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Democratic Values Through Participation: Becoming Co-operative

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Deborah RallsORCiD

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efforts of one such school – a co-operative school - in order to understand the possibilities and limits of engagement understood in this sense. a Co-operative school, a school that has made an explicit commitment to engaging its stakeholders more democratically via its adherence to the Co-operative values and governance structure. The study found that Co-operative school governance offered the potential for more democratic, relational forms of engagement with stakeholders. Student engagement was most affected by the conversion to a co-operative school; the relaunch of a democratically elected Student Council has resulted in a far broader range of engagement of young people from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds in increased levels of school decision-making. The relaunch of a Cooperative School Council caused school leaders to question previous perceptions of student engagement as a result of the shift in the power dynamic that has occurred since the re-launch of the Student Council – a more relational approach to student engagement. In this session, students from the School Council discuss how ‘becoming cooperative’ impacted on their position as decision makers in the school, and their relationships with staff and other students.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Ralls D

Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

Publication status: Published

Conference Name: The Co-operative Education Conference

Year of Conference: 2016

Acceptance date: 18/01/2016


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