BY THE NETWORK OF DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP SCHOOLS NO. 01 I 2017
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY
THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Discover what happen in this event promoted by the Network of democratic Citizenship Schools, last april in Faro Portugal
TOOLS AND IDEAS FOR SCHOOL PARTICIPATION Discover and get inspired by our selection of tools and ideas for school participation such as the Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenship Schools
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Derry Hannam shares with us inspiring examples of student participation in democratic decision making in schools
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "PARTICIPATORY SCHOOLS 4 BETTER DEMOCRACY"
CONTENTS
CREDITS
EDITORIAL
pg.03
OPINION
pg.04
The What, Why and How of Student Participation in Democratic Decision Making. And does it work? By Derry Hannam School, Democracy and Learning Communities By José Pacheco
REVIEW
pg.11
Is Citizens Engagement a Game Changer for By Isabel Duarte Development?
TOOLS AND IDEAS
pg.12
The Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenship Schools By Lea Skerlic School Participation Test - Methodological Proposal By Joana Franco How to Set a Strategic Action Plan for Participation in your School By Anna Pomykoł The Hannam Tool Box
By Derry Hannam
INITIATIVES AND BEST PRACTICES
pg.20
International Conference "Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy" Democratic Schools: Best Practices A Journey of Learning with Existing Educational Practices
Coordination: Joana Franco I Ecos – Cooperativa de Educação, Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, CRL. Contributions: Anna Pomykoł I Centrum Rozwoju Inicjatyw Spolecznych - CRIS André Lara Ramos I Agrupamento de Escolas de Pinheiro e Rosa Lea Skerlic I Gimnazija Gian Rinaldo Carli Koper - Ginnasio Gian Rinaldo Carli Capodistria Peter Kastelic I Kulturno izobrazevalno drustvo - PiNA Production support: Dora Cristina Jesica Dias João Mesquita Nuno da Silva Edition and Layout: Joana Franco I Ecos – Cooperativa de Educação, Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, CRL. Using: - White and Dark Blue Montains Travel Magazine by Reychelle Anne Mendonza from Marketplace Designers, available at www.canva.com - Icons by Freepik from www.flaticon.com Date: August 2017 The online version can be downloaded at: http://democraticschools.ecos.pt/ This publication was developed under the project Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools 2015-1-PT01_KA201-013089, funded with the support from the European Union through ERASMUS + Programme. This publication reflects only the author's views. The Portuguese National Agency for ERASMUS + and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. rks
SCHOOL & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 2 Picture: CRIS
Picture: Lili Soto
EDITORIAL In a period marked by rapid and widespread social changes, by the crisis of representative democracies (which we considered to be solid and settled) and by the growing disillusion of citizens in relation to conventional political participation, a group of teachers and civil society organization practitioners decided to design a project that opened collective spaces to rethink the role of School as a driving force for democratic practices in Communities and society at large. The Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools project, supported by ERASMUS + Programme, was the result of a partnership between 3 schools and 3 civil society organizations from Poland, Portugal and Slovenia aiming to promote active citizenship through the creation of a quality referral (the Scale of Reference For Participatory Citizenship Schools) and an European Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools. It consisted of various activities – research, sharing of best practices, and experimentation of different approaches of school participation, local seminars, a training course and the International Conference Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy that took place in April 2017, in Faro, Portugal. This magazine offers a glimpse of what was presented, discussed and lived during this last event, as well as some of its main results. With project circle (as well as funding) coming to an end, individuals, schools and civil society organizations that created this Network feel the relevance of continuing to nurture the established relations and open space to all those who believe in the central role that schools can play in promoting a culture of active participation, stimulating experiences of citizenship in a safe and nurturing environment and effectively contributing to the democratic construction of society. In times of crises, there is a need to reimagine the way we have been thinking about education and open up to new possibilities of nurturing communities of learning that play a role in our children’s development, much beyond the fixed notion of school as the edifice within walls, so that they grow exploring the ways to approach a world that is always changing, always on the making.
We believe that Networking is a key step for all those who wish to look for answers for these questions. In Networking for Educational Innovation: A Comparative Analysis, Anne Sliwka asserts, “Networks can thus represent vibrant motors of change in education. (…) Compared with traditional styles of educational governance, networks can offer a number of structural advantages such as increased opportunities for
While exiting Democratic School Networks such as the European Democratic Education Community (EUDEC) gather school pioneers in creating innovative and rich solutions that can inspire generalized change, they are mainly composed by private school initiatives and hardly accommodate state school realities. Most schools in Europe are public and have a history of state top-down orientations, regulations and curricula, teaching and learning practices, inspections and evaluation. If on one hand “Since the 1980s (...) most industrial societies have granted greater autonomy to individual schools within a broad framework of standards and guidelines”(Sliwka: 2003), on the other hand school autonomy is not yet generalized in EU Countries, it often fluctuates as governments change and it is, in most situations, just a fraction of what it could be since school structures and teacher training are not yet reflecting this desired change. Above all school state systems are embedded in its 19th century origin tradition, at it will take time, resilience and creativity to change them. The Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools (NDCS) aims to be the space for regular public schools that intend to start their path to become Democratic Citizenship Schools, by enhancing Participation of students, parents, teachers and other staff in the decision-making process in all school dimensions (learning, governance and relations with the community) while ensuring full inclusion of all. The Network main goals are to raise awareness, promote the dissemination of good practices, enhance the professional development of teachers, promote school actors' voice, support capacity building in schools and promote schools and educational systems re-structuring and re-culturing processes for Democratic Participation. But not only schools can be part of this Network. Civil Society Organizations (CSO) working in youth and citizen Participation, using non-formal education and other alternative experiential learning methodologies, are also full members, providing technical support, inspiration, out-of-the-box ideas, room for experimenting, flexibility and lots of energy! Following our rich experience, we vividly recommend the creation of schools-CSO local partnerships for the promotion of School Democracy. Additionally, we intent to crate a curator group, composed by experts, practitioners, trainers and scholars that can serve as catalyzers of school and CSO members experiences and support the Network in advocacy and awareness raising activities. This Magazine “Schools and Democracy” is one of the Networks awareness raising instruments. This issue offers tips and suggestions for schools that want to start its path for Participation, including opinion articles from School Democracy experts Derry Hannam and José Pacheco and an article on our Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenship Schools, a free and open self-assessment tool that intends to be a starting point or boosting exercise for school communities. Be inspired, use our tools, contact us or join us at www.democraticschool.ecos.pt ★
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 3
Derry Hannam, keynote speaker at our Conference, told us that when he visits Democratic Schools he usually comes away with more questions. After 2 years of work we feel the same! For us this is just a beginning and we have now more questions than when we started. How can we transform hierarchical structures in democratic ones? How to deal with rigid state rules? How can we balance national curricula and testing systems with the right of every child to learn according with its own interests and pace? How can we support teachers in this transition? How can we make school actors to trust each other and to feel confident enough to assume the direction of their own school communities? How can we convince people that grown up in vertical, individualistic, competitive and static systems, that School Democracy will promote innovation, autonomy, creativity, effectiveness, cooperation, excellence results and, in the end of the road, the necessary competences for the challenges that we face today? How to engage students, parents, teachers and other staff, when people fell so overwhelmed by goals, scores, schedules…? And so on.
peer exchange and cooperation, teacher professional development, and the greater political force that comes through collaboration. (…)Networking among institutions and individuals in education is therefore increasingly seen as a powerful stimulus to organisational learning and development. Innovative practitioners in education join networks to share approaches to teaching and learning, school culture and ethos as well as school management and leadership. Some education networks focus on facilitating peer exchange and professional development, others aim at stimulating whole school change.” (in Sliwka Anne (2003) Networking for Educational Innovation: A Comparative Analysis, Published in Networks of innovation: towards new models for managing schools and systems. OECD/CERI, Paris).
OPINION
Derry HANNAM Freelance consultant, Writer and Speaker on behalf of Democratic Education
THE WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN DEMOCRATIC DECISION MAKING IN SCHOOLS. AND DOES IT WORK? Former Head Teacher, School Inspector and Advisor to the Council of Europe in Education for Democratic Citizenship, Derry Hannam joined the International Conference “Participatory Schools 4 better Democracy”, in Faro and shared with us inspiring examples of student participation in democratic decision making in schools. Read here the transcript of his talk or watch it at www.democracticschools.ecos.pt. Let’s define democracy simply as the sharing of power in a nation, a community or a school through voting in some kind of meeting, forum or parliament. In my opinion schools should create as many opportunities as they possibly can to involve all their students in making decisions about both their learning and the everyday life of the class, school, and the wider community. I conceptualise this as two ‘degrees of participation’ – student participation in decision making, as an individual making decisions about their own self-managed learning for example (SPDM), and student participation in democratic decision making as a collaborative and negotiated process (SPDDM). Ideally this democratic participation should be in a situation of direct democracy involving all students, though at times in a large school representative democracy will be needed. The term ‘student voice’ has become widely used in English speaking countries in recent years but I am not too happy about it. I want to know whose voice is expressed and who hears it and what action, if any, follows? There is too much tokenism in too many schools around ‘student voice’ so I prefer to stick with ‘participation in decision making.’
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Most of us here are from regular state schools which we are trying to make more democratic, engaging and creative places for our students. That has been what I have been doing in my work as a teacher and as we all know it can be a struggle – working against what Pasi Sahlberg from Finland calls the GERM or Global Education Reform Movement with its pernicious programme of prescribed curriculum, standardised tests, league tables, PISA etc etc destroying creativity, imagination, student sense of control over their own learning, generating fear of failure and mental health issues for young people. I call the big edu-businesses behind all this and their neo-con politician friends the ‘testocracy.’ But I don’t want to waste my few minutes on the ‘testocracy.’ I
want to cheer us up by saying a few words about a rapidly growing movement worldwide – the Democratic Schools. Once only a handful of ‘pioneers of possibility’ such as Summerhill in England, Sudbury Valley School in the United States, the Forsoksgym in Norway, Hadera School in Israel and maybe I should include your own Escola da Ponte or ‘Bridge School’ here in Portugal and the developments inspired by it in Brazil. Worldwide there are at least 500 Democratic Schools gathered into IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) or EUDEC (European Democratic Education Council). In Israel they are being incorporated into the mainstream public school system. Although there is wide variety, perhaps no two are the same, nonetheless they share common features. School governance rests on a school meeting or parliament in which every member of the school whatever age has one vote. The meeting makes the school laws and they are enforced by a judicial committee or court of students and staff. Students are free to create their own programme of learning. There is no coercion or fear of authority. Tests or examinations are sat when the students choose to sit them. Collaboration is more normal than competition. Bullying is extremely rare and is quickly dealt with by the judicial or restorative processes. I love visiting these schools though I arrive with many questions and usually depart with even more! However I will indulge myself with a few anecdotes at this point. For example my best work as a school inspector was to participate in the court case when the English inspectors tried to close Summerhill School – I was the inspector who spoke for the school. We won the case and Summerhill goes from strength to strength. I will briefly tell you about the defence of the ‘lego room’ by the youngest children at Hadera School in Israel. I would like to tell you about the Norwegian Upper Secondary school actually created by the initiative of students – the Forsoksgym, Oslo. Then I would like to describe narrowly escaping sanction and being ‘certified’ to play musical instruments by a ten year-old at Sudbury Valley School near Boston, Mass. But now I must get back to the reality of our public schools and ask why should we bother to try to make them more like democratic learning communities? Isn’t it just a lot more work on top of all the ‘busy work’ being dumped on us in so many PISA
I THINK OUR EXISTING SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE FAILING TO EQUIP MANY MANY MANY YOUNG PEOPLE FOR AN UNCERTAIN AND DANGEROUS FUTURE (...) WE NEED DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS PREPARED TO QUESTION POWER AND THEY DO NOT EMERGE FROM AUTHORITARIAN SCHOOLS WHICH ALL TOO OFTEN TEACH OBEDIENCE AND MODEL HIERARCHICAL POWER AND TOO OFTEN ITS ABUSE. DERRY HANNAM
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Derry Hannam was key-note speaker at the Conference "Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy" promoted by The Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools in Faro, between 19 and 21 of April 2017. This article is the transcript of his inspiring talk.
driven countries? Well I think our existing school systems are failing to equip a many many many young people for an uncertain and dangerous future. The dangers are manifold – climate change, fundamentalist xenophobia, increasing inequality, the glorification of greed and growing contempt for democracy and its politicians to name but a few. We need democratic citizens prepared to question power and they do not emerge from authoritarian schools which all too often teach obedience and model hierarchical power and too often its abuse. We need a new approach and this is firmly recognised by the Council of Europe with its charter, signed by all member states, for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. The charter emphasises the need for student participation in schools and stresses the need for the implementation of the participation rights of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in the every day life of the school. I don’t need to remind you of the power of article 12 if it is taken seriously by schools namely the right of the child to have a say in all matters that affect her or him. I was very pleased to be at the Council of Europe World Forum for Democracy through Education in Strasbourg last November where there was a great deal of interest in democracy in schools and agreement that ‘If democracy and human rights are going to work in our societies then they must be practised in our schools and not just talked about.’
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In 2001 we made a small step in this direction in my country in requiring that all secondary school students should have the opportunity to ‘participate in democratic decision making and responsible action.’ Sadly the 9 year longitudinal research led by David Kerr showed that only around 25% of schools took it seriously and it is no longer in the national curriculum. Where it was taken seriously there were positive outcomes in for example intentions to vote in elections.. Perhaps as a result of this failure we now have BREXIT. The polls show that the overwhelming majority of UK 18-25 year olds were in favour of remaining in the EU but in the referendum this group had the lowest percentage of registrations and actual voters – maybe 50% compared to over 90% of over 65 year-olds. It could be said that young people did not sufficiently protect their interests. Had the same proportion of young people as older people actually voted there would be no Brexit. Instead of being at the table young people have put themselves on the menu! Their failure to register and to vote was a key factor in the result. As a young teacher my motives for trying to create democratic learning communities in my classrooms were not principally to do with citizenship though respect for children’s rights was important. I also believed that the sense of control, efficacy and engagement would and did create improvement to the physical and emotional environment of the classroom. I saw it as a way to capitalise on Jerome Bruner’s 3 Cs of being human
– Curiousity, Competence and Collaboration. I observed a benign cycle of effective learning grow in my students – participation led to questioning and choice, which led to a feeling of ownership and control, leading to interest, engagement and motivation, leading to resilience and successful deep learning and understanding, which in turn raised self-esteem, confidence and a determination to ask further questions etc. etc. etc.. I also learned that certain things could only be learned experientially rather than through exhortation. In this I would include democracy, respect for human rights, responsibility, morality, justice and the rule of law, and also the entrepreneurial spirit to innovate. The relationships between students and students and students and teachers moved towards trust and cooperation rather than authority. Everyone mattered and bullying was rare and quickly dealt with by the class democracy. A democratic atmosphere ensures effective child-protection. Abuse is impossible in such a climate. Above all it was fun to work in this way and for me fun matters. Fun reduces stress and anxiety. It fosters creativity, imagination, well being and mental health – all of which enhance learning! My first class of eleven year-olds had failed the selection exam to get to the grammar school. I was their teacher for 60% of the timetable. We created a class meeting, class laws, a class court. It was possible to create a curriculum around their interests. As their confidence recovered my methods caused some anxiety in other teachers but received massive support from parents. I am still in touch with some of these 53 year-old children and we are writing a book together. Some went on to become university graduates against all expectations and one is now a head teacher of a primary school that he runs in a democratic way. Some describe their two years in the democratic class as ‘life defining.’ They recall that ‘it was not like school, it was like real life.’ Instead of being fired, as I expected, I was promoted to bigger and bigger jobs and ended up sharing responsibility for a whole school. By now I realised that a successful school needed to be a vital part of the whole community. We began a community education council, often chaired by an older student, which offered the school as a learning resource for the community and the community became a learning resource for the school. And then I became an inspector – which was probably a mistake but it was at least useful for the survival of Summerhill School and we did make some changes to the rather dreadful inspection regime in England. Inspectors began to listen to the students for example and check that the school had a students’ council – but not whether it was effective! Which brings me to the question ‘How can school democracy be done?’ Well obviously the students’ council is one way as is membership of the national school students’ organisation in your countries. But this is only one way and in too many schools students’ councils are not very effective. The students’ council has to be organised to offer opportunities for participation by all students for a start and has to earn their respect and trust. It
must not become a small elite ‘talking shop.’ I have brought a paper with me containing 40 suggestions on how to create an effective students’ council. I have brought another paper with 40 suggestions on other ways in which schools can become more democratic places and I am sure that you will all have many more ideas from your own experience which you will share during the conference. We all need to be opportunists in this quest. So now I will move to my fourth question. Does it work? First I will just mention the Democratic Schools. Here there is not a lot of conclusive evidence yet beyond follow up studies of the life pathways of alumni. This is especially well developed for Sudbury Valley School and less well for Summerhill School though I analysed the Summerhill examination results for the court case and they were better than the state system despite students choosing whether to go to lessons or not. The best evidence for the results of Democratic Schools is the work carried out by the Institute for Democratic Education in Israel where more than 30 such schools are now fully incorporated into the state education system – the only country in the world to do this as far as I know. Unfortunately this work is so far only available in Hebrew which I can’t read let alone translate.
