Chapter 2: From Student Voice to Democratic Community: New Beginnings, Radical Continuities

Against market-led models of democracy and the educationally corrosive dominance of personalization and high-performance schooling, the case is made for person-centered education committed to the development of an inclusive, creative society. A key element of these alternative, participatory traditions of democracy is the nurturing of public spaces in schools and the iconic development of whole school meetings. Practical examples are explored, key issues identified, and the case made for the importance of prefigurative practice within utopian realist traditions.