Democratic Education Resources

 

Democratic Education Book List:
The Countesthorpe Experience	A collection of articles about what was probably the most important experiment ever in a secondary state school in the UK.
Summerhill and A.S.Neill	As well as much of Neill’s own description of Summerhill School, this book includes up-to-date information from Zoe Readhead, the current head, and a full account of the failed attempt by the authorities to close the school down.
Freedom to Learn	Carl Rogers’ name is enough to justify the publication of this book, but his views are diluted by Jerome Freiberg’ more conventional approach.
Turning Points	Thirty-five visionaries in education tell their own stories. Includes contributions from Yakov Hecht, Chris Mercogliano, Mary Leue, Herbert Kohl, John Taylor Gatto, David Gribble and many more.
Children don’t Start Wars	A powerful argument for listening to the voice of the children in any situation
Worlds Apart	Traditional and democratic methods are compared by matching declarations from relevant schools on different topics and presenting them on facing pages. The students’ views are represented as fully as those of the writers of prospectuses and creators of web sites.
Dumbing us Down, the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling	After twenty-six years teaching in Manhattan, where he won several awards, Gatto came to recognise the way conventional school structures stamp out self-knowledge, curiosity and concentration, and identified seven major faults in the hidden curriculum.
The School I'd Like	A new book of contributions from children who entered a competition in the Guardian newspaper for ideas about their ideal school in 2004.
The School that I'd like	The views of school students in the 1960s.
Risinghill: Death of a Comprehensive School	Risinghill, under its headmaster Michael Duane, was one of the first secondary schools in Britain to introduce progressive methods. In spite of its self-evident success, it was closed down by the ILEA
Summerhill School: a Free Range Childhood	This is an account of the most famous democratic school in the world from the point of view of a member of staff.
Learner Engagement	A review of learner voice initiatives across the UK’s education sectors
Learner Voice	A free publication for educators and learners
Inspiring Schools: Impact and Outcomes	Examines the impact of pupil participation in school settings.
How Children Fail	Observations and analysis of children in class.
The Enquiring Classroom	Observation of and comment on a primary school classroom in the 1970s.
Real Education: Varieties of Freedom	Descriptions of democratic education in eighteen schools in eight countries.
Lifelines	The importance of democratic education for disadvantaged children in the world.
Let our Children Learn	Retired teachers helped primary children gain independence and develop imagination.
The School I'd Like	Competition entries where young people were asked to imagine their ideal school.
Leave me Alone	For her thesis, Joanna Gore spent three months as a pupil in a primary school - her conclusions.
Democratic Education in Schools and Classrooms	By Mary A Hepbur
Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies:Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities	McDonough, Kevin (Editor), Feinberg, Walter (Editor),
Democratic Education	The first book-length study of the democratic theory of education
Democratic Education: Ethnographic Challenges	Challenging how democratic schooling is attacked by the marketisation of education.
Democratic Leadership in Education	Democratic leadership, and how it is relevant to school education and learning.
The Directory of Democratic Education	Listing 175 democratic schools in 28 countries involving 12,000- 15,000 students.
The Hannam Report: A report to the DfEE	Evaluating the impact of student participation on standards of education.
I Was a Teenage Governor	Tool for schools appointing pupils as Associate Members of Governing bodies.
Books by A.S. Neill	Set in a democratic school: provocative and entertaining