There is much evidence for the effectiveness of school democracy in mainstream state schools however and this is growing rapidly. I have brought another paper with me detailing some useful reading for those interested in such outcomes. I wrote a report for the English education minister in 2002 which demonstrated in a pilot study of 12 state secondary schools with unusually high level of student democratic participation that this was associated with figures for examination results, school attendance, and exclusion for antisocial behavior were in every case better than the national averages for schools in similar socio-economic environments. The work of Mager and Novak in Austria in 2012 reviewed 3200 research papers in this field and concluded that 32 had something important to say (I was relieved that my work made it into the final 32!). Three large scale studies are being completed right now in Denmark by Andersen, Jeppesen, and Gloy of Aarhus University which are moving beyond associations to explore causality. Fielding and Bragg have done good work on the outcomes of students as researchers in schools. Roger Holdsworth has done excellent work on student action teams in Australia. Work is being done in Ireland on associations between student democracy, well-being and mental health. I have recently reviewed the research around the UNESCO Rights Respecting Schools Award. The evidence is all very encouraging for ‘geriactivists’ like me though of course more work always needs to be done. ★
Derry Hannam, Freelance consultant, Writer and Speaker on behalf of Democratic Education
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Derry practiced as much student democracy and participation in decision making as he could in both their learning and in the everyday life of the school in his twenty years as a state secondary school teacher. He ended his school career as acting principal of a large English secondary school which pioneered the role of community school, where the school is a learning resource for the whole community and the whole community is a learning resource for the school. He then became a school inspector where he tried to support other teachers and schools with similar ideas. He was part of the successful defense of Summerhill School against the threat of closure by the government in 1999. He has been an adviser/trainer/rapporteur for the Council of Europe Education for Democratic Citizenship project and a researcher/adviser to the development of citizenship education in the English national curriculum. At the request of the English ministry of education he authored the ‘Hannam Report’ based on research that demonstrates associations between democratic, participative, and student centered methods in schools and higher academic results, less anti-social behavior, and better school attendance, especially for students from economically and socially deprived backgrounds. He has worked with many European school student organisations on the issue of school democracy including OBESSU (the European School Students Organisation) and FSS the Finnish school students’ organisation where the students led their own school democracy project. He successfully campaigned for the creation of an English school students association and has recently done the same for young people being educated at home. He has co-authored several books on the theme that ‘...if you want young people to learn about democracy in schools they have to do it and not just listen to teachers talk about it’ including a Handbook for Successful Student Councils. Most recently he has co-authored with alumni a book which records and explores the creation of a democratic learning community of 11-13 year olds from 1969 to 1971. As a visiting fellow in student voice at the University of Sussex he was part of a project to democratize the school system of a deprived English city which has now blossomed into a sustainable social enterprise run by young people. For several years he has been a member of the international Student Voice Research Network based at Cambridge University. He has contributed in many conferences on the theme of Democratic Education and Education for Democracy including the recent Council of Europe World Forum on Democracy and Education in Strasbourg. Derry has been described as a ‘bridge person’ who tries to bring about dialogue between the democratic education movement and state or public school systems, a role that he has played in England, Finland, Denmark, Puerto Rico, The Netherlands, Bavaria and, most recently, Spain and Poland.
OPINION
José PACHECO Founder of the Projects “Make the bridge” (Portugal) & “Anchor” (Brasil)
SCHOOL, DEMOCRACY AND LEARNING COMMUNITIES Teacher and educator José Pacheco was part of the Panel Networking and Learning Communities at the International Conference "Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy". In is talk he shared his views and experience on “Schools, Democracy and Learning Communities”, leaving us some tips and suggestions on how to start a process of creating community schools. Read above some excerpts of his talk or watch it in full at www.democracticschools.ecos.pt.
When it comes to openness to the community I ask: what is that? Openness to the community ... I often listen to schools talk about "visiting the community". I ask: does anyone visit its own home? And when I hear about democratic schools I ask: does it exist? What is the exercise of Democracy? Which democratic devices translate the Right to Education in the School? Our (Portuguese) Constitution of the Republic provides the sacred Right to Education and to an Education. It is the duty of the State and of the families to guarantee an integral or complete education for all, which also goes through the learning of citizenship. So, I'd rather talk not of schools open to the community, but of community schools. Schools are nodes of a community network where one learns. Of course, in the current context, as far as I know, few schools are nodes of learning networks. And, even internally, they are not organized to educate in citizenship, nor to citizenship! Just think about the hierarquical and burocratized management and administration bodies…
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When one speaks of democracy, one speaks of autonomy, of intellectual autonomy. Autonomy is a relational concept. How can a teacher be autonomous if he is alone in his or her classroom? And a teacher does not teach what he says, he conveys what he is. How can one exercise democracy in a school where there is a Director, a public official, that has a duty of hierarchical obedience? This duty of hierarchical obedience overrides any hypothesis of professional dignity, of democracy, of democratic exercise of the profession. Ultimately, schools that consider themselves democratic have to be nodes of learning networks. I speak of new social constructions, where effectively democracy is exercised. As I mentioned before, the Constitution of the Republic is very clear, it democratically guarantees the right to education for all citizens. I question: do schools guarantee this right? They don’t. Many people do not learn, are retained, engage in the adult education option. Where is the Right to Education? Where are the Schools guided by pedagogical criteria? Schools are governed by administrative criteria and democratization is absent.
What it takes is that educational projects effectively translate needs, desires for participation from the surrounding community. And that is not happening. Educational projects are done by teacher groups or copied from another school. No one knows what is written there. Each one does what he wants and what he can within his or her classroom. Is it true or not? Are we serious? The school has to start rethinking itself and school cluster directors (or school principals) should not delegate to someone else their pedagogical competence - this is what is happening with the majority of the school cluster directors in Portugal, according to a recent doctoral research. If, in fact, the teachers, who are now in charge of the board of school clusters, assume responsibility in the pedagogical field, then they will assume themselves in professional dignity and will open the possibility of creating democratic management bodies within the school: bodies that can decide by consent or consensus (never by majority), decisions taken on the basis of pedagogical and scientific criteria. When talking about autonomy contracts, we talk about the exercise of democracy. But I do not know schools with real autonomy contracts in Portugal. I know one contract, that is very mitigated at the moment, that is the one of the Ponte School. And some "make-believe" autonomy contracts from other places. If children have no voice, if parents are not participating, if the polis needs are not heard, where is democracy in school? Parents’ associations do exist, but they are disjointed groups of zealots. Parents have to be the ones running the school at the beginning of a democratic process. It is the community that has to assume the school management, it has to be in majority in the direction board. I'm talking of new social constructions. Schools are people, not buildings! What exists (today in schools) is a tradition of work that has been going on for 200 years; a school model that was been designed to meet the needs of the 19th century nation-states and the social needs of the industrial revolution. Where was democracy in this model? If the director orders, a teacher must comply. In this context, education in citizenship does not exist; there is no integral education where democracy can fit, because an integral or comprehensive education contemplates not only the cognitive dimension, but also affective, emotional, aesthetic and ethical dimensions. If the way the school works is not democratic, if it does not guarantee the right to education for all, can the school continue to work in this way? Obviously, it cannot. If the school as it works does not form citizens, can it continue working in this way? It cannot.
