Esta pesquisa tem por objeto de estudo as Escolas Democráticas e por objetivo investigar o ideário político-pedagógico que embasa a concepção destas escolas, com ênfase em como esta proposta vem se materializando na educação pública brasileira. Parte-se da perspectiva teórica da Psicologia Escolar crítica, de inspiração marxista, que propõe investigar a escolarização como fenômeno social complexo, síntese de múltiplas determinações, considerando seus aspectos de ordem institucional, econômica, política, histórica e cultural. Entende-se Escola Democrática enquanto organização pedagógica em que os estudantes definem suas trajetórias de aprendizagem, sem currículos compulsórios e com uma gestão participativa, com processos decisórios que incluem estudantes, educadores e funcionários. Para tanto, foi realizado o levantamento bibliográfico sobre o tema e também uma entrevista com a diretora de uma escola pública. O levantamento consistiu na busca de artigos sobre Escolas Democráticas, no período de 2000 a 2014, em quatro revistas conceituadas da área de Psicologia e Educação: Educação e Pesquisa; Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos; Revista Psicologia Escolar e Educacional; Revista Brasileira de Educação. Não foi encontrado nenhum artigo especificamente sobre as Escolas Democráticas. Isso indica que, apesar da crescente visibilidade de tais iniciativas e da necessidade de uma educação pública coerente com valores democráticos, tal objeto de estudo recebe pouca atenção no meio acadêmico. Entretanto, foram encontrados 16 artigos que tratam sobre os princípios da gestão democrática, a participação de estudantes e da comunidade no funcionamento escolar. Além da pesquisa por artigos, o levantamento bibliográfico buscou por publicações (de origem diversa) sobre Escolas Democráticas, democracia e educação. A entrevista foi realizada com a diretora da Escola Municipal de Educação Fundamental Desembargador Amorim Lima, que pode ser definida como Escola Democrática, localizada na Zona Oeste da cidade de São Paulo. A análise da entrevista centrou-se nos seguintes eixos temáticos: a) o cargo de direção; b) a participação da comunidade escolar. Sobre o primeiro eixo, o que se destaca é que um diretor com maior ou menor inclinação à participação da comunidade é um fator determinante. Entretanto, mesmo que o diretor tenha interesse em promover a participação e tenha amplos poderes para tal, ele está submetido à responsabilidade funcional do cargo e deve responder às instâncias superiores pelas decisões tomadas coletivamente. Isso o insere em uma posição frágil, pois algumas decisões podem ter graves consequências para ele. Ao mesmo tempo, o convoca a uma função formativa junto à comunidade para que esta possa compreender os limites e possibilidades da escola no interior do sistema educacional público. Sobre o segundo eixo, cabe destacar o caráter formativo da experiência de participação nos diferentes espaços da escola. Tal experiência possibilita que a comunidade e os alunos possam compreender a escola como um todo, e com isso ter subsídios mais concretos para atuar no Conselho Escolar mecanismo previsto legalmente com mais propriedade. Por fim, o trabalho mostra que uma educação que se pretenda democrática deve ter como horizonte a superação do modo de produção capitalista, uma vez que este impõe limites significativos para a democracia e a promoção de valores democráticos / This research has the Democratic Schools as object of study and aims to investigate the political-pedagogical ideas that underlies the conception of those schools, with emphasis on how that proposal is materializing in the Brazilian public education. It starts from the theoretical perspective of a critical School Psychology, of Marxist inspiration, which proposes to investigate the schooling process as a complex social phenomenon, synthesis of multiple determinations, and considering aspects of institutional, economic, political, historical and cultural order. It is understood Democratic School as an educational organization where students define their learning trajectories without a compulsory curriculum and with a participatory management, with decision-making processes that include students, educators and staff. For this purpose, we carried out a bibliographic research on the subject and interviewed the director of a public school. The bibliographic research consisted in the search for papers about Democratic Schools, in the period from 2000 to 2014, in four prestigious journals in the field of Psychology and Education: Educação e Pesquisa; Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos; Revista Psicologia Escolar e Educacional; Revista Brasileira de Educação. It have found no article specifically about Democratic Schools. This indicates that, despite the increasing visibility of such initiatives and the need for a coherent public education with democratic values, such study object receives little attention in academia. However, were found 16 articles that deal with the principles of democratic management, participation of students and the community in school functioning. Besides searching for papers, the bibliographic research also looked for publications (from various sources) on Democratic Schools, democracy and education. The interview was conducted with the director from the school EMEF Desembargador Amorim Lima, that can be defined as the Democratic School, located in the West Zone of São Paulo city. From the Análise de Prosa method, the interview contents were grouped on the following theme axis: a) the duty of direction; b) the participation of the school community. About the first axis, what stands out is that a director with greater or lesser inclination to community participation is a key factor. However, even though the director is interested in promoting participation and has broad powers to do so, they are subjected to the functional role responsibility and must respond to superior instances for decisions taken collectively. This puts them in a weak position, given that some decisions might have severe consequences for him. Simultaneously, it invites them to a formative function with the community so that it can understand the limits and possibilities of the school within the public school system. About the second axis, what stands out is the formative experience of the participation in different school spaces. Such experience allows the community and students to understand the school as a whole, and thus have more concrete subsidies to serve on the school board - mechanism provided legally - more properly. Finally, the work shows that an education that desires to be democratic should have as a goal the overcoming of the capitalist production system, since it imposes significant limits on democracy and for promoting democratic values

