Democracy at work in and through experimental schooling

Abstract

Through an exploration of two experimental schools, Oruaiti (1950s) and Discovery 1 (2000s), we aim to understand the socio-political contexts that create spaces for experimentation and examine their impact on mainstream schooling. Caught between competing, often contradictory, discourses such experiments struggle between the ‘regeneration’ and ‘reproduction’ functions of schooling. However, we argue that while they have limited impact on mainstream school reform, they contribute ideas of a democratic society and its citizenry. Consequently, they provide ‘windows’ into real-life laboratories in which social debates regarding the function and power of schooling, and specific visions of democracy are played out.

Notes

1. Whanau is a concept of family within Maori culture that links people to a common ancestor.

2. Whilst this was his first substantive publication on Oruaiti, Richardson has documented the work of the school in numerous subsequent publications (e.g. Richardson, 1979a, 1979b, 1979c, 1979d).

3. In New Zealand, schools are ranked into Deciles 1–10 according to the socio-economic status of the community from which the children are drawn. Decile 6 puts Discovery 1 in the middle range.

4. The research community (TPRC) was composed of all (six) of the learning advisors, the director of the school, four Board of Trustees members, six parents, two senior lecturers, one post-doctoral student, one graduate student and a member of the founding body.