The Power of Democratic Teaching Processes

• In Event: Teaching and Learning in Community Schools

Abstract

Ten years ago, teachers came together to create a new community school built on the former site of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, part of a complex of six community schools. The K-12 complex added 4,000 seats to relieve overcrowding, bussing, and serve two adjacent immigrant neighborhoods. The six community schools were granted local autonomy to innovate through a pilot school agreement with the union, district, and community. The UCLA Community School, partnered with a public university and together they have forged the strong norms of collaboration and shared leadership essential to effective community schools.

In this paper, based on a research-practice partnership, authors describe the democratic processes that teachers have established to define and sustain their work. (The annual turnover rate at the UCLA Community School is 10%, less than half the national average for high-poverty schools.) Teachers share an identity as social justice educators and they have designed the school to be democratic at every turn. Teachers have created collaborative work groups, hiring processes, a teacher-developed “Elect to Work Agreement,” and a shared governing council, with several sub-committees, to ensure all members of the community make key decisions. To sustain time-intensive democratic processes, they rotate leadership roles and help each other step in and out when needed.

Importantly, teachers keep the big picture in view to ensure their actions consider the systems and structural inequalities that define their students’ lives. For example, when one teacher helps her students choose internship sites, the backdrop is an Applied Economics course. She teaches students about worker rights, wage inequities, and other practical concerns that define working life. By grounding classroom teaching in previous knowledge and the cultural backgrounds of students, while connecting this learning to real-world issues in the community, teachers are supporting culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum in ways that can build the democratic leadership of students (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Sanders et al., 2018). As such, democratic processes influence teaching and learning practices in ways that can benefit both teachers and students. Teacher voice in decision-making and participation in professional learning is linked to more sharing and innovations with teaching practices (Snow-Gerono, 2005), improved job satisfaction (Stockard & Lehman, 2004), stronger desire to stay in the profession (Ware & Kitsantas, 2007), and improved teaching practices and student achievement (Kraft & Papay, 2014). Community-based learning opportunities, such as those developed by teachers at the UCLA Community School, help students develop important knowledge and skills of democratic participation through a pedagogy of engagement in their community (Daniel et al, 2019).

The authors highlight these examples to demonstrate how educators integrate their identities as both skilled classroom practitioners as well as public intellectuals who understand the local culture, political economy, and community and social networks so that they can work with other stakeholders for educational equity. To be effective, teachers must demonstrate a deep caring and commitment to democratic participation so that they can work with others and negotiate common understandings that support collective action (Daniel et al, 2019).

Authors

• Marisa Saunders, University of California - Los Angeles

• Karen Hunter Quartz, University of California - Los Angeles

• Rosa Jimenez, RFK Community Schools