I AM CONVINCED THAT SCHOOLS WILL REALIZE THAT THEY ARE NOT BUILDINGS AND THAT THE PROJECT IS FROM A COMMUNITY AND WILL THEN INSTITUTE DEMOCRATIC DECISION-MAKING MECHANISMS. JOSÉ PACHECO
José Pacheco was key-note speaker at the Conference Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy promoted by The Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools in Faro, between 19 and 21 of April 2017. This article is the transcript of his talk on the Panel Networking and Learning Communities.
José Pacheco, Founder of the Projects “Make the bridge” (Ponte School, Portugal) & “Anchor” (Brasil)
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Master in Educational Sciences by the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Oporto, in Portugal, specialized in Music and Literacy. Founder of the "Escola da Ponte" (Ponte School), in Portugal, a world reference of success in pedagogical innovation, which gave him the title of Notable Specialist. He was a member of the Portuguese National Education Council and the coordinator of the "Education for All" project developed by the Paulo Freire Institute between 2001and 2004,. Coordinator of the "Making the Bridge" project, in 2007 he adopted Brazil as matherland (or Mátria, wich is would be feminine word for fahterland), since then he has been running around the country, mobilizing teachers, educators, students, children, youth and education enthusiasts who believe in democratic transformation through education, community integration and arts. He is an inductor of more than 100 projects for a new education in Brazil, and a volunteer collaborator at the Anchor Project (Projeto Âncora), an NGO in Cotia, São Paulo, Brazil, which follows a teaching model similar to the one of the School of Bridge. He was a researcher for the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology, at Brasília 2060 Project – a Strategic Plan for a Sustainable City, where he developed research in the area of Education. In the Brazilian MEC (Ministry of Education), he integrated the Working Group for Innovation and Creativity in Basic Education. He is the Pedagogical Director of EcoHabitare Consulting and Projects, Ltd. a social enterprise that promotes initiatives with a focus on creating sustainable communities from learning communities, where he coordinates the training projects: “Gaia School – Building Learning Communities for a Sustainable World” and “Schools in Transition” aimed at the reconfiguration of educational practice, both public and private schools, in Brazil. He is part of the National Education Innovation and Creativity Network acting in the Training and Evaluation working groups. He is the author of numerous books and articles on education and a great dynamizer of democratic management.
Therefore, it is urgent that new social constructions of learning, spaces and devices where the exercise of democracy is effective, are conceived. I know many Portuguese teachers capable of reversing this order of things. With them, I am available to learn and go along in projects, because I believe that, someday, schools will accomplish their educational projects! I am convinced that schools will realize that they are not buildings and that the project is from a community and will then institute democratic decision-making mechanisms. I am only surprised by the obscene silence of the education sciences ... Democracy is learned by contagion, by example. All learning presupposes bonding and happens when it is meaningful, that is, if I know why I am looking for something. Let me tell you a small and significant episode, that proof the democratic deficit in our schools. During a lecture, I narrated a critical incident observed in a school where the word democracy is not just to embellish the curriculum. In this school, young people would choose their representatives for the Assembly Table. In the course of the election, I saw a teacher asking some students to cite three proposals presented by their prefered candidate list. If a young voter did not know how to respond, he would not be able to vote. It happened that some of the teachers present in the lecture, who had participated in a recent election, entered into a verbal confrontation, in which no one listened to the arguments of the opponent. When the buzz reached its climax, I interrupted the dispute: My friends, I do not want to know which was the candidate of your preference, because the vote is secret. But as we are at a meeting on citizenship education, can anyone share what led you to choose between candidate A and B? To be more explicit, I added: I urge you to mention one of your candidate's proposals in the field of Education. I’m not asking you to enunciate proposals of the area of Health, or of Economy, only of Education. What made you decide to vote for this candidate? Among the hundreds of teachers present, none of them had even read a line of the electoral program of the candidate of their fondness. In a relieving tone, I tried to circumvent the awkward silence ...
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I believe that teachers will awaken to a need: that they have to change the educational model. It makes no sense for a child of the 21st century to be taught by twentieth-century teachers, using an educational model of the nineteenth century. New social constructions can achieve the objectives of sustainable development, a good quality education, in the four dimensions of sustainability - social, ecological, economic and world view - in the genesis of a Democratic School. What exists today is a make-believe of democracy, fostered by a public policy controlled by ministers, for whom the sciences of education are still occult sciences. In Brazil, an obsolete law was published, which they called the "provisional measure for high school" (secondary education). A lady responsible for this measure asked me, "Professor, do you accompany high schools?" I said, "Yes, I do!" "So now you have to fulfill this determination." I said, "No, I will not." "But why?" - she
retorted. "If you can justify this law, with criteria of a scientific nature, I will abide by it. I have respect for myself, because I am an educator. " When orders have no basis, there is the right to disobey. Democratically, disobey. That is citizenship too. There are many doctoral theses and lectures on democratic education. It's like talking about the sex of the angels, it's byzantine! Recently, in Portugal, I was surprised by the theme of a meeting held by the Education Committee in the Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese Parliament). It was said that it was the Commission's intention to democratize the access to education. How? By trying to determine what should be the number of students per class. Does this fit in someone's mind? What surprised me was that the Ponte School was there represented! What struck me was that a great educator and friend also participated in the meeting. If I had been invited to this meeting, I would ask a prior question: what is a class? Why class? And there I would be ... There are surveys that conclude that the number of students per class is not a relevant factor. Why is the discussion about the Right to Education mixed up with useless debates? When our Agostinho da Silva returned to Portugal in 1969, left us a prophetic text. The Mater wrote that Portugal landed in Africa, landed in Asia and landed in America. And that it is only missing that Portugal lands in Portugal. I guess that it will happen at the age of education, and from the education that is being done here in the South. I want to leave you a bit of hope. Reading Agostinho da Silva will be important to realize what a democratic school is, what is the exercise of democracy. But also António Sérgio and others. Many Portuguese talked and wrote about this subject. And what can we do, from the remaining hope? If I were the father of a student (I am already a grandfather), if I lived in Portugal and the public school did not satisfy what I expected it to give to my children, I would go to the school, looking for a teacher who had not yet died - there are still teachers alive, happily! - and with him, or with them - because there are many teachers, who, though mistreated, survive! - I would analyze the school's educational project. Then, we would read the internal regulation, to evaluate its consistency with the written project. I do not know an internal regulation of a Portuguese school that is consistent with the educational project. I can prove it, if necessary. From there, I would constitute a project nucleus to realize the school's educational project. We would develop a subjectivity curriculum - giving each one, democratically, the right to be who he is - and a community curriculum - giving the community the ability to qualify and to be democratic. Then, culminating these curricular dimensions, we would work a curriculum of planetary dimension. That is what I would do. And this is what I invite to do: occupy the schools! The school is an extraordinary social device. Schools can be a fulcrum of a great network of learning, learning communities, that produce knowledge from research contemplating specific needs and using it in local development actions, in developing skills: knowledge in action. However, we must not confuse learning communities with palliatives, that aim to mitigate the lack of democracy of the old system ... ★
REVIEW
IS CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT A GAME CHANGER FOR DEVELOPMENT? By Isabel Duarte Teacher, teacher trainer and project evaluator
Isabel Duarte is one of the founders of the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools. In the beginning of 2016, Isabel attended the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) "Engaging Citizens - A Game Changer for Development?" by the World Bank Group. The contents of this course ended up being an inspirational foundation for the work developed by the Network as we realized that it could be easily and effectively adapted to school community engagement. And that is why Schools and Democracy have selected the following part of Isabel's course review to share with you.
