Action for Democratic Education

ACTION FOR DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION George H. Wood Ohio University A subtle, yet noticeable, shift is occurring in recent debates over the reform of public schooling. In response to the reform reports of 1983 which stressed the need for schools to prepare workers, more recent reports have instead focused upon the preparation of citizens—in particular, the preparation of democratic citizens.* This new wave of proposals echoes a traditional resistance against the scientific management ethos of the early 1900s. Then, as now, proposals for school reform emphasized the preparation of workers in order to generate industrial power. The emphasis was on more efficient use of resources—more hours, group drill, tracking, testing, and the like. As a direct result of these reforms, centralized, bureaucratic, and anti-democratic administrative structures were put in place.2 Opposition to earlier reform proposals arose from a variety of fronts. Margaret Haley, head of the Chicago Federation of Teachers, argued in 1924 that the factory was an inadequate metaphor for education, "the factory system carried into the public school . . . needs only the closing time whistle to make complete its identification with the great industrial p l a n t s . E l l a Flagg Young, Chicago Superintendent of Schools, saw in 1916 "a tendency toward factory-evolution and factory-management, and the teachers, like children who stand at machines, are told what to do. The teachers, instead of being a great moving force, educating and developing the powers of the human mind in such a way that they shall contribute to the power and efficiency of this democracy, tend to become mere workers on the treadmill. . . Perhaps the most articulate and well known of the critics of scientific management was John Dewey. -33- -34More than anyone else, Dewey made it clear that the fundamental obligation of public schooling was to prepare citizens who could function democratically.5 It was this central concern with the democratic obligation of public schooling that led Dewey, Young, and Haley to propose alternatives which included broader teacher autonomy, experiential learning, and the elimination of standardized testing, curricula, and teaching. Now, as then, reforms such as these are in conflict with officially sanctioned reform agendas. The current federal administration defines appropriate reform as synonymous with tougher standards, merit pay, more days and hours, and more centralized control. In states, reform agendas focus on mandated curricula and competency testing, for teachers and students. In both cases, the agenda calls for excellence, loosely defined as more rapid consumption of subject matter. However, reforms which take as their basis the development of democratic citizens have also gained a widening audience. There are multiple reasons for this trend. It has become obvious that the official reform positions propose add-ons rather than changes—increased time, control, and testing. None offer anything new. Teachers realize this and are less than enthusiastic about proposals which limit their control over their work and yet increase their responsibility for its outcome. In response to these concerns, a wide range of democratic alternatives have been proposed for public schooling. Each of these reforms is centrally concerned with education for democratic empowerment. They focus on how schools can contribute to children gaining the intellectual and psychological wherewithall to remake the social order in ways that meet their collective needs. Further, these democratic alternatives address the conditions needed for empowering teachers as well. The reports and reforms calling for democratic empowerment include calls for decentralized decision-making, emphasis on issues of equity, experiental curricula and pedagogy, and the involvement of a broader range of actors in educational decision-making. The call is for schools to become communities of democratic empowerment. Central to this concept is the goal of developing in students and their teachers the academic skills, self-esteem, and sense of commitment necessary to live democratic lives. What is now needed are teachers and schools which are exemplars of democratic teaching practices who can teach others how to promote schools as democratic communities. This essay attempts to set forth principles of democratic life and identify teaching practices which support those principles. It is not my intention to present models to be replicated. Rather, the paper aims to reveal that action for...