Democracy and education in democratic schools: exploring Gert Biesta’s philosophical renderings in teachers’ articulations of practice

Abstract

In ‘Beyond Learning’ Gert Biesta explicated the existence of two key overarching models of democratic education. Through critique of these models Biesta argued for a new direction in education, proposing an alternative model of democratic education based on Arendt’s political writings. Biesta’s alternative model was proposed as a philosophical possibility with many explicit and implicit questions for practice. This article draws on a project that investigated democratic schoolteachers’ conceptualisations of democratic education. My focus is to consider the presence of the models proposed by Biesta’s philosophical renderings in the teachers’ articulation of philosophy and practice. Presence of each model, along with the overlap between each model across the teachers’ perspectives suggests that Biesta’s proposal is possible, and existent in teacher perceptions of practice. The interplay of models highlights the evolution of relationship between democracy and education.