Conditions That Foster Democratic Education: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Oakland's Community-Based Reform Environment

• In Event: 33.078 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 33.078-22 - Governing Schools Today: Local Players

Abstract

When district leaders embark on a democratic reform, they face more than technical challenges of implementation. They contend with multiple stakeholders, each of whom may bring with him or her different, often competing beliefs about what democratic education is and what its aims are for public schooling. Some stakeholders may emphasize more individualistic, economic conceptions of democracy that center on consumers’ ability to exercise choice and promote their self interest. Others may ground their notions about democracy in collective terms by focusing on issues of civic participation and deliberation. Bearing these tensions in mind, we investigated how stakeholders conceived of democracy amid one district-wide, democratic reform environment, as well as the conditions that led to their different conceptions of democracy.

Authors

• Tina M. Trujillo, University of California - Berkeley

• Laura Elena Hernandez, University of California - Berkeley

• René Espinoza Kissell, University of California - Berkeley