Overview
Sean Ginwright (2016) explains that “persisting injustice (i.e. structural barriers to opportunities) contributes to suffering that is the internalization of powerlessness” (p. 24). Indeed, the internalization of powerlessness is one of the deepest cutting consequences of injustice. Where people feel powerless, healthy development is thwarted, and therefore we cannot truly engage positive youth development without engaging questions of power, both the ways power is used negatively as “power over,” and also how it is used productively as “power with.” Young people need opportunities to unlearn powerlessness, claim agency, and practice the essential skill sets of democratic participation. Too often systems of schooling reinforce power dynamics in which youth who uncritically accept adult authority are rewarded for compliance and seen as respectful while young people who venture to use their voices, make decisions, and negotiate power are often misapprehended as disrespectful and therefore punished. Understandably, youth become frustrated and lose hope when they internalize these ideas about themselves, and real harm is done, not only to youth, but to the adults who youth will grow up to become. This internalized powerlessness and the frustration it creates drives a harmful intergenerational cycles in which “power over” seems to be the only viable option.
Democratic participation as part of a youth development framework promotes radical healing, “a process that builds the capacity of people to act upon their environment in ways that contribute to well-being for the common good” (Ginwright, 2016, p.8).
In Humanities Amped classrooms, we are well aware that the ultimate learning curve is one in which we learn together how to shift conditions from suffering to thriving in which people can experience a sense of collective power and control. We understand that this learning curve is not something that can be navigated in a linear way, and therefore we seek to scaffold environments in which students can practice personal and collective responsibility and control through various methods that support their democratic participation.
Democratic participation as part of a youth development framework promotes radical healing, “a process that builds the capacity of people to act upon their environment in ways that contribute to well-being for the common good” (Ginwright, 2016, p.8).
In Humanities Amped classrooms, we are well aware that the ultimate learning curve is one in which we learn together how to shift conditions from suffering to thriving in which people can experience a sense of collective power and control. We understand that this learning curve is not something that can be navigated in a linear way, and therefore we seek to scaffold environments in which students can practice personal and collective responsibility and control through various methods that support their democratic participation.
DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION METHODS
Jobs
Critical educator Christopher Emdin (2016) writes about fostering cosmopolitanism in classrooms, “allowing students to feel as though they are not just guests in the school, but active participants in how these spaces operate” (para. 1). We’ve adapted a practice from Dr. Emdin of incorporating jobs into our classrooms in which every student contributes to, develops a shared responsibility for, and cultivates ownership of classroom functions. This document reflects one version of jobs, though this structure is one that we continuously tweak and shift from classroom to classroom. If you are apprehensive about managing jobs, it is also possible to begin with just a handful of jobs and expand more organically as needs arise.
Opening Meeting
Facilitated daily by the student(s) with the “Opening Meeting Facilitator” job, the Opening Meeting honors the humanity of people in the room by soliciting “Praise,” "Needs,” and “Announcements.” We typically set a timer for anywhere between 5-10 minutes and step back. The facilitator begins by calling for “praise,” and people who have praise to offer someone else raise their hand to share. Teachers also raise their hands and are called on during this segment. The “Praise” segment gives students and teachers a chance to honor one another in a positive way, thus opening class with an uplifting tone. The “Needs” segment is a time to express individual needs, something that is rarely granted in classroom communication. Lastly, “Announcements” establishes a sense that everyone in the room has access to important news and updates, not just teachers. (See also Beloved Community Methods)
Closing Meeting and/or Whole Class Reflections
We close class daily with one or both of these structures. Facilitated by the students with these jobs, the “Closing Meeting Facilitator” asks the class to contribute “Acknowledgements,” “Gratitude,” and “Apologies” while the “Reflection Leader” asks the class for responses to, “What did we do well?”; “What could we improve?”, and “What have we learned?” By ending classes with a forum for people to honor relationships and reflect on their learning, we create ways for students to experience cohesion and make their learning more transferable. You can alternate between these two kinds of closing reflections, which can take as little as 5 minutes, but can also take longer if you want to dig deeper. (See also Beloved Community Methods)
Get Right
Get Right is a designated space in the classroom in which students are considered absent without actually being absent. When students are aware of their particular needs, they can independently choose to go to Get Right. This empowers students to choose their level of engagement in class activities based on their social-emotional needs at that particular time. However, when students are not aware of their needs, they typically express their discontent through disruptive behaviors. Therefore, teachers can also send students who have consistently broken class agreements or sabotaged class goals to Get Right. Whether sent by choice or by a teacher, students complete a written reflection to communicate and think more deeply about why they are in Get Right. This assists the teacher in identifying individualized supports for students as well as conflict that has arisen but has not yet been surfaced. This method is an important part of democratic participation because it enables students to make the active individual choice to participate or not to participate. When schooling is compulsory, it strips this choice away from students, thus framing everything that happens in terms of compliance/non-compliance. By shifting the power back to youth to decide to participate, it becomes possible to disrupt the harm done by the “power over” dynamic inherent in how schools are organized. This does not mean that Get Right completely undoes those dynamics, but it does create an essential “out” when needed. See examples of Get Right reflection forms and signage.
Publishing, Participating, Performing, and Presenting
These forms of authentic assessment require youth to demonstrate their learning and creations publicly. In doing so, youth develop the interpersonal and social skills embedded in youth development practices and develop a deeper ownership of learning. In Humanities Amped, we emphasize opportunities for youth to do real work that has real stakes. Whether that means youth participating in a community-wide campaign to improve funding for public schools, publishing writing in local outlets, performing a poem at a conference, or presenting research at a meeting with decision-makers, we seek myriad ways for student work to exist in the world. These performances of possibility (See Adaptable Methods: Performances of Possibility) are core to helping youth understand themselves as capable, valuable members of a democratic community.
Youth Organizing
When youth bring people together to create plans of action or plan and facilitate events to be held in the classroom, the school, or the community, they develop the skill sets and sense of possibility that are integral to democratic participation. Youth organizing is not a method so much as a set of commitments and approaches. The Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing offers an array of resources for understanding the rationale, impact, strategies, and examples of how youth organizing can be put into practice.
Consensus Methods
When establishing a democratic classroom, teachers should choose, explicitly teach, practice, and incorporate consensus methods into decision making processes, including in student-led small groups. Consensus is crucial because it clearly acknowledges that every voice has been heard within an agreed upon structure and thus reduces conflict and avoidance behaviors by centering input from everyone involved. Consensus works a little bit differently than just collecting input or voting to decide because a consensus-based system means that the process does not move forward without everyone’s willingness to go along with the decision. For example, a class may generate a list of agreements for classroom management. If the agreements are ratified by a simple majority who are willing to uphold them, the class could still be too divided to actually move forward. For the agreements to be ratified, the process must incorporate dissenting ideas and negotiate compromises that everyone can live with. Learning how to come to consensus teaches us how to live cooperatively by seeking ways to both meet our own needs and also help others meet theirs. While consensus processes are critically important for undoing the damage of internalized powerlessness and truly building “power with” instead of “power over,” it is important to understand that in practice, consensus processes can be time consuming and frustrating to work through. In a school context, leaving everything up to the group to decide is not only impractical, but it can be a way of displacing the labor of leadership onto youth who are not always prepared to set boundaries for themselves and their peers. Practically speaking, you want to think carefully about which parts of classroom life are to be decided by consensus and which parts are not. In Humanities Amped classrooms, we believe that teachers must take responsibility for defining boundaries and setting at least some of the goals a priori, while leaving many other agreements and goals open to youth to decide individually or collectively. In this sense, adults accept their role in the space as people who are responsible for fostering youth development and do not enact harmful forms of abandonment in which youth are left to figure everything out for themselves without the wisdom and care of their elders.
For a deep dive into how to incorporate consensus methods, see the book Consensus in the Classroom.
For a deep dive into how to incorporate consensus methods, see the book Consensus in the Classroom.
Student Council
To establish a democratic classroom with integrity, we encourage teachers to establish class-based student councils. Representatives should be volunteers, and sometimes these volunteers will specialize in specific council topics that correspond to a student’s particular job. Click these links for an example application and an example meeting agenda.
Reflections and Feedback
Teachers who reflect and are willing to listen to, learn from, and revise their practice based on student feedback in addition to their reflections support positive youth development by modeling what it looks like to learn how to learn, which is necessary for humanized, democratic classrooms. When students see that teachers will actually modify their practices based on student feedback, it helps students to trust that they can use their voices in productive ways to shape the world. See an example lesson here and Adaptable Methods: Teacher Reflections.
Transparency in Learning Processes
Teachers dedicated to youth development must learn to teach students how to learn, not just what to learn. Meaningful learning can be a very difficult process. As teachers present students with challenging tasks, students often respond by shutting down or distracting others. In addition to developing the personal and interpersonal skills that can support students in overcoming challenges, teachers can also create lessons that ask students to engage with learning processes. By creating opportunities for students to think metacognitively about learning, teachers create the conditions for students to more deeply understand how they learn as well as their personal barriers to learning. When taught in conjunction with reflection and feedback, teachers can create positive classroom communities that respond to breakdowns as a normal part of the learning process and provide students with the skills and tools necessary to overcome those breakdowns. This presentation reflects one way to get students to think metacognitively about learning, and teachers could apply almost any “Adaptable Method” to engage students with this content.
Evaluating Peers and Teachers
In order to maintain a positive community and set appropriate class community and youth development goals, teachers need to frequently check in with students regarding student perceptions of the classroom community so that the teacher is not the only one evaluating, maintaining, and identifying goals for developing a positive classroom community. By asking students to evaluate themselves, their peers, and their teachers, teachers can gain a better understanding of how each student and the class as a whole perceives class interactions and productivity. Teachers can then use this understanding to structure lessons with content and activities that respond to student and teacher evaluations. These lessons work even better when teachers get input from the student council before implementing the lesson. See Version 1 and Version 2 of the Intro to Humanities Amped Weekly Goals and Reflection for an example of how students can evaluate themselves, their peers, and their teachers. Also keep in mind that the frequency of these evaluations may fluctuate with student experience. For example, students new to these approaches benefit from weekly evaluations at first, but as they increase ownership and ability to contribute to and maintain a positive community, then they do not have to evaluate as often.
