Helena Singer

(1)

The 15th International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) took place between the 8th and the 16th of September 2007, in Mogi das Cruzes, 65 kilometers from São Paulo. The Conference was organized by the Politeia1 Institute of Democratic Education, the Laboratory of Studies and Researches on Teaching and Diversity of the University of Campinas (LEPED- Unicamp), the Social and Environmental Institute (ISA) and the School of Education of the University of São Paulo (FE-USP) as a parallel event to the World Education Forum of Alto Tietê (FME-AT). The World Education Forum was created in 2001 as a result of the World Social Forum, an international movement that aims at uniting initiatives that offer alternatives to the neoliberal hegemony.

Organizing IDEC in partnership with two of the best Universities of the continent and also with FME had two main goals: on one side, to question the real possibilities of democratic education being able to formulate public policies and, on the other side, to make them become a subject of academic debate.

Regarding figures, the Conference could be described like that: about 170 people gathered at the event: students, educators, researchers, parents – belonging from 65 organizations in 13 countries: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Canada, United States of America, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Israel and Japan. When the activities were also open to the World Education Forum’s audience, there were up to 800 people taking part in them.

Those who came from North America, Europe and Asia are part of the international network of democratic education. In order to articulate the Latin-American organizations that could also be part of this network, IDEC organizers listed the organizations in their own networks and sent them a questionnaire about their general conducts and procedures, six months prior to the Conference. Based on the answers to this questionnaire, organizations from different regions of Brazil, a country of continental proportions, and the Latin-American countries mentioned above were invited and effectively took part of IDEC.

The variety regarding types of participant organizations shows the innovative characteristic of this event that happened in an area in which events are, most of the times, segmented into those for teachers or into those for theorists, but almost never for students. Among the participants of IDEC 2007 that informed which organization they were part of, most of them were connected to non-governmental organizations (45%), followed by those that were from schools (33%), public managers (7%) and university researchers (5%). The schools that participated were public (managed by the state or local government), philanthropic or private and also part of different sectors: kindergarten, elementary school, high school and also youth and adult education. Among the NGOs, there were those that worked with full time education, and others that worked with social mobilization in areas that are connected to democratic education, like sustainability of the planet, solidarity economy, democratization of information and communication technologies.

But what does Democratic Education mean?

Certain proposals, guided by the ideals of freedom and participative management, have been differently named over the past 150 years: student-centered pedagogy and libertarian, free, progressive, alternative or democratic schools. Even though there are differences regarding the country of origin of each school, nowadays, the movement around which they articulate themselves has adopted the name “democratic education”. Although it is important to emphasize that not every school that is part of the movement recognizes itself this way. This was one of the themes debated on the 15th IDEC during the session: “Self-management, Libertarian and Permanent Education”.

In the Japanese Conference in 2000, the network was defined as being the group of schools, organizations and people who practice and promote the following ideals: respect and trust towards children, freedom of choice and democratic management shared between children and adults.

Who was part of the 15th IDEC?

The organizations that participated in the 15th IDEC belong to networks that articulate democratic schools around the world. Talking about these networks is also a way of telling the story of the movement.

We can start by Janusz Korczak that founded and managed an orphanage for Jewish children between 1912 and 1942 in Poland and has written several books: fiction for children, guidance books for parents, besides reports about his own educational experiences. The Janusz Korczak Association (AJK) exists in 21 countries, promoting courses for educators, exhibitions and translation of books written by this physician-educator. In some countries, this organization has articulated itself with some local democratic schools. In the Brazilian edition of IDEC, AJKB released its most recent bulletin and was also part of the debate “What do we want from Education?”, on the first day of activities.

In 1987, the AJK from Israel supported the creation of the Democratic School of Hadera, which originated the Institute for Democratic Education (IDE), managed by the psychologist Yaacov Hecht. In different moments of IDEC 2007, Hecht, Israeli educators and students have reported the recent accomplishments of IDE. Since its creation, IDE has developed projects in hundreds of schools and cooperated creating 25 democratic schools in the country. In the last few years, IDE has worked with twelve local governments to develop programs of local sustainable development and has mobilized all local schools, as well as other public services. It also offers teacher-training degrees in democratic education, in partnership with Kibbutzim College, with 200 students enrolled at the moment. IDE has organized the first International Conference of Democratic Education (IDEC) in 1993.

Another country in which the movement is very strong is the USA. There are several networks of democratic schools, learning communities and homeschooling associations (formed by families who educate their own children at home). In the Brazilian edition of IDEC, John Loflin and Jonah Canner presented the possibilities of democratization in American public schools through specific programs that aim at transforming school culture. Moe Zimmemberg has reported his experience in Tutorial School, in Santa Fé, one of the oldest democratic private schools in the country.

