McDowell, James.

Anarchy in the universities: Beyond the student-teacher

hierarchy. Learning Futures Festival 2010, 7th-14th January 2010, University of
Leicester. Retrieved from: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/10802/

Bakunin, proposed an integral
education, which must develop both physical and mental faculties (Bakunin, 1980, p. 373),
combining theoretical knowledge with practical skills.

Bakunin, M., (1980). Bakunin on Anarchism (ed. Dolgoff, S.), Black Rose Books.


Chappel, Robert H (1978). Anarhy revisited: An inquiry into the public
education dilemma. Journal of Libertarian Studies, 2(4), 357-372.


(Max) Stirner made a distinction between the
free man and an educated man. The educated man
was subservient to his thoughts which were
dominated by acceptable social values dictated
by the state. The free man or egoist was respon-
sible only to his individual will.

Proudhon, in his I dea of the Revolution in the
Nineteenth Century (1851). suggested that a
system of state-controlled education, through
its separation of professional and practical in-
struction, served to make a distinction between
classes, resulting in governmental tyranny and
the subjection of the working class

Kropotkin defended this argument by alluding
to the fact that many of the great intellects in
history necessarily combined brain work with
manual work or innovations with handicrafts.
Galileo manufactured his own telescopes;
Newton learned how to grind the lenses for his
experiments in optics; Linnaeus became ac-
quainted with botany while helping his father in
the garden. Kropotkin pointed out that in-
dustrialization and the inherent division of
labor have caused the worker to lose his in-
tellectual interest in production and therefore
his innovative capacity.
Kropotkin advocated a complete education
combining a thorough knowledge of science
and of handicraft. He dismissed attempts to set
up schools of technical education because these
served to maintain the division between manual
and mental labor

Ferrer's Modern School was financed by one
of his students, a Mlle. Meunier, who in 1900
unconditionally bequeathed to Ferrer a sum of
30,000. Ferrer attempted to provide a private-
ly financed system of education that would be
concerned with developing a sense of self-
ownership and social awareness, independent
of the dogmas of state or church.

"Children are
neither protected by the 1st amendment or the
5th when they stand before the secular priest.
The teacher is at once the guide, teacher and ad-
ministrator of a sacred ritual Ivan Illich

Casey, Zachary A. (2013). Toward an anti-capitalist teacher education.
Journal of Educational Thought, 46(2), 123-143.




CourtTV.com. Teen anarchist sues principal. Web. 17 Sept. 2002.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/752382/posts

Agostinone-Wilson, Aurora. Downsized discourse: Classroom management,
neoliberalism, and the shaping of correct workplace attitude. Journal for
Critical Education Policy Studies. 4(2), 2006.


Education, being a key player in the reproduction of labor power, is now involved in
the project of creating bipartisan consensus around standardization and high-stakes
testing, primarily as solutions to the perceived "crisis" of the failure of public
schools to create competent workers (Beckmann & Cooper, 2004; Mathison & Ross,
2004).

Harnish goes on to describe how the content of the First Days of School focuses
primarily on teachers as agents of control versus their interactions with students.
Teachers are to act and dress like professionals in the workplace to communicate
that they mean business. The manner of teacher's attire is mirrored in Johansen and
Steele's (1999) advice given to those participating in a job interview: "The real issue
is to figure out the image the company wants to project and how to fit its defined
image of tradition and professionalism" (p. 50).

An example of this is Salivio's (2004) description of literacy instruction that is more
intent on "managing reading behaviors" than on teaching students to read through
more in-depth analysis of important themes and issues (p. 68). It also has the effect
of reducing the teacher's role to one of manager rather than intellectual, expecting
them to be "learners of child behavior" (p. 73).


he Wongs argue that procedures "demonstrate how people are to function in an
acceptable and organized manner" (p. 170). Linking the "real life" context of
procedures to the classroom (handing in papers, starting class, quieting a class
down), teachers are then instructed to "Have the students repeat the procedure
until it becomes a routine. The students should be able to perform the procedure
automatically without teacher supervision" (p. 175). The Wongs also assert that
procedures are neutral whereas classroom discipline involves rewards and
punishments. Yet, great importance is placed on rehearsing and internalizing
various procedures. The eventual achievement of students seems to rely upon it.

his ideological pathology extends to middle class workers who do not see
themselves as promoting a set of political beliefs, but rather as people who are just
following the correct procedures for their own particular jobs.

Students need to feel that someone is in control and responsible for their
environment and not only sets limits but maintains them" (p. 151). (wong and
wong 2004)

For the Wongs, "there are many students (and adults) who want to be told what to
do" (p. 225).

Schmidt (2000) argues that those who favor gate keeping tests "often turn out to be
the least critical of the social hierarchy and the dominant ideology... the least critical
of existing power relationships and therefore the least progressive politically" (p.
178).
Cuban (1992) discusses how business executives and shareholders began
organizing to publish educational policies via the formation of economic
roundtables. Some recommendations were to include "the basic requirements for
gaining productive employment" in K-12 curricula, emphasize "declining
competitiveness in world markets," and communicate that "education isn't just a
social concern, it's a major economic issue" (p. 157). Universities are also
encouraged to join in by emphasizing the basics of math, English, science, social
studies, and technology as the "antidote to restore schools to their rightful role in
the production of highly skilled and technologically competent workers who would
assure that the United States would restore its supremacy in the world market"
(Jackson, 2004, p. 56).

A recent New York Times survey found that 80% of Americans believe that the
possibility of the Horatio Alger myth still exists (Neumann, 2005, para. 5).

another means of building consensus involves the presentation of social problems
such as discrimination, "as if it were the product of ignorance or personal acts of
mean-spiritedness, rather than the result of socially sanctioned practices and
institutions" (Leistyna, 1999, p.15).

Robertson (2003) articulates how "curriculum writing by and for the market