Teachers of secondary school as Democracy Coaches: Study of their conceptions during their initial formation (original) (raw)
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Power and Education, 2018
This article presents, first, the theoretical framework developed in a three-year research project that was designed to enable the authors to analyse the characteristics and quality of democracy in 10 centres (five primary schools for children aged from 3 to 12 and five secondary schools for children aged from 12 to 16). Second, students and teachers of one of the participating schools in the region of Barcelona explained their experience of participation as a way of living democratic citizenship education. Last, the article analyses what the authors have learned from this secondary school, as well as a number of research conclusions that allow one to understand some of the important aspects of how students live their condition of democratic citizenship in the school itself.
Teaching Democracy: Tools and Methods in the Secondary Education
International Journal of Educational Research Review
Political and Social scientists, since the end of the 20th century, have been concerned about youth's "withdrawal" from participating in public life. This paper addresses the issue of teaching Civic Education and presents new didactic and interactive tools that can be used in the educational process. Introducing the meaning of Democracy to students takes place in compulsory education but during Secondary Education is taught extensively with the aim of creating responsible and interactive citizens. Therefore, students are exercised in democratic procedures during courses, interactive learning and by electing students' board into school premises in order to motivate political participation and political understanding. However, an individual is not considered as a citizen only on the election day. To this end, thematic workshops were designed and implemented by using the principle of deliberation in schools in the area of Thessaloniki (Greece), in the context of the course "Contemporary World, Citizen and Democracy" in Secondary Education. The workshops focused on the familiarization with the Greek and European Parliament functions into the school communities by interactive and experiential learning. At the end of this approach, a survey was conducted to students concerning their opinion about deliberation and electoral procedures. In that terms, we aim to develop a structured and interactive Civic Education curriculum that will help shape active and responsible citizens. Our teaching practice is based on mathematical skills and statistical concepts to cultivate further the concepts of democracy and representation.
Education for democracy and democratic citizenship
Routledge eBooks, 2023
Educating democratic citizens who are committed to the values and principles of democracy and who are actively willing to develop democracy is at the core of crosscurricular teaching and closely related to another central theme of this book: Bildung. As pointed out in Chapter 3, "progressivist, democratic, and nonaffirmative approaches" can also highlight particular aspects of Bildung. A democratic approach emphasizes Bildung's social aspect, and in democratic societies, social aspects are strongly connected to democratic life, its principles, and its values. Cross-and transcurricular teaching is the basis for a successful education within and for a democracy. Content related to democracy needs to be studied in different school subjects, but democracy is more than knowledge. Fostering democratic values, attitudes toward democracy, and democratic skills requires teaching that is persistent, regular, and both cross-and transcurricular. This is at the center of this chapter, where we reflect on the idea of education for democracy in the context of crosscurricular, especially transcurricular teaching. Teachers are crucial to implementing education for democracy and democratic citizenship in classrooms and schools. Traditionally, schools have been institutions that follow the contemporary and permanent structures and activities of democracy rather than radically challenging and renewing themselves and society. Politicians define the basic guidelines for the development of schools, which does not mean that schools and teachers do not have power concerning their profession and work. The autonomy and pedagogical freedom of teachers and schools vary between societies. Thus, teachers' possibilities for acting as proactive developers of democracy instead of being merely reactive also vary. In principle, the teacher's role, according to typical school curricula in democratic societies, is to be an active educator for students' democratic participation. However, active social participation and interest in, for example, politics among young people is lower than expected (Edling & Mooney Simmie, 2020; Männistö, 2020; Raiker et al., 2020). Additionally, in the present state of research on democracy and education, there are many studies describing
Democracy and Education: A Theoretical Proposal for the Analysis of Democratic Practices in Schools
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2017
In the educational sphere, the concept of democracy is used in many and varied ways, though the hegemonic school culture often starts from a concept of democracy that is taken for granted, and it is understood that the entire educational community shares a similar concept. As a result of the research project "Democracy, participation and inclusive education in schools" we have realized that the above-mentioned concept is used without defining exactly what we are referring to, in the school setting and in many other contexts. This observation is what has prompted us to write this article, basically structured in two parts. In the first part, based on the theoretical debate occurring in the field of social sciences, we delimit the concept of democracy and structure it in four basic dimensions: governance, inhabitance, otherness and ethos. In the second part, we specify and examine in depth these four dimensions in the school setting in order to construct a broad and transversal, yet specific, definition, with which to be able to develop ambitious democratic projects and, in turn, contribute to scientific debate.
