Civic Education and Democratic Renewal: The Possibilities and Limits of School Participatory Budgeting

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) is an exciting initiative that combines citizenship education, student engagement and participatory democracy. In North America, the first School PB occurred in Arizona in 2013. Now, it is implemented by thousands of schools around the world. SPB consists of a deliberation and decision-making process that empowers students to allocate resources to improve their schools. SPB contributes to democratic renewal: students exercise their voice and learn democracy by doing, acquiring civic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices to participate as informed, critical, engaged, and caring citizens. Simultaneously, schools become more democratic institutions. This session discusses accomplishments and challenges of SPB, outlining theoretical and practical issues, international variations, and presenting research findings from Arizona, Chicago and Rhode Island.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Democratic Citizenship in Education

Chair

• Daniel Schugurensky, Arizona State University

Papers

• School Participatory Budgeting in Arizona: Lessons from three case studies - Tara Lynn Bartlett, Arizona State University

• Examining the Contextual Barriers to School PB in Chicago - Katherine Faydash, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Limits to Institutionalizing School PB in Chicago - Thea Crum, University of Illinois at Chicago

• School Participatory Budgeting and Racial Justice: The GRACE model in Rhode Island - Jonathan E. Collins, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Daniel Schugurensky, Arizona State University