Premium
‘I think we are still very directive’: Teachers’ discourses on democratic student participation
Author(s) -
SaizLinares Ángela,
RodríguezHoyos Carlos,
SusinosRada Teresa
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1002/berj.3488
Subject(s) - democracy , pedagogy , sociology , directive , inclusion (mineral) , politics , premise , appeal , normative , deliberative democracy , public relations , political science , social science , epistemology , philosophy , computer science , law , programming language
The objective of this study [Susinos, T. (Dir.), ‘Schools moving towards inclusion: Learning from the local community, the student voice and educational support’ (I+D+I, EDU2011‐29928‐C03‐03)] is to gain a deeper understanding of the analysis of the discourses that different education professionals in the Spanish education system have on student participation in schools, based on the premise that they tacitly reflect different models of democracy and advance very diverse school practices. The study is based on the Student Voice Movement, which is defined by its commitment to deliberative democratic education and its role in the development of inclusive schools. In this article, we have conducted a qualitative analysis of the data from 31 in‐depth interviews carried out with teachers and other education professionals from nine schools. These teachers’ discourses are summarised in four dimensions, which we have named individual, pedagogical, organisational and socio‐political. Some conclusions of this work demonstrate a predominance of discourses linked to an individual and pedagogical dimension of participation, based on the idea that this fundamentally depends on the personal dispositions that some students have. It is less common to appeal to the socio‐political dimension, which refers to participation as a citizen's right to debate and make decisions regarding common and public affairs. This suggests that teachers still see their work from a technical point of view, rather than envisaging the school as a space for democratic participation and practice. In short, with this study we aim to contribute to normative theories on participation and democracy in order to expand their empirical and practical support in schools.