Prompted by the centenary of the founding of Summerhill, in my contribution to this JOPE Suite on Democratic Education, I briefly explore both the admiring reciprocity and the subsidiary but significant differences of praxis between A.S. Neill and Alex Bloom, two remarkable pioneers of education in and for participatory democracy as a way of life.…

Serious re-examination of participatory traditions of democracy is long overdue. Iconically central to such traditions of democratic education is the practice of whole School Meetings. More usually associated with radical work within the private sector, School Meetings are here explored in detail through two examples from publicly funded…

There needs to be a tighter connection than is often the case between contested theories of democracy and debates about the viability and desirability of the common school. Because radical traditions of state education take that connection much more seriously, in both theory and practice, than most dominant accounts, it is to those alternative…

This paper offers a preliminary tribute to the work of the late Jean Rudduck, pioneer of student voice, both as an academic field and as a potential agent of school transformation. Tracing the roots of her student voice work back to CARE (Centre for Applied Research in Education) and the Humanities Curriculum Project (1967-1972), the author…

Article assesses the development of democracy in the public schools and the problem of incorporating a rigorous critical spirit which ensures the opposition of injustice and the encouragement of a caring, creative ethos. (Author/RK)

In this article we suggest that the current popularity of student voice can lead to surface compliance--to a quick response that focuses on "how to do it" rather than a reflective review of "why we might want to do it". We look at the links between student consultation and participation and the legacy of the progressive democratic tradition in our…

A key contributor to the 1948 New Education Fellowship "The Teacher and World Peace" submission to UNESCO, Alex Bloom is one of the most remarkable pioneers of radical democratic education of the twentieth century. In many important respects, Bloom's internationally renowned work from 1945-55 at St George-in-the-East Secondary Modern…

Among the most important features of a democratic way of life is public space within which we collectively make meaning of our work and lives together and take shared responsibility for past action and future intentions. This article looks briefly at the argument for democratic public space within political and educational theory before focusing…

In order to address some of the key underlying issues currently distorting dominant approaches to schooling it is necessary to acknowledge and engage with our broad intellectual and cultural responsibilities currently shunned by contemporary policy. Philosophy has a key role to play here, in terms of both deconstruction and recommendation. Drawing…

The re-emerging field of "student voice" has the potential to offer an important contribution to education for civic society. An exploration of what "student voice" aspires to and what it actually does suggests quite different sets of possibilities for educational and civic renewal. A new intellectual framework is offered in…