This thesis enquires into the kinds of citizenship taught and learned in formal and informal settings of citizenship education in Scotland. There has been a ‘perceived’ crisis in democratic citizenry in the UK and elsewhere across the world since the 1990s and this has brought about renewed interests in citizenship education whereby young people are a specifically targeted group. Yet, citizenship education is a fundamentally contested domain where conflicting and contrasting ideologies co-exist and the Scottish version of ‘education for global citizenship’ is an archetypal example of this. By exploring similarities and differences between accounts of ‘what adult practitioners do’ and ‘what young people learn’ in each setting, the thesis emphasises tensions and challenges of citizenship education and their implications for the wider debates about the complex relationship between citizenship, democracy and education. The thesis deploys a synthesised theoretical framework for differentiating and analysing the types of education and learning that are legitimate points of reference in citizenship education for democratic life. It distinguishes between approaches to education for citizenship that focuses on membership of the community (relationships and service work in communities), formal political participation (political literacy in terms of institutions, processes and procedures) entrepreneurial citizenship (employability skills and economic participation) and social and political activism (the commitment and capacity to think critically and act collectively to realise the inherent goals of democracy). These different approaches entail a broad ideological mix of civic republicanism, liberalism and neoliberalism which informs citizenship education. The increasing emphasis on economic participation in educational contexts resonates with what can be termed as a neoliberal version of ‘responsiblised citizenship’ that promotes an individualised and depoliticised conception of citizenship by equipping young people with knowledge, skills and experiences to get on and get into the labour market through their own individual efforts rather than being concerned with the collective needs and interests of young people. Formal education and, to some extent informal community education, tend to overlook the de facto issues, experiences and contributions of young people as engaged citizens and the need to focus on the commitment and capacity to think critically and act collectively in order to realise the inherent goals of democracy as an unfinished project. Consequently, the experience of citizenship education is one young people often feel marginal to or marginalised from. This thesis challenges the dominant assumption of ‘disengaged youth’ to focus instead on the democratic deficit at the heart of citizenship teaching and learning. Along with the ‘invited’ spaces of citizenship education, in both formal and informal settings, the goal of democracy should include the ‘invented’ spaces of citizenship learning which reflects the lived experience, concerns and aspirations of young people.

The education system in Namibia was shaped by the policies located within the framework of the apartheid ideology. Since it gained its independence in 1990, the government positioned education at the top of the national priorities. Thus, there has been a growing realisation of the importance of more democratic forms of leadership in the education system for the country to be able to cater for a democratic society. Amongst others, teachers became active creators and managers of the learning outcomes. In addition, teachers are regarded as agents of change and the driving force for productive teaching and learning. Literature describes how the management in schools has been redistributing authority and power so that a culture of teacher leadership in school communities can grow. More importantly, school improvement depends more on the active involvement of teacher leaders as it is realised that people in formal positions cannot do everything. In this line this study investigated the understanding of teachers and members of management of teacher leadership practice and it further identified the structural and cultural factors which enabled and inhibited this practice in a primary school. This study is a case study of a Primary school in a semi-urban area of Otjozondjupa Region, a central part of Namibia. This study was conducted in the interpretive paradigm and it is a qualitative case in nature, employing semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. Triangulation over the data revealed that respondents have an understanding of the concept and that all teachers are involved in leadership roles at school which are more strongly found in the classroom and through involvement with other teachers. Teacher leadership roles at the case study school also occur within the whole school with some limitations and also extend beyond the school. Grant’s (2008) model of teacher leadership was used to analyse the data. The study suggested some hindrances and supporting factors of teacher leadership. The findings suggested that teacher leadership is understood at the case study school and that they experienced factors that enabled and hindered this practice at different stages. Enabling factors included the school structure, further studies and workshops attended, while teacher leadership is impeded by teachers’ unwillingness to collaborate with others and the platoon system. The study recommends future large scale studies, including at secondary schools, so that a broader sense of teacher leadership may emerge.

