Embodying Democracy in K–12 Classrooms: Wayfinding Through Rich and Rough Curricular Terrain

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Problematizing the Evidence Base

Abstract

This dissertation research explores K–12 education as a lived, democratic practice. Set in __________ amid a curricular shift toward competency-based education, it examines how educators navigate the tensions between transformative aspirations and entrenched practices. Through a year-long collaborative inquiry with 14 diverse educators, this research surfaces critical reflections on enacting democratic education and its unrealized potential. Findings are framed through the metaphor of democracy as rich and rough terrain, highlighting four themes: conversation and study, reckoning with control, nurturing ecosystem kinships, and practicing freedom. This work contributes to collective future-making by unforgetting democratic traditions and reimagining education as a space of possibility, agency, and shared becoming.

Authors

• Kyle Hamilton, University of British Columbia - Okanagan

• Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, University of British Columbia - Okanagan