This paper examines perspectives and perceptions of democracy of pre-and in-service teachers as well as teacher-education academics in Australia in order to develop a robust and critical democratic education. Using data from an on-line survey the paper presents the quantitative analyses, and the qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy, citizenship and the role of education in the promotion and development of an active and thick democracy the paper critiques the neo-liberal (thin) democratic discourse of contemporary Australian academic research that suggests that the Civics and Citizenship Education project only requires some augmentation highlighting issues like sustainability and globalization while ignoring social justice issues. It begins by outlining the concepts of thick and thin democracy, and revisits the state of civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Australia. It is argued that while the pre-service teachers in this study may have a more critical and thicker understanding of democracy that is mirrored in the views of their teacher-education professors, the practicing teachers, on the other hand, have largely adopted the mainstream neo-liberal discourse, presenting a tendency to view democracy in a very narrow or thin way that may impact on their classroom practice. The paper concludes with recommendations related to what a thick democracy might actually look like in school education.
Conceptualizing Democracy as Preparation for Teaching for Democracy
2019
In this essay, a broad spectrum of the work of influential educational scholars was examined in order to identify crucial components of teaching for democracy. Synthesizing the literature with their experiences as middle level teachers and teacher educators, the authors determined those conceptions that would be most fruitful for moving pre-service teachers to enact the more “muscular” concepts that foster civic participation and social justice. This collaboration resulted in the identification of four democratic practices as a foundation for designing a course on teaching for democracy. These included amplification of the voices of historically marginalized people, recognition that those in power must work to meet the needs of those without power, recognition of the advantages of diversity even at the potential expense of efficiency, and collaboration in order to teach for democracy.
LEARNING DEMOCRACY Beyond the Traditional Didactics
S.Sava , C.Borca , and G.Clitan (Eds.). Collective Capacity Building Shaping Education and Communication in Knowledge Society 978-90-04-42220-9; 978-90-04-42218-6 , 2020
Political, cultural and sport activities and initiatives of citizens confirm some of the main didactic principles formulate long time ago, but without a long history of implementation either because of its demanding character, or because of institutional, conceptual or individual limits and constrains. On the other hand, the whole approach has additional qualities which make it substantially different and innovative. New didactic realities, new pedagogical and andragogical practices, new learning environments, and above all – new possibility to help develop critical, open-minded, democratic citizens – all this requires educators to rethink their role, their concept and practices. The new practices of this kind of learning in Serbia are analysed from the point of view of three theoretical approaches – public pedagogy, critical theory and embodied learning. The article analysis learning about democracy and citizenship in the new, alternative environments, that are created through civic activism ('occupying' unused spaces for cultural and learning activities, organizing peaceful protests against autocratic city planning and urbanism without participation of citizens, and similar actions.). This kind of learning is always a kind of community organized activity, whereby community is not understood in the traditional way, but as togetherness, as the collective action of citizens where people learn, through urban activism, about the values and mechanisms of democracy through practicing it. The new practices of this kind of learning in Serbia are analyzed from the point of view of three theoretical approaches – public pedagogy, critical theory and embodied learning. SENSE Publisher
Democratic Practices at School. Theoretical and Research Ascertainments
European Journal of Development Studies
The modern democratic society must ensure the realization of the ideal democracy through the education of the youth with knowledge-skills and critical thinking and finally through the education of democratic citizens. A democratic citizen is defined as a citizen who is personally responsible, participatory, and oriented towards social justice and has the will to work for the realization of democratic ideals. The key issues the study focuses on are: What school practices contribute to the preparation of democratic citizens? What is meant by the open / positive climate of the classroom and how is it related to the strengthening of citizenship according to research data? The main purpose of the study is to reflect and raise awareness about the democratic conditions we must ensure in schools, to avoid the erosion of institutions and the rejection or loose commitment to the rules of democracy.
World Studies in Education, 2013
This paper reports on the research of the international Global Doing Democracy Research Project, which currently has some 50 scholars in over 25 countries examining perspectives and perceptions of democracy in education among pre- and in-service teachers, teacher education academics, and educators, in general. The focus of the project is on how education supports, cultivates and engages in, and with, democracy. Using a critical pedagogical framework the research compares and contrasts these findings and implications across diverse political contexts, including the old democracies (countries such as the USA, Australia, Canada, England), emerging democracies (those countries coming out of autocratic, military or other dictatorships and or colonial rule), and what we have termed the new democracies (places and countries that are doing democracy differently as a result of public initiatives found in Latin America and elsewhere.