Handout at AERO Conference, August 2011, Portland, OR

1. What Is Democratic
Education?
The slides attached were created by
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
Founding Board Member of IDEA
for a presentation at the
Alternative Educator’s Resource Organization (AERO)
Annual Conference
Scott Nine, Executive Director of IDEA, also presented
August 2011
Portland, OR

2. Democratic Education
Guidelines
(For examples of IDEA’s Exemplars,
go to IDEA’s online
Eduvation Library.
Also check out IDEA’s complete Curating Guidelines
http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/curating)
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

3. • Decision-making is
shared
• Participatory
• Less hierarchical
• Positional power of
adults less important
Shared Authority Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

4. Real Thinking
• Achievement is related to “real” outcomes
• Work organized around student interests
• Project-oriented
• Moves to greater learning independence
AND interdependence
• Rigor produced in many ways
• Rigor increasingly defined by students
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

5. !
Equitable
• High achievement is available to all
• “Merit” is not a scarce good
• Mastery view of learning
• Purpose of school is not to sort kids
• Broad views of ability
• Developmental view of achievement (grows
through time, with practice)
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

6. Creating A Culture of
“Critical” Citizenry
• School reflects community
• Community engaged in establishing rules
• Difference creates strength
• Hospitable culture (“welcoming the stranger”)
• Shared decision-making helps people find their voices
• Culture promotes involvement, you “own” it
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

7. Theory of “REASONED ACTION”*
“The "habits of mind" that the schools I started were based fundamentally on
the idea that the way we persuade others in a democracy is by reasoned
use of evidence -- not merely passion and coercion.”
-Deborah Meier, How Democratic Are Our Schools? Huffington Post
*Fishbein, 1967; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, Pryor, 1990; 1995

8. Possible
Outcomes
• Higher achievement
• Greater engagement
• More cooperation
• Feeling of relevance
• More social justice
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D.,
www.kirstenolson.org

9. What Does
Democratic Education
Look Like?
(moves to audience participation)