Democratic Schooling - an alternative approach to education in England

Qualitative research in collaboration with a democratic school to identify it's key pedagogic ingredients.

The Department for Education’s SEND Review (2022) highlighted a lack of inclusivity in our education system, calling for action to ‘level up’ opportunities for those who are most disadvantaged. The project achieved an evidence-based understanding of the active pedagogic ingredients for inclusive education by examining pioneering new school models that challenge the narrow curriculum and performance agendas. In partnership with ‘The New School’, an educational charity, transforming schooling via a radical ‘democratic’ model, which claims its ‘mission to positively change the way we educate our children in the UK’. The project had three main objectives:

1. Deploy participatory creative methodologies to explore the processes and mechanisms of democratic education to determine the conditions that generate inclusivity and individual flourishing.
2. Develop a toolkit to support replicability of the school’s pedagogic model.
3. Intervene critically in public and policy debates around education. 

Visual participatory methodology 'Photovoice' was used to elucidate the conditions, values and mechanisms that underpin democratic education and generate inclusivity. Photovoice placed cameras in the hands of participants, teachers, and young people. In addition, Dr Macdonald, and Dr Oliver, conducted ethnographic research from within the school on the ‘Photovoice’ process to supplement data collection. The final report identifies five key ingredients which underpin the school’s democratic pedagogy. The executive summary has been circulated to key stakeholders supporting the school to be replicated and scaled. 

These materials will help build a series of academic and public-facing outputs, including a toolkit. The replicable toolkit will outline the active ingredients needed for an inclusive and democratic educational model based on a shared set of theories, language, norms, and experiences.