Browsing by Subject "democratic education"

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to collect information from literature about the democratic school and the similarities that the finnish primary school curriculum has in common with it. Previous pedagogical philosophers such as John Dewey have laid the groundwork for democratic schools to be born. Democratic schools are still a relatively new and unknown form of schooling, to which this literature review aims to shed some light to. This literature review is based on an integrative method with some narrative aspects. In addition to scientific articles that have been collected from the HELKA library system of the University of Helsinki, this literature review has also been adding content from other literature on the topic, as well as websites of democratic schools. One of the most central features of democratic schools, which also seems to be quite unique to democratic schools, is that students have the freedom to choose what, how, when and with whom to study. Another interesting characteristic aspect to democratic schools is, that everyone in the school community is welcome to take part in common decisions, no matter what age. Even though the finnish primary school system and the democratic schools have quite different practices, the finnish primary school curriculum does share similarities with the democratic schools in terms of values and learning concept.