spaces. The article suggests that a strengthened relationship between democratic schools and research communities would offer a crucial contribution to collective critical reflection on social justice in education.

¡A La Huelga! Secondary Students, School Strikes, and the Power of Educational Activism in 1970s Nicaragua

ABSTRACTThe year 1976 was a violent one in Nicaragua. In an effort to quash the Sandinista guerrillas, the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle had declared a state of siege, suspending constitutional guarantees, muzzling the press, and unleashing the Guardia Nacional. Despite the dangers of dissent, thousands of students across the country walked off their secondary school campuses that year to protest poor funding, inept teachers, and oppressive administrators. This article examines this series of strikes to uncover the ways in which teenagers managed to organize their schools and communities in spite of the repression that marked the final years of the Somoza regime. Analyzing student documents, Ministry of Education records, and newspaper reports, this article argues that in the context of a decades-long dictatorship, student demands for more democratic schools opened a relatively safe pathway for cross-generational activism that forced concessions from the Somoza regime. By the 1970s, secondary schools had come to reflect the state's authoritarianism and mismanagement, and widespread educational deficiencies brought students and parents together in a joint project to demand better schools. Battles over the quality of education, thus, showcased the power of an organized citizenry and laid the groundwork for the revolutionary mobilizations that were to come.

Education for democracy or democratic education?

This article examines the phenomenon of democratic education and the role of democratization of education in modern society. The subject of this research define the main goal: it is necessary to assess the level of impact of democratic education upon the formation of critical thinking among younger generation. Within the framework of this article, analysis was conducted on the theoretical works of the researchers of humanities, legislative documents and reports dedicated to the questions of education policy. The author also covers the examples of practical implementation of the principles of democratic education in history and modernity; as well as considers the experience of such democratic schools and Summerhill and Sudbury Valley. The conclusion is made that the principles of democratic schools are not always widely implemented in the society. However, despite the criticism of democratic education worldwide, the principles of democratization of education are used ubiquitously from elementary education to higher education. This is testified by the examples of the successfully functioning democratic schools. Namely democratic and democratized education lay the foundation for upbringing of the national members of civil society due to the flexibility and adjustment of education to the needs of modern society. Such school can be justifiably considered as one of the best models for the development of critical thinking among younger generation due to holistic development of children.

¿Qué profesional de la educación para qué escuela y para qué sociedad?

Este artículo, resultado de la revisión y reflexión teórica, responde a la pregunta que todo profesional de la educación debería formularse: qué ser humano se desea formar para qué sociedad. Si aspiramos a una sociedad más justa y más humana, una sociedad convivencial, constituida por sujetos libres y emancipados, que es el planteamiento de este trabajo, necesitamos formar docentes, desde la pedagogía crítica, como agentes de cambio e intelectuales transformadores para que contribuyan al desarrollo de escuelas democráticas. Es decir, docentes que configuren un currículum contrahegemónico en el marco de una organización participativa en colaboración con la comunidad, instancias y movimientos sociopolíticos. This article, resulting from theoretical review and reflection, answers the question that every education professional should ask themselves: what human being is to be trained for what society. If our ambition is for a fairer and more humane society, a convivial society made up of free and emancipated subjects, which is the approach of this work, there is a need to train teachers, from critical pedagogy, as agents of change or transformative intellectuals so that they help towards the development of democratic schools. That is to say, teachers who shape a counterhegemonic curriculum in the context of a participatory organisation in collaboration with the community, authorities and sociopolitical movements.