IDEC 2009 KOREA

What is Democratic Education?

Teachers and students have an equal vote in the decisions about their learning and their social lives
At the Berlin IDEC in 2005 the participants agreed on the following statement:
We believe that, in any educational setting, young people have the right:
*to decide individually how, when, what, where and with whom they learn
*to have an equal share in the decision-making as to how their organisations – in particular their schools – are run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary.
Here are some other attempts at definition:

"The diverse participants in Democratic Education are united in upholding the spirit of the Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and implementing this as the primary framework for the day-to-day practices in all learning environments."

IDEC in New Zealand

"The proponents of democratic education believe that effective education must include personal self-determination and the opportunity for meaningful participation in democratic processes in each student's day to day life."
-John Hiner

"Democratic education is education in which teachers and learners work together as equals."
-David Gribble

"A democratic school is one in which students are free citizens of the
school, in charge of their own educational lives, and participate, or may
participate, directly or indirectly, in the making of decisions which affect
them all."
-Laura Stine

"Democratic Education is based on respect, tolerance and love."
-Yakov Hecht

"[Democratic education stems from] a free and expressive dialogue with no rules, no conventions, just honesty and sometimes bluntness."
-Jessica Cawston