The Historical and Pedagogical Antecedents of the role of the teacher in Democracy Education

This study examined the pedagogical and ideological foundations of the teacher/facilitator in Democracy Education, an approach to teaching and learning developed by Roy Wilson at the Institute for Community Leadership. Democracy Education posits that the conduct, character and consciousness of Democracy can be taught and learned. In its inheritance of a historical and ideological legacy of struggle, Democracy Education prepares individuals and groups to address disparities based on race and class, rectify community disenfranchisement, attack the weakening of cultural bonds and develop new modes of teaching and learning based on personal transformation through social participation. This study involved!;The methodological approach used to structure my research is derived from a practitioner-based, problem-solving framework that uses critical reflection and historical investigation to capture the synergy between qualitative research and professional practice. My research sought new insights on qualitative research by creating contributions to both academic and practitioner research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Dadds & Hart, 2001; Fox, Martin, & Green, 2007). The goal of practitioner-based research is to create inquiry approaches that enable new; valid understandings to develop that empower practitioners to improve their work (Dadds & Hart, 2001).;The study involved two intersecting paths. First, it sought historical and ideological points of leverage for conceptualizing the role of the teacher/facilitator in Democracy Education. In particular, the study examined three historical moments in which education, in connection with larger efforts to alter social and economic conditions, was used to engage in social reconstruction. These include Reconstruction after the Civil War, the Depression (particularly the work of the Social Reconstructionist) and the Civil Rights Movement (particularly the role of Freedom Schools). Each era is examined from an ideological and pedagogical perspective to uncover common and divergent themes of the role of the teacher/facilitator.;The emergent themes are analyzed in light of the second path: Democracy Education's vision for the teacher/facilitator as the incubator of community aspirations and capacities for change. Democracy Education, through its perspective of personal transformation through social participation, calls for the reconstruction of meaningful and dynamic educational experiences with and through the reconstruction of inspired and transformed pedagogues. Various streams of the pedagogical and ideological outlook necessary to engage in the task of social reconstruction through education are illuminated. My research demonstrates five important findings or characteristics of the Democracy Education facilitator:;• Pedagogy is most effective when it emanates from and is rooted in the struggle to alter social, economic and cultural relations in society---this more than teaching for social justice. Rather than begin from the viewpoint of the school, it begins from the aspirations of the community and directs educational efforts towards the fulfillment of these aspirations.;• The facilitator of transformative learning experiences with individuals and groups cannot remain neutral. She must take a position, articulate a vision, and possess the courage to represent an ideological, political and social position. This requires courage, most effectively takes place inside contested spaces through which the educator herself is challenged to develop strong and consistent ideological positions and actions.;• One cannot teach transformation without walking the path of transformation. The facilitator of learning must himself or herself engage in the process of transformation. This includes pedagogical relationships outside of the normal comfort zone, in places that generate tension and difficulty and with the express purpose of transforming oneself along with those whose transformation rests in the function of the educational experience.;• Learning, in its transformative capacity, takes people from where they are, leads them towards a dynamic engagement with the world, and arms them with the capacity to act upon the world to change it. All individuals bring experiences to learning that shapes what is heard and seen, how they process information, relationships and action. Though individuals may well be more academically successful from these experiences, the goal of transformative educational experiences is to engage their capacities in a struggle larger than themselves.;• Transformative education opportunities propose a purpose larger and more compelling than the acquisition of individual knowledge and skill. Education as transformation directs its attention to the betterment of the nation. Education and pedagogy become tools of social, political, national, economic and cultural reconstruction.