1.3 Democratic governance of schools

1.3.1   School – a micro democracy?

Education for democratic citizenship and human rights education (EDC/HRE) is based on the core principles of teaching through, about and for democracy and human rights in school. School is conceived as a micro-community, an “embryonic society”⁶ characterised by formal regulations and procedures, decision-making processes, and the web of relationships influencing the quality of daily life.

Is school then to be conceived as a miniature-size democracy? A glance at the list shows that schools are not small states, in which elections are held, teachers enact like governments, head teachers resemble presidents, etc. Therefore the question may be dismissed as rhetorical. So what can schools do for EDC/HRE?

1.3.2   Democratic school governance: four key areas, three criteria of progress

Elisabeth Bäckman and Bernard Trafford, head teachers in Sweden and the UK and authors of the Council of Europe manual “Democratic governance of schools”,⁷ have explored this question in depth. Schools, they argue, require both management and governance. School management is school admin­istration – for example, the implementation of legal, financial and curricular requirements. The relationship between the head teacher and students is hierarchical, based on instruction and order. School governance, on the other hand, reflects the dynamics of social change in modern society. Schools need to interact with different partners and stakeholders outside school, and to answer problems and challenges that cannot be foreseen. Here, all members of the school community, includ-ing first and foremost the students, have an important role to play. The members of the community interact, negotiate and bargain, exercise pressure, make decisions together. No partner has complete control over the other.⁸

Bäckman and Trafford suggest four key areas for democratic school governance:

• governance, leadership and public accountability;
• value-centred education;
• co-operation, communication and involvement: competitiveness and school self-determination;
• student discipline.

Bäckman and Trafford apply three criteria based on the Council of Europe’s three basic principles of EDC/HRE, to measure progress in these key areas:

• rights and responsibilities;
• active participation;
• valuing diversity.

1.3.3   Teaching democracy and human rights through democratic school governance

Bäckman and Trafford provide a detailed set of tools to meet the task of teaching and living out democracy and human rights in the whole school. Students experience democratic participation in school, but schools remain institutions for education; they are not turned into would-be mini-states although they are mini-societies.

6. See Dewey J. (2007),  The School and Society, Cosimo, New York, p.32.
7. Bäckman E. and Trafford B. (2007), Democratic Governance of Schools, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
8. Ibid., p.9.