Research has shown that engaging citizens initiatives have led to more sustainable, open and responsive governance, improving outcomes of social and economic policies with the end benefit of all citizens, including the most marginalized. Citizen participation in community life can be observed in diverse social political contexts, being perceived in different manners by citizens, government, and service providers. Some scholars, as AmartyaSen, argue that citizen engagement is intrinsically valuable as it represents a key component of human capability, while others, as Mansuri and Rao, argue citizen engagement is instrumentally valuable as a means of achieve a variety of other development goals. Certainly, nowadays, citizen engagement is an opportunity to redefine democracy. It can be a way of citizens dealing with central and local authorities and of revaluing their individual and collective capacities, by being able to come together and expressing themselves, to get a better life. Rakesh Rajany defends that citizen engagement holds two twin promises, first, as it reflects the democratic idea that people matter and, secondly, because it helps improve practical matters.
But even when understood as a two-way process of interaction between citizens and government or the private sector, that give citizens a stake in decision-making, with the objective of improving development outcomes, citizen engagement is not a panacea for all problems. It does not always lead to improved governments and service providers’ accountability, better decision making or development outcomes improvement. It is not a technical process that, once applied with success, can be reproduced in different contexts.
Therefore, besides learning with the successful practices and the less successful experiences of engaging citizens, we have to be prepared to experiment and construct with the participants new approaches and tools, bearing in mind that citizen engagement involves lots of time and learning and it is an organic process that most often demands change from all the civil participants and organizations. Learning from case studies, some key factors of achieving results and some barriers to citizen engagement can be identified. Key factors? Closing the “feedback loop”, establishing a twoway on-going communication between citizens and the government or local providers and their responsiveness to citizen’s voice; the “accountability triangle”, in the short route relation between citizens and local providers (schools, health providers) or the long route (citizens-government) is a two-way street, based in those two key factors – information and feedback. Barriers? All studies point out the government and providers response as a greater barrier than citizens participation skills (John Gaventa). Fear, uncertainty, politics and power are also important barriers argued by Rakesh Rajany. Participation of individuals has to be understood in a broader context of interaction between individuals and society. The cost-benefit rational approach, although valid, does not always explain why people participate. How to increase participation? Putting in place multiple channels of participation and interaction, providing different levels of participation with lower costs, showing results and communicating them, getting personal, reinforcing the sense of civic duty and belonging, getting citizens to pre-commit to participate and, finally, learning to experiment and experimenting to learn (Tiago Peixoto). ★
Get to know more at www.edx.org/course/citizen-engagement-game-changer-wbgx-ce01x
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 11
We come across, all over the world, with many different forms of civil participation that can go from elections to citizen satisfaction surveys, social audits or participatory budgeting.
Its effectiveness or failure, in such diverse realities and places as Uganda (participatory health service), Brasil (participatory budgeting), Indonesia (PNPM), UK (Fix my Street) or Tanzania (failed Five Year Development Plan), appear related to a complex wide range of factors. The adequacy of the tools and approaches used depend on the broader social political context and on the characteristics of the individual and collective participants.
TOOLS AND IDEAS
SCALE OF RE
PARTICIPATORY CITI
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 12
FERENCE FOR
ZENSHIP SCHOOLS
by Lea Skerlic Art History Teacher at Gimnazija Gian Rinaldo Carli Capodistria Slovenia
SCHOOL & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 13
TOOLS AND IDEAS
SCHOOL PARTICIPATION TEST by Joana Franco METODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL Project Coordinator at ECOS, CRL. Portugal On April 2017, Pinheiro e Rosa Secondary School (Faro, Portugal) performed a School Participation Test. The test was facilitated by ECOS, CRL. team and it involved students, parents, teachers and other school staff. In the end of the activity, even the more skeptic participants were enthusiastic about it, underlining its potential for developing a deeper understanding, raising questions and starting the debate on School Participation as well as for fostering community bonds among different school actors. Check here the methodology used and get inspired to use it in your own school!
Duration: 1 5 0 m i n u t e s Facilitators: 2 f a c i l i t a t o r s , i f p o s s i b l e e x t e r n a l t o s c h o o l Participants: 3 2 m a x i m u m - s t u d e n t s , p a r e n t s , t e a c h e r s a n d o t h e r staff in equal numbers Equipment: P r o j e c t o r , 4 b i g t a b l e s , 3 2 c h a i r s Materials: M a r k e r s , p o s t - i t s , s e l f - a s s e s s m e n t g r i d ( 4 x ) , f i n a l assessment grid (big print or projected), paper-tape
Venue:
A room with 2 areas: one with 4 big working tables
and chairs and another for the experiential learning activity
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 14
WE ARE ALL… EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITY The facilitators invite all the groups to follow them to a preprepared space with rectangles drown in the floor: 4 equal (big enough for 8 people to stand very near each other) and 1 bigger placed in a (big enough for 32 people to stand very near each other), such as in the image bellow:
Parents
Teachers
Students
Other staff
In silence, each group will stand inside one of the 4 equal squares in the area prepared for this activity. The facilitator will do a small introduction and then read several questions. After each question, all participants who would answer or I DO or ME should move to the big rectangle, wait few seconds and go back to their original places. This activity was adapted from a TV Denmark commercial. Facilitators can check it here for getting ideas for the introduction and for the questions to be used and well as on how to create the proper setting, taking into account their local context (school reality, country, students age, etc…). Questions will be something like: Who has a religion? Who has been or is bullied in school?
aletsaC sênI :serutciP
The main objectives are: - Allow participants to sense the existence of the 4 groups that exist in the school; - Ensure that participants acknowledge prejudices, pre-concept ideas and really differences in each of the group actor’s reality - Highlight the fact that besides being part of these groups, they are all people, human beings, with the same kind of hopes, fears, plans, feelings, etc.. - Create a group atmosphere among all participants; in the end of the activity they will all be The School instead of 4 groups. Make sure that the final sentence presented is “Who is (followed by the name of the school)?”
Tips for Facilitators!
2. Make the session more appealing by opening the space for participants to identify school actors, school dimensions, participation levels, etc… Instead of presenting them, ask participants what they think and collect main ideas or ask the groups to brainstorm on a topic for few minutes and to share their results with the plenary. Finalize it with a summary made by you, completing information that may be missing or explaining the terminology used in the Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenship Schools. Trust your participants. 3. To make the decision-making process more effective and rich within each group, you can introduce the consent decision-making instead of the traditional majority or consensus decision-making styles. Get to know more about how to do it here: http://agileorganizations.io/ - consent 4. To make participants confortable, water and snacks can be made available during the activity!
SCHOOL & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 15
1. Help participants have a better understanding of what is going on by sticking pieces of paper in a wall or writing down in a board or flipchart key words and sentences such as activity aims, school dimensions and participation levels.
TOOLS AND IDEAS
HOW TO SET A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN FOR PARTICIPATION IN YOUR SCHOOL by Anna Pomykoł
Project Coordinator at CRIS. Poland
During the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools project, the three partner schools created and started the implementation of Strategic Action Plans for Participation (SAPP). We find it to be a powerful way of creating change in the schools, if the whole process is motivated by a strong participatory intentionality, clear goals are set and high number of school actors are involved. It was very surprising for us to realize that planning and implementing small and simple activities (some of which were already in the school plans) with a focus on increasing school actors participation can really push schools into the path of Democratic Citizenship. In order to encourage more schools to follow this path, we putted together some guidelines that could help you to create, implement and evaluate a SAPP for your School. It's well worth trying it! Keep these tips in your mind during the whole process and you will soon start felling improvements in your School’s Participation Level.
Planning Phase
1
POSITIVE ATTITUDE Change is never easy, it is always a challenge. Very often it causes fear of the unknown, difficulties in switching to new rules, but at the same time, it stimulates innovation, development and improvement. Everyone should be aware of the challenges that the school can face during this process, and be patient and ready for difficulties, for facing different points of views and for a period of hard work. In a school community with a positive attitude toward change it is much easier to create and implement a SAPP.
