IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v3y2017i1d10.1057_s41599-017-0012-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Democracy’ in education: an omnipresent yet distanced ‘other’

Author

Listed:
  • Ashley Simpson

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Fred Dervin

    (University of Helsinki)

Abstract

Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic. It can also be a conveniently loose term that can be used by some to position themselves above others and to ‘teach them’ lessons about how to ‘do’ democracy, often creating unjustified hierarchies and moralistic judgements. Based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of 'authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse', this article examines how the contested idea of democracy is constructed and negotiated at a key International Conference on democratic education. Excerpts from talks given at the conference serve as case studies in this paper, without the intention to generalise about discourses of democracy in education. The results hint at uncritical attempts, often based on pathos, to totalise and generalise ‘democracy/the democratic’ especially within discourses on ‘democratic schools’. Such discourses can contribute to cultural othering and stereotyping, as well as, simplistic assumptions about how ‘democracy’ functions and comes-into-being. They can also help the utterer hide their sentiments. Thus, the aim of this paper is to deconstruct an essentialised and somewhat empty vision of democracy discourse in education. The fact that the idea of ‘freedom’ is often used as a synonym for ‘democracy’ during the conference is also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashley Simpson & Fred Dervin, 2017. "‘Democracy’ in education: an omnipresent yet distanced ‘other’," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:3:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-017-0012-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-017-0012-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-017-0012-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-017-0012-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eero Vaara, 2014. "Struggles over legitimacy in the Eurozone crisis : Discursive legitimation strategies and their ideological underpinnings," Post-Print hal-02313233, HAL.
    2. H. Eylem Korkmaz & M�nire Erden, 2014. "A Delphi Study: The Characteristics of Democratic Schools," The Journal of Educational Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(5), pages 365-373, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Concepcion Fuentes-Moreno & Marta Sabariego-Puig & Alba Ambros-Pallarés, 2020. "Developing social and civic competence in secondary education through the implementation and evaluation of teaching units and educational environments," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-12, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peda, Peeter & Vinnari, Eija, 2020. "The discursive legitimation of profit in public-private service delivery," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Renate E. Meyer & Eero Vaara, 2020. "Institutions and Actorhood as Co‐Constitutive and Co‐Constructed: The Argument and Areas for Future Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 898-910, June.
    3. Höglund, Linda & Svärdsten, Fredrik, 2018. "Strategy work in the public sector—A balancing act of competing discourses," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 225-232.
    4. Harber, Michael & Maroun, Warren & de Ricquebourg, Alan Duboisée, 2023. "Audit firm executives under pressure: A discursive analysis of legitimisation and resistance to reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    5. Dermarkar, Simon & Hazgui, Mouna, 2022. "How auditors legitimize commercialism: A micro-discursive analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Patrick Haack & Oliver Schilke & Lynne Zucker, 2021. "Legitimacy Revisited: Disentangling Propriety, Validity, and Consensus," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 749-781, May.
    7. Rieder, Maria & Theine, Hendrik, 2018. ""Piketty is a Genius, but...": An Analysis of Journalistic Delegitimation of Thomas Piketty's Economic Policy Proposals," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 263, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. Gorgi Krlev, 2023. "Let’s Join Forces: Institutional Resilience and Multistakeholder Partnerships in Crises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 571-592, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:3:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-017-0012-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.