Students' connections to place are important to bring into the classroom to help them make meaning. This multimethod study investigated the overarching research question: What is the influence of a place-based curriculum on high-performing, rural students as writers? This was broken into two sub-questions: (a) What is the effect of treatment condition on students writing ability, writing self-efficacy, and concepts of community and place and (b) In what ways do students reference place in their writing? In particular, this study examined students' writing ability, writing self-efficacy, connections to community/place, and references to place in students' writing. Working from a larger data set from the Promoting PLACE (Place, Literacy, Achievement, Community, and Engagement) in Rural Schools grant, students' pre- and post-test writing tasks, self-report writing self-efficacy, and community and place scales were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the ways the curriculum supported students as writers. The sample included treatment and control students, randomly assigned at the district level. The treatment group access to the Promoting PLACE curriculum and the control group received the typical services their district provided. Quantitative analysis gave rise to more questions regarding sample size, gifted identification methods, and modes of instruction. Qualitative analysis gave insight into the importance of connecting to place in the classroom, so students can explore the richness of their rural places. Using a dialogic stance, with place-based pedagogy can provide students with opportunities to critically examine their places and the experiences they have in those places. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study explored how a dialogic, place-based curriculum influences high- performing rural students as writers. The sample included treatment and control students, randomly assigned at the district level, totaling 199 students across both groups. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, the researcher examined student pre- and post-test writing tasks and self-report writing self-efficacy and community and place scales. Findings suggest that adopting a stance that in the classroom that values students’ lived experiences provides opportunities for students to make meaning using what they know and have experienced and critically examining their experiences as members of their local communities. This study provides insight into writing classrooms that embraces student experience and view students as valuable members of their communities.

The purpose of this study is three-fold: 1. To make a study of the criteria used in evaluating democracy in the elementary schools. 2. To evaluate how democratic sixteen elementary schools of Hill County are. 3. To offer recommendations for changes that could be made for the improvement of the sixteen elementary schools of Hill County.

Since more demand is being made of the school to teach democracy--and to practice what it teaches--this work is an attempt to show how some phases of the democratic way of living can be incorporated into a student activity program of a high school, and to offer a democratic plan for the coordination and administration of these student activities.

After the 2016 United States presidential election, people became newly involved in social action and civic engagement efforts around the nation. This participation involved joining both established and newly developing groups. One newly developed group was Indivisible. Indivisible chapters were created all over the country; group goals included resisting the aims of the Trump administration and saving democracy. The chapters looked different depending on the local context and group member composition. Some early participants moved on; other activists remained involved in this work over time. Not enough has been understood about their reasons for staying committed, or what kind of learning and changes resulted from their involvement in these communities. This study considered the Indivisible participants who were new to activism, and their experiences with learning, sustained involvement, and community. This study focused on the factors that kept new activists involved in Indivisible social action efforts from 2017 to 2020, what participants learned or how they changed through their involvement, and the roles of community in participants’ learning or development. Participants were involved for a minimum of two years; 93% had been involved for four to five-plus years at the time of the study (n=51). All of the study participants were able to articulate what they had learned through their participation in Indivisible activities. Learning more about the experiences of new activists was prioritized to understand how to support adult learners drawn to social activism and civic engagement in the future. This qualitative case study included accounts from participants in Indivisible groups from around the United States. Data were collected from 55 participants who submitted demographic questionnaires with critical incident questionnaires, with a subset of 22 participants then doing a follow-up interview. A different subset of four participants also participated in a focus group. The study found eight factors that sustained involvement, seven sub-factors that could help to sustain involvement, and three factors that may hinder involvement. The most significant factors were: (1) Community relationships and friendships, (2) Making a difference and thinking more was possible, and (3) Having a sense of duty, and belief that quitting was not an option. The most reported sub-factors were: (1) Supportive family members and friends and (2) Indivisible’s flexible format helping participants make it work for their interests and contexts. There were eleven findings specific to learning. The learning and changes findings included: (1) Participants learned about democracy and activism; (2) Participants learned to contribute and work together in community; (3) Participants had increased consciousness; (4) Participants experienced leadership or personal development; (5) Participants reported becoming more empowered, assertive, and politically engaged; (6) Learning was supported and facilitated in Indivisible communities through several community aspects. The findings of this study may be of interest to adult learning professionals interested in learning that took place within social action or civic engagement activities, and for people seeking to encourage and support new participation in social action organizations.

This study undertakes to measure by means of a questionnaire the spirit of democracy in the William James Junior High School of Fort Worth, Texas. The problem was the outgrowth of a personal interest in the boys and girls in the public schools of our nation and a feeling that strict application of the principles of democracy to school practices would result in happier school relationships.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the implications of certain aspects of homogeneous grouping in the school and their relationship to the American conception of democracy.

This study explored the impact of democracy on the leadership and management styles in two previously coloured primary schools in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province of South Africa. The report uses a case study as well as an interactive qualitative analysis research methodology. It explores how principals and educators use post-apartheid legislation policies and practices to address complex challenges in order to effect change. I argue that despite tensions between coloured and black educators, change is evident. The people learn to work together, respect each other and forge ahead. These challenges brought about by desegregation contribute to shaping a future non-racial, non-sexist South Africa. We see how mentalities of superiority and inferiority play itself out and how one group exercises its hegemony over another sometimes reflecting the social constructs of society during apartheid. The findings reveal that the Constitution of South Africa (1996) and the South African Schools Act (SASA) (1996) are not used sufficiently and substantively to influence change. Discretion and common sense are often used to resolve problems and to find each other. Desegregation and integration create a space where tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness have been able to be practiced in different ways. The leaders have worked with their staff, students and communities to make headway on the path from the received apartheid past to a brighter more integrated future.” While schools discuss embracing the ten fundamental values of the Constitution of South Africa, living up to them continues to remain a challenge in practice.