HONEST DIAGNOSE A detailed, honest and multidimensional diagnose should be the starting point for creating your SAPP. A great tool that can be used to generate an overall picture of the Participation Level in your school is The Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenships Schools (check it on page12). But even the greatest tool will not provide you realistic results if research respondents are not prepared and willing to be honest in their answers and ready to dedicated time and effort to the diagnose process. To carry out proper a diagnose you have to gather a diverse and proportional motivated audience (representatives of all school actors), and prepare instructions, basic and deepening questions.
SIMPLE AND SHORT PLAN SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 16
The Plan has to be clear, easy to understand for all school community groups, coherent with legislation, reasonable and doable and must correlate with results of the diagnose (its aims and proposed activities have to provide an answer for diagnosed needs, problems and wishes of the school community). A SAPP template can be found on next page.
DIVERSE LEADING TEAM In order to make the planning process effective and easier to implement it is crucial to build a coordinating team composed by representatives of all school actors as well as other key elements from the surrounding community. All team members' voice must equally valued and respected.
OPEN PROCESS The more people take part in the planning phase, the more its implementation will be successful. Build your SAPP in an open meeting to which all school community is invited and make a draft available for public feedback.
Implementation Phase
2
PERSISTENCE & CONSISTENCY Deep change needs time and effort and usually implies dealing with painful situations – difficulties, doubts, disappointments and the desire to give up are very often a big part of the process. Overcoming these problems requires persistency, consistency and focusing on long-term goals. A pre-define conflict resolution mechanism can be very effective. Keep in mind that overcoming problems will build your team's satisfaction levels and strength.
COMMON MATTER Community is strength! Everybody knows that one person is not able to do as much as a group of people, so you should make an effort to engage as many students, teachers, parents and staff as possible in the implementation process. The Strategic Action Plan will matter for all those who are involved in implementing it, and when something matters, people really make it happen. Therefore, the more people you engage the more your implementation actions will be effective (leading to wider, deeper and sustainable change).
TRANSPARENCY Ensuring proper dissemination of the actions taken and results achieved during the implementation of the Strategic Action Plan will uphold the motivation and the meaningfulness of the process. Providing detailed information regarding the process, its procedures and steps taken for the wide audience, will build trust among school community and a stronger acceptance of the proposed changes. It will also help you in the monitoring process and allow you to receive an honest feedback.
PERMANENT MONITORING In order to not lose the track of your goals, the Strategic Action Plan coordinating team should create a mechanism or a tool for continuous monitoring of the school situation. Implementing each activity proposed in the plan is not the aim itself. It should be just a tool to reach a real goal meaning long-term improvements in the participatory mechanisms in your school. The only way to not lose the goal is to keep a close look on what is being done and if necessary review your initial plan, adjusting it to the reality.
REMEMBER:
Template Proposal of a Strategic Action Plan for Participation
➢ Good preparation increases dramatically the chances for successful implementation ➢ The key to effective planning is simplicity ➢ The best Plans are designed by the ones that are going to implement them and whose reality can be affected by it ➢ A good plan is an important foundation but flexibility and creativity in implementation are the keys for success. ➢ While implementing activities keep your goals in mind. ➢ Instead of underlining mistakes, concentrate on lessons learned and improvements achieved. ➢ Only feedback from all school community groups’ representatives will give you a clear picture of the implemented change. ➢ Effective evaluation needs time and a good concept so think about it in the
Evaluation Phase
planning phase.
3
➢ Evaluation is an end and a new beginning.
DIVERSE METHODS The basis for a good evaluation is the use of a diversity of assessment tools (such as surveys, desk research, individual and group interviews) that can provide rich and trustworthy results.
THE STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN SHOULD:
REPRESENTATIVENESS The perspectives of each school community group on the achievements during the SAPP implementation activities can be completely different. Only a compilation of all feedbacks can give us a true picture of the change that happened or not in the school. The participation of an appropriate proportion of all school groups representatives in evaluation activities, will ensure reliable results.
✔ ✔
as a clear signal that it is not
community will be responsible for its implementation.
easily available
for everyone, allowing all those who
may concern to have the chance to monitor its implementation and to know in which improvement moment the school is.
Contain all necessary information
including aims,
activities, preliminary schedule, responsible people or team for each activity implementation, and if applicable, possible costs and potential partners.
✔ ✔
Be
implemented step by step
- implementing all at once
increases the risk of poor results.
Be
implemented by a wide group of people
– those who
assume an active role in this phase tend to feel ownership for the whole Plan results and may become “Participation ambassadors” in your school.
✔ ✔
Be
evaluated in reference
to the approved plan and the
materials gathered during implementation phase.
Be
evaluated by a wide audience of people
directly
engaged in the implementation phase and also by those who were "consumers" of the change.
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 2 SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 17
EDUCATIONAL DIMENSION If on one hand the evaluation phase is the final element of the SAPP process, on the other is should be a new starting point for identifying new challenges and improvements. One of the most important features of this evaluation phase is to gain knowledge of what we - the school community - achieved and on what elements we still should work on and why it happened that way. Admitting our own weaknesses is not easy but if we deny them we will not be able to change them. Making a mistake and being aware of it is the fastest way to learn bout something, so we should be ready for critical feedback, facing it as a challenge for our next activities.
✔
officially accepted ,
only a theoretical document and that the whole school
Be
EASY ACCESS TO THE RESULTS
Access to information is fundamental for enhancing participation (to get more information on participation levels, check the NDCS publication "Scale of Reference for Participatory Citizenship Schools"), so evaluation results should be available for everyone. The language used should be clear and the communication channels diverse, so that students, parents, teachers and staff have the chance to get familiarized with the evaluation results.
Be
TOOLS AND IDEAS
THE HANNAM TOOL BOX
by Derry Hannam Freelance consultant, Writer and Speaker on behalf of Democratic Education
HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE STUDENTS’ COUNCIL? Students' councils should:
Suggested Further Reading and Resources Summaries of research findings into outcomes, literature reviews, and theory Andersen, R.H., Jeppesen, A.H., and Gloy, T. (2014) Pupil Engagement in Education: A Means for Increased Academic Ability, Well-Being and Social Commitment. Randers: The Association of Danish Pupils (DSE Danske Skoleelever) (Available free from DSE in Danish or English translation) Baginsky, M., and Hannam, D. (1999) School Councils: The Views of students and teachers. London: NSPCC (still available from Amazon) Breslin, T., Hallgarten, J., and Hannam, D. (2004) “I Was A Teenage Governor.” Reports 1 and 2. London: ippr and Citizenship Foundation (Available online) Fielding, M. and Bragg, S. (2003) Students As Researchers. Making A Difference. Cambridge: Pearson Publishing (Available from Amazon) Hannam, D. (2001) A Pilot Study to evaluate the impact of student participation aspects of the Citizenship Order on standards of education in Secondary Schools. London: Dept. for Education and Employment (Available free online in English from CSV and various other languages from various sources but sadly not Danish – to my knowledge!) Holdsworth, R. (2006) Student Action Teams. Melbourne: CONNECT Mager, U., and Nowak, P. (2012) “Effects of student participation in decision making at school. A systematic review and synthesis of empirical research.” Educational Research Review, 7th Ed. pp 38-61 (Available free on-line) Research Council of Norway (2001) Evaluating Reform 97. Project Catalogue. Oslo: Dept of Culture and Society. (Available in English and Norwegian)
SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 18
Sebba, J. and Robinson, C. (2010) Evaluation of UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Awards (RRSA) Scheme. Final Report. Brighton: Universities of Sussex and Brighton (Available online) Whitty, G. and Wisby, E. (2007) Real Decision Making? School Councils in Action. DCSF Research Report RR001. London: DCSF (Available online) Facebook Discussion on Student Voice, SPDM, student Democracy Student Voice Research and Practice (open group – in English) Online Journals (Free) CONNECT – a monthly international journal on school student democracy edited by Roger Holdsworth of University of Melbourne, Australia International Journal of Student Voice – edited by Dana Mitra – published by Penn State University, USA – a mix of peer reviewed papers and writing by practitioners of all ages.
