Developing a democratic curriculum.

   Education and Democracy: James Beane

I visit a wonderful school that makes use of an integrated learning approach based on the ideas of James Beane.

Beane's (and others) ideas fits into current talk of personalizing learning but within an environment based on democratic ideals.

Relating back to the ideas of John Dewey he believes that if people are to live democratic lives they must have the opportunity to learn what that way of life means. His ideas are based on the ability of students to participate in their own education. Democratic schools share a child centred approach but their larger goal is to change the undemocratic conditions of school themselves and in turn to reach out to the wider community.

Beane believes that teachers have an obligation to help young people seek out a range of ideas and to ‘voice’ their own. Beane believes that imposed standardized curriculums actually ‘deskill’ teachers as they are forced to follow approaches imposed on the school.

In Beane’s school teachers live with the creative tension of continually seeking a more significant education for their students while still attending to the knowledge and skills that will require continuing learning.

I believe it is an approach that has real relevance for teachers and students in the middle school where fragmented specialists teaching seems unable to cater for all students. At this level there is a real need to develop more coherent, and engaging learning challenges. This is all the more important for students who are currently failing school – or in Beane’s philosophy where schools are failing their students.

Beane defines several approaches to integrated learning to replace traditional separate subject teaching. Multi-disciplinary where two or more subjects are organized around a theme – in this approach subjects can still retain their separate time slots. Curriculum Integration without regard to subject areas lines. This project based education can involve students selecting/negotiating their own tasks and content.

Beane however takes integration one step further.

In this variation teachers and students plan together through a carefully guided process to create thematic curriculum based on questions and concerns students have about themselves and their world. Student questions are clustered into themes and teachers collaboratively plan activities which are designed for students to take a greater responsibility for their own learning in the context of democratic community.

In this way a school, with student input, develops its own curriculum based on two question asked at the beginning of the year.

What questions or concerns do you have about yourself?

What questions do you have about yourself?

Beane calls this a democratic curriculum. Although the class, team, or even the whole school decides on the themes there is plenty of time for small groups and individuals to create their own projects around the themes.

It is works wonderfully at the school I visit - more about that school later!