Alternative Learning Contexts and the Goals of Democracy in Education

Abstract

This chapter delineates three models of democracy, noting the role that alternative education plays within each model. Then, from the perspective of the participatory democracy model, I examine various initiatives to foster democracy in alternative learning contexts, drawing relevant examples from the literature to highlight critical issues, tensions, and dilemmas, and lessons learned. … the history of the public alternative schools movement is more than an account of the development of preference in public education, it is a story about competing ideas on purposes and goals of schooling; it is a story about democratizing public education. (Neumann, 2003, p. 2)