have a constitution make clear how different kinds of decisions are made by simple majority, two-thirds majority, or consensus meet regularly and often elect officers who understand their jobs and know how to do them well – chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer have a good place to meet – ideally they should also have their own space/office be taken seriously by all teachers and non-teaching staff and fully supported by the head teacher make available to everyone in the school agendas and minutes be before and after meetings make important decisions, not at the meeting where they are first discussed, but at at second meeting after all students have had time to think about and comment on the discussion have its own notice board, webpage or school radio/tv slot not be too big or too small - 20 minimum– 40 maximum, although big schools may have to have additional year or house councils as well have control of a budget and a bank account - the money should come partly from the school and partly from fundraising by the students’ council have access to a school phone, computer and photocopier/printer be involved in creating and enforcing the school rules perhaps through a judicial committee that should also include a teacher representative have regular marketing campaigns to show all students, staff and parents the importance of its work be linked to local and national school student organisations – representatives should be financially supported to attend local, regional and national conferences such as those organised by danske skoleelever provide induction/training for new members and newly elected officers (and some training should be provided by the school as well) be consulted by the head teacher and the teachers' meetings (representatives could attend teachers meetings if the topic affects students directly)
Derry Hannam shared with the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools ideas to create an effective students' council and to do school democracy as well as a very interesting list of suggestions for further reading and resources. We called it "The Hannam Tool Box". Be inspired and act!
be consulted by the school board and parents organisation on issues that directly affect students be consulted by school departments about he best ways to teach the subject should send elected representatives to school board meetings be involved in creating and enforcing the school anti-bullying policy have access to school assemblies to give feedback on its work with opportunities for students to comment and ask question from the floor be able to discuss whatever it wants to discuss subject to the human rights of individual students and teachers being respected - the agenda should not just be limited to toilets and school meals!
Students Council’s meetings should: be open to invited enthusiasts who want to start activities or projects even though they are not elected representatives the council could have an officer in charge of these people be long enough to get through the agenda and to make thoughtful decisions happen in school time – possibly during social studies or citizenship lessons
Other important ideas:
List of ideas Plan a Student Council upgrade - ‘let’s make it really effective!’, a new structure to involve all students! Create 10%-20% negotiated curriculum built around the interests of students (and teachers) - it can be an afternoon or a whole day per week in mixed-age groups - create an ‘electives committee’ of students and teachers to run it Introduce social action teams – identify an issue research/plan/do/review Include students on the school board (e.g. health and safety committee) Create a student/staff judicial committee or court (rotate its members like in a jury service) Create ‘international schools’ students organization or affiliate to an existing one Become a rights respecting school (UNICEF) Encourage and capacitate students to become project researchers Create student or student/teacher working parties or committees to explore proposals for change (can be subcommittees of the students council) Let students choose their teachers e.g. for maths or english Be inspired by International Baccalaureate programes and encourage students to work in democratic collaborative groups on personal and community projects Start a school or town newspaper, radio or tv station Create a community education council to enable school and community to share facilities Create and run a training course for new teachers Organize a one day conference on school democracy – or anything else (e.g. learning) Set up ‘learning committees’ in subject departments Get students involved in appointing new teachers Create a students library committee with a budget Create a school shop, bank or social enterprise Set up a students assemblies planning group Design and implement an effective ‘no bullying’ programme Create more participative/democratic classes Organise the school dance/prom Create peer mentoring or peer counseling or peer mediation schemes Manage or co-manage school sports teams – peer coaching Produce a school brochure for students
Hannam suggests you to choose three features that you think work well in your school and another three that do not work well or need to be improved or introduced and to be ready to explain your choices to other students or teachers..
SCHOOL & DEMOCRACY | PAGE 19
Class or tutor group representatives and council officers should be elected annually to share the experience around as many students as possible There should be a link teacher who attends all or most student council meetings (this teacher could be elected by the council) Class or tutor group student council representatives should be elected democratically at class or tutor group meetings using a secret ballot rather than a show of hands Every class or tutor group should have two elected representatives who are willing to take the job seriously There should be regular opportunities for class or tutor group meetings, led by the class or tutor group representatives, to listen to and discuss proposals and to hear feedback from student council meetings so that all students can be involved in and learn from the democratic process As many students as possible should have the opportunity to chair and/or act as secretary at class or tutor group meetings Class or tutor group meetings should make and enforce rules for the class Representatives of the council should attend parents meetings It should be clear for everyone in school how to get something onto the council agenda
HOW TO DO SCHOOL DEMOCRACY?
INITIATIVES AND BEST PRACTICES
PARTICIPATORY SCHOOLS 4 BETTER DEMOCRACY by the Network of INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Democratic Citizenship Schools Participation, Citizenship and Democracy in Schools was the topic of the first International Conference promoted by the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools. The Conference “Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracies", held between 19 and 21 of April, in the University of Algarve in Faro (Portugal), was a space and a time of joint reflection, networking opportunities and sharing of good practices, tools and experiences. The event was organized by ECOS – Cooperativa de Educação, Cooperação e Desenvolvimento CRL. in partnership with Pinheiro e Rosa School Cluster counting with the support of Erasmus + Programme and of the local partners University of Algarve and the regional department of Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude (Portuguese Youth and Sports Department). Coffee breaks, reception and participants and guests hospitality were provided by the students of the Turism, Events Organization and Restaurant and Bar courses from Pinheiro e Rosa School Cluster. The event, bilingual with presentations in English or Portuguese
and simultaneous translation, was attended by more than 240 participants comprising of teachers, students, CSO professionals, scholars, experts, local authorities and regional government departments representatives, among other. Most of the event had Internet life streaming which aloud people from other European schools and CSO working in the field to attend it online. The Conference Opening Day counted with an opening table composed by a representative from the Municipality of Faro, the Director of Pinheiro e Rosa School Cluster, Francisco Soares and Sofia Martins from the board of ECOS CRL. The day continued with a presentation of the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools project made by teachers, students and other professionals from the 3 school and the 3 Civil Society Organizations that are part of this project. The presentation consisted on a timeline with main achievements, activities and outcomes from this 2 years' project (get to know more at www.ecos.pt). ⇒
INITIATIVES OF DEMOCRATIC
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The work day finished with an inspiring cultural input from the storyteller Fernando Guerreiro, a cocktail with world music from Discossauro Project and a traditional grilled fish dinner. The second part of the Conference was dedicated to “Schools and Democracy”. It started with a Panel composed by Derry Hannam advisor to the Council of Europe on Education for Democratic Citizenship and António Branco the Dean of the University of Algarve. The teacher, teacher trainer and project evaluator, Isabel Duarte, moderated it. The main questions directed to the lecturers were “What we mean by school democracy? What is it? Why to do it? How can it be done? And does it work?” The morning finished with an hour of inspiring Pechakucha style presentations of “Schools and Democracy” initiatives and during the afternoon and next morning participants were able to go deeper and experience 8 selected “Initiatives of Democratic Participation in Schools” (take a look at those on the box above an on next page). This part of the conference was closed with a presentation of the “Tools for Democratic Participation by Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools Project”. The presentation included technical information as well as stories of students, teachers and CSO practitioners unique experiences during the construction of the Scale of Reference for Democratic Citizenship Schools and the creation of the Strategic Action Plans for Participation of their schools.
