Documentation and Democratic Education

Abstract

This article discusses how documentation practices in education can contribute to the realization of democracy. Grounded in the notion that democracy requires citizens who are able to engage with and benefit from an exchange of multiple perspectives, the authors focus on how documentary practices support teachers to understand and to teach a broad range of students well. Additionally, they describe how documentary practices help students to understand themselves and each other, both as learners and as members of a collective community. They outline and provide examples of four ways that documentation supports the kind of education a healthy democracy requires: how it fosters an inquiry approach to teaching; how it informs teaching and enhances professional learning; how it extends and deepens the learning that learners acquire from their work; and how it offers assessment alternatives to educators, students, families, and the public that provide critical information about learning.