Their neighbor country, Canada, does not present such a strong movement, but we can point out the experience of Windsor House, that was beautifully reported by students, parents and former educators that are now grouped at the Society for the Advancement of Non-Violent Education, which is the organizer of IDEC 2008.

A piece of news that impressed those who participated of IDEC – both who attended it personally and also the virtual participants, that were following the Conference by the e-mail discussion list – was the number of democratic schools in Asia announced by Kageki Asakura, from Tokyo Shure University: 100 democratic schools in Korea – that, not by chance, will be the host of IDEC 2009 –, and almost 300 in Japan. Even though most of these schools are small, this fact emphasizes the movement of children who refuse to attend the strict local schools in these countries. In Japan, there is an estimate of two to three thousand children that refuse to go to school. Although the homeschooling legalization process is still being debated, several family associations that practice it have already been created as well as the democratic schools that come as an answer for this need.

One of the debaters of the most attended session of IDEC was José Pacheco, who idealized Escola da Ponte, in Portugal. Escola da Ponte started its democratization process in 1976 through the initiative of a group of teachers leaded by Pacheco, who is the author of many books about this theme. This public school started offering only the first grades of elementary school, but all grades of elementary school were already available, after 2005. Escola da Ponte was influenced by the thinkers of democratic education, but it had remained relatively isolated until 2002, when the education philosopher Rubem Alves visited and described it in the book “A Escola com que sempre sonhei sem imaginar que pudesse existir” The school I have always dreamed about without ever imagining it could exist. Since then, Escola da Ponte has become a place of visit for Brazilian educators and researchers and its founder moved to Brazil, where he connects public and private schools, Bureaus of Education and other organizations interested in democratic education. Among the experiences directly inspired by Escola da Ponte, we can point out the Public Elementary School Amorim Lima, in São Paulo, represented at IDEC by a some parents that are active participants of the School Board.

Another important articulator of democratic education in Brazil is Politeia. This institute has brought the movement of democratic education into Brazil. With the specialization course in democratic education, offered in many different cities, it has united educators and organizations that were willing to change everyday life in school.

Educators from the Centro Integrado de Educação de Jovens e Adultos do Campo Limpo Integrated Center for Youth and Adult Education in Campo Limpo have taken this course and have found out, as José Pacheco wrote in 2003, that they were not “alone in school”. At one of the debates, the principal Eda Luís presented her school: CIEJA, created in 1992 by the City Hall of São Paulo, when Paulo Freire was the head of the Education Department, has 1485 adults and young students over 14 years of age, offering them all grades of elementary school, in two cycles. The organization of their curriculum is done by modules and is developed through formative itineraries. CIEJA works in six shifts of two hours and thirty minutes each, which gives the students the flexibility of continuing school even if they find temporary jobs. The school is managed by the decisions made during the meetings in which everyday life and conflict solving rules are defined. In one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods of São Paulo, the openness and the availability of all spaces and resources for the school community are really outstanding.

Escola de Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental Teia Multicultural (Multicultural Web Kindergarten and Elementary School) is a partner of Politeia. This school is located in an opposite part of the city, in Perdizes, one of the richest neighborhoods in São Paulo. Teia, which is structured by meetings, projects oriented by artists, cycles and also assessment-research, has innovated organizing all projects around one large theater project, a collective play. When the school was created in 2006, it had 60 students, from kindergarten to the first cycle of elementary school, figures that remained the same until the following year. Teia was responsible for one of the greatest moments of the 15th IDEC, when 13 of its students, from 4 to 10 years of age, resourcefully answered the questions from the international audience that was interested in learning more about the school. Before this presentation, another beautiful moment happened when Brazilian children took part in a Ukrainian dance class offered by the teenagers from Family School Stork.

ISA’s Rio Negro Program was one of the organizers of IDEC for being, certainly, one of the largest incubators of democratic schools in the country. This program develops the Educação Indígena Project no Alto Rio Negro Indigenous Education Project in Alto Rio Negro, in the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in Amazonas state. During IDEC, Marta Azevedo who is responsible for the program, presented an overview on what is happening in schools of three Tuyuka communities and 93 Baniwa e Coripaco Pamáali communities, where the languages of each people were officialized, the curriculum was organized around the research suggested by the community itself, the assessment is descriptive and the board is responsible for the management.

The Educação Indígena Project in Alto Rio Negro articulates democratic education with community education. In IDEC 2007, the community education movement was also present through the voices of Alejandro Arellano, the Mexican director of Xojobil Palavra Zapatista and Douglas Estevam, educator of the Movimento Sem Terra Homeless Movement in Brazil. Zapatism and Movimento Sem Terra are certainly the most important popular movements in Latin America today. Popular education started in Latin America in the sixties with Paulo Freire’s work, whose objective was that of engaging workers in processes of producing knowledge and actively participating of base groups and communities. After the eighties, with the redemocratization of this region, popular education spread out through youth and adult educational programs and also contributed to the creation of alternative production, such as popular economy and cooperative organizations and yet other initiatives that are part of what is called solidarity economy.

Another movement that is connected to the democratic education movement is the one for the inclusive school. The goal is to assure that all young people, independently of their mental, physical, living or family conditions must have access to regular schools. During IDEC, it was possible to learn more about this movement through the participation of organizations such as LEPED, Escola de Gente Comunicação e Inclusão School of People – Communication and Inclusion, from Rio de Janeiro and the National Bureau of Inclusion of Mexico. In order to welcome all the people that come to a school, it must be able to change through resources, methodology and, mainly, philosophy that will meet all different needs and cultures. The bureaucratic, competitive and mandatory grade and subject structure in schools must be overcome so that inclusion of different experiences, desires, ways of learning and also the difference in pace can be assured. Inclusion implies school insertion of all students in an extreme manner that must be complete and systematic, without exceptions. The purpose of inclusive schools is finding an organizational system that takes everyone’s needs into consideration and that is structured regarding these needs.

Among the many NGOs that were at the Conference, Cidade Escola Aprendiz (School City Aprendiz), in São Paulo, had an important role. Created in 1997 as an office of websites made by students of public and private schools for social institutes, it started to develop itself organically through the neighborhood of Vila Madalena, in São Paulo until it became a School City, uniting spaces where young people from the neighborhood can develop their various talents. It defines itself as a laboratory of community pedagogy that creates a unique living and learning experience – squares, museums, artist’s studios, shops, bookstores, offices, alleys and cafes have turned themselves into learning communities. The NGO offers educators and public managers training courses in partnership with local and federal government. The most important results have taken place in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais state) and in Nova Iguaçu (Rio de Janeiro state), where either full time education or school-neighborhood have become governmental projects. Besides the reporting of these experiences by its directors in many different sessions of the Conference, young participants of the program in São Paulo went to the event in order to create a photo-newspaper that was presented in a morning session and they also actively took part of the meetings during the Conference.

A novelty at the Brazilian Conference was the participation of an organization connected to the International Federation of Modern School Movements (FINEM), the Curumim Day-Care Center, from Campinas, São Paulo state. In about 50 countries FINEM dedicates itself to the multiplication of the French educator Célestin Freinet’s project (1896-1966). Freinet founded this Federation in 1948 and now it is a reference for educators that practice its cooperative pedagogical project. Today, hundreds of schools, research centers and educators participate of this Federation and, before, they were not connected to other networks of democratic schools. Maybe, this was the first time that a Freinet school was taking part of an IDEC.

Living democratic education for nine days

The schedule of the Conference was built based on the assessment done during IDEC 2006 in Australia and also on the suggestions made by the Latin American organizations when they answered the questionnaires mentioned above, besides the suggestions that were placed in the collaborative virtual environment that was created a few months before the Conference.

Based on these suggestions, some more complex themes of democratic education were treated in different formats: panels, debates, workshops, exhibitions – offering an opportunity for all the participants to deepen their thoughts about issues such as educators training courses for democratic schools, democratic assessment, procedures that allow democratic management and educational possibilities in cities.

But not only the debated themes allowed the experience of democratic education. As well as in democratic schools, the organization of the Conference happened through meetings that took place every day, in the beginning or in the end of activities. The participants of IDEC could also experience democratic education in different languages such as theater, music, dance, yoga and photography. And also visits: after the Conference, many foreigners visited organizations that practice democratic education in different regions of the country.

With the significant international participation, the excellent quality of presentations made and the possibility of experiencing democratic education, IDEC 2007 has accomplished its goal of placing Latin America at the network of democratic education. The European, Asian and North American participants were able to learn more about the experience of democratic education on this side of the world, where the history of community education, the movement for inclusive schools and the indigenous schools experience offer new possibilities for the democratic education movement. And the Latin American participants were able to know about the vast and diverse experience of democratic education in private and public schools in different countries of the North Hemisphere. IDEC has accomplished its goals of placing democratic education on the agenda of public policies and theoretical debates, creating the opportunity of exchange between City Hall managers and directors, school managers, NGOs, educators, researchers, students and parents.

(1) An Italian version of this article was published in Libertaria Il Piacere dell'utopia, 10 (1-2), gennaio/giugno 2008, 73-9.

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