The third part of the Conference was dedicated to “Networking and Learning Communities”. The key note talk from Fernando Cardoso Executive Director of the Portuguese Association of Creativity and Innovation (APGICO) provided theoretical and practical examples of school networking processes while José Pacheco, founder of the Projects “Make the bridge” (Bridge School) & “Anchor”, offered us a Skype inspiring and provocative input about “School, Democracy and Learning Communities”. After an official launching of the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools, an Open Space was created where participants could propose a topic do be discussed and others could join them in a circular talk for final Conference Recommendations. Tapete Mágico theatre group gave a cultural touch to this last day with its play "New forms of Censorship". The Conference ended up in a final celebration dinner in Faro downtown with promises of future joint ventures between many of the participants and the renewed energy for the continuation of the Network of Democratic Citizenship School beyond ERASMUS + project life circle. All Conference materials, film records of the talks and participants reviews are available at www.democraticschools.ecos.pt. A selection from Derry Hannam and José Pacheco talks can be found on pages 4 and 8. Our appreciation and thanks to all those who worked so hardly to make this happen. ★
PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOLS
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INITIATIVES OF DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOLS
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Conclusions and Recommendations: - Most people does not believe in the current politics, politicians or political structures and generally speaking, the ones participating in politics are the few ones who have power - In order to renew democracy it is essential to create mechanisms to re-establish confidence and affection between those holding political posts and the rest of the population - We live now days in an extremely consumerist society were we consume everything (not only things, but also ideas, works and even emotions) in an uncritical and unnecessary way - In order to recover democracy we need to reshape our habits and our way of being to become more active and critical consumers and citizens - Democracy cannot be taught but only learned by doing, by living it - Democracy is not enough; it needs to be framed by human rights ethics and values - School is a privileged actor in the education of young people and can also become a privileged actor in the promotion of Democratic Participation, if the necessary space is provided for young people to make decisions regarding their own learning processes and to take part in decisions on strategic and management issues as well as decisions relating to its relationship with local, national and international communities - Most schools are not democratic places, teachers teach what someone else told them to teach, curriculum is atomized, decisions come from the top – it is necessary to change this reality, step by step; teacher training focusing on changing this reality is crucial - Schools need to be reinvented by the ones who live there, who are part of it - Every democratic school is unique, and there are many ways to develop a democratic education, it is important to use a combination of different practices, as it would be very difficult to find a single model that would fulfill everyone's needs - There are many democratic schools in the world but most of them are private - As most young people attends public schools its democratization is crucial and urgent if we want to reinvent current democracy, making it fit to face the current and future challenges - There are many paths and ways to promote Democracy and Participation in decision-making - many projects and activities are being explored by different schools and small groups within schools - all of them are valuable and should be recognized and shared with others - It is critical to understand how to bring on board more schools, more state schools interested in trying to become democratic: social network groups maybe one way (eg. FB Group Student Voice Research and Practice) - Local and international networks connecting different schools and organizations can provide members with mutual motivation, information exchange, peer to peer learning, teacher, staff and students training, stronger voice and power to influence changes - Existing Democratic School Networks are mainly composed by private schools that were built to be democratic places, being pioneers in solutions that can serve as inspiration and example - There is a need for a Network where regular public schools that intend to start or strengthen their path to become Democratic Citizenship Schools can fit - The Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools could become such a Network is space is provided for more schools and organization to adhere to it.
VOX POP: Impressions on the International Conference
Petra Zega, Program Assistant Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth
For me it was a great chance that I can say something about the daily life in my school, and I fell it is important for me and for other students that teachers and people from different organizations respect our opinions. I’m very proud that I can be here in Faro, it is a great chance to meet people from different countries, that I can hear what they have to say about democracy in schools and that I can lessen to other opinion, other experiences about school life. Mateusz Dornia, Student IV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika w Rybniku (Poland)
One particular thing I take home with me, what is very exiting about this project is that it is a self directed project: the three schools have come together, there is no university taking leadership, there is no official government program providing leadership. (...) The most exciting thing is the self-directed nature of this project. No hierarchy, just three schools doing it together with a wonderful bunch of students! That is the other thing I will take away with me, this fantastic young people here. Derry Hannam Advisor to the Council of Europe in Education for Democratic Citizenship I really enjoyed these 3 days of Conference and I hope this project can help my school to improve somethings and I want to involve more schools in this project. Alessia Steffè, Project Volunteer and Student Gimnazija Gian Rinaldo Carli Koper (Slovenia)
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The conference was lively since there were also young participants. I found it also very interesting, realizing that a lot of small projects in Portugal, Poland and Slovenia were carried out – all with the same purpose: to enable young people to participate in schools, societies and environments where they live. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this project's closure event!
INITIATIVES AND BEST PRACTICESÂ
DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS: BEST PRACTICES More than 500 schools around the world have been pioneering and testing democratic educational spaces. For those who still think that the hierarchical and teacher-centered school model is the only possibility, we selected 5 Democratic School examples that can make anyone rethink about this and be inspired to act. Check them bellow!
A JOURNEY OF LEARNING WITH EXISTING EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES Wondering School is a non-profit and independent project with the purpose to explore, learn from and share inspiring education practices that takes us closer to what we call liberating education. During their journey of learning with existing educational practices, project founders Marianne Osório and Charlie Shread hope to create materials that serve as resources for learning and dialoguing about recreating school education. Since February 2015, they have participated in events, facilitated dialogues and experiences with educators and students and made videos around education and visited projects, families and schools including Summerhill in the UK, Projeto Âncora, Escola Lumiar and Politeia Escola Democrática in Brazil, and Escola da Ponte in Portugal. Their recent project "School Circles" (currently on crowdfunding phase) is exploring Sociocracy within schools, by filming and producing a feature length documentary that explores the practice of four schools in the Netherlands. The name School Circles makes reference to the circles in which Sociocracy is based on, and the documentary will focus on the school practice to illustrate how this consent based approach has been put into action. Get to know more at www.wonderingschool.org/ ★
Schools & Democracy is an annual Magazine created by the Network of Democratic Citizenship Schools. This first issue was created with the support of ERASMUS + Programme. It is basically a compilation of the presentations and conclusions of the "International Conference Participatory Schools 4 Better Democracy" and one of the Intelectual Outputs of a 2 years Strategic Partnership in the Filed of Schools Education. PROJECT COORDINATOR ECOS – Cooperativa de Educação, Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, CRL (Portugal) main goal is the promotion of non-formal education for social inclusion. Through different activities, ECOS aims to contribute to the development of a more human, sustainable, fair, inclusive, participative, democratic, equitable, solidarity, cooperative, dialogical, diverse and integrated society. IN PARTENRSHIP WITH Kulturno izobrazevalno drustvo - PiNA (Slovenia) works on the strengthening the NGO sector, the development of a critical and responsible society and on international (co)operation by developing activities, connecting with other key players and promoting active Participation of the civil society. It became recognized in the local community as one of the referential NGO’s in the region. PiNA participates in networks and initiatives on the national level and has the status of working in the public interest. Centrum Rozwoju Inicjatyw Spolecznych - CRIS (Poland) mission is to build social capital, to inspire and support civic activism. CRIS is a leading Non-Governmental Organizations’ Incubator and supporting centre for local leaders and other active groups. Moreover, the organization is promoting a partnership between Civil Society Organizations, businesses and local government, especially by implementing models of effective cooperation.
Gimnazija Gian Rinaldo Carli Koper - Ginnasio Gian Rinaldo Carli Capodistria (Slovenia) is a secondary school located in Koper, Slovenia. It is a small sized school and has a course focused on general studies. Curriculum includes foreign languages, sciences and liberal arts. It’s focused on developing competences, multicultural aspects and informatics. One of the aims is to develop skills like teamwork team work between of students and teachers, to teach students to study properly, how to use all the achieved competences and how to be more open-minded and tolerant to differences. The school is located in a multi-ethnic and meta-linguistic region and has two national boards. IV Liceum Ogolnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika (Poland) is an upper secondary school in Rybnik, Poland. It has around 400 students. Its belief is that the school should take care of complex growth of a young person – providing opportunities and inspirations for intellectual and personal development. All this is provided to students through various possibilities – participating in international projects, taking additional courses run by university professors, implementing projects and initiatives connected with expressed interests and many others.
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Agrupamento de Escolas Pinheiro e Rosa - AEPRosa (Portugal) is a group of public schools located in the municipality of Faro. It consists of 9 schools scattered from the city centre to rural perimeter boundary. It provides an educational service from preschool to secondary education (regular strand and vocational/professional education). The school has special units structured to support the inclusion of students with autism and other learning disorders and has been developing inclusion projects to promote the inclusion of Roma students.
Coordination: In Partnership with: Support: