Creating democratic learning environments: Educators in conversation

We speak with Dr. Linda F. Nathan and Jonathan Mendonca, two co-editors of the recently published book, "Building Democratic Schools and Learning Environments: A Global Perspective," an anthology of accounts of creating innovative schools around the world. We discuss autonomy vs large-scale uniformity, issues of scaling innovations, and defining success. The book, intentionally available free online, includes both existing schools and concepts of possible schools.

Overview

00:00-00:59 Intros

00:59-02:48 Building democratic schools and learning environments

02:48-07:02 How the book came to be written

07:02-08:00 “Many ways” that schools can prepare students for democracy

08:00-11:32 The four pillars of democratic education

11:32-14:12 The “common good”

14:12-16:13 Barefoot EDU (Unifly Collective) and Shikha Institute of Education

16:13-20:58 Jonathan Mendonca’s vision of scale and reactions to it

20:58-23:32 Resolution of whether to teach in English or mother tongue in school in Madhya Pradesh

23:32-28:10 Managing tensions between autonomy and large-scale administration in U.S. schools, and examples

28:10-29:15 Sharing innovations

29:15-33:34 Building ability to meet students’ needs into systems: equity vs equality

33:34-37:16 Catalyzing large scale professional development for pre-school teachers in Haryana State

37:16-39:08 Looking at success for the next generation

39:08-41:46 Teaching students to nurture the planet

41:46- Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcript of this episode. 

References

• Click here to download the free e-book created by Dr. Nathan and Jonathan Mendonca "Designing Democratic Schools and Learning Environments: A Global Perspective"
• Click here to listen to our first interview with Dr. Linda Nathan "Holistic education: Joy, wellness and rigor"

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear