An Education of the People, By the People, For the People

Abstract

Some people may identify democracy as a binary framework of government in which the governed establish and exercise governance. The identification, which captures the term’s ideological foundation, simultaneously does not represent democracy’s vibrancy, complexity, or practice as revealed through the lives of the governed. This contrast thrives in education, where democracy is often reduced to a contextualization about government rather than the truth that the governed in education do not exercise direct or indirect governance. In other words, learners in democracies neither have a voice in their education nor determine the immediate or lasting processes or results of such education. Responding to the absence of democracy in education, we offer three pedagogical approaches – learner choice, Socratic discourse, and case study – wherein educators may partner with learners to advance democracy and civil discourse, even in those situations some educators may consider polarizing, challenging, or dire. In contrast to acknowledgements that constructs in education (e.g., funding, standards, assessment, groupings) are political (Apple, 1996; Chambers, 2003; Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015; McLaren, 2016; Smith, 2003), our suggestions create a von Glasersfeld (1981/1984)-Vygotsky (1978) constructivist application personalized to the learner’s currere (Pinar, 2023). These suggestions, separately and collectively, advance democracy through nuanced freedom of thought and freedom of education engagements opposite the subjugative political and normative education originating from political or elitist influences, directives, or laws (Apple, 2013; Freire, 1968/1970; Giroux, 2025; Giroux & McLaren, 1986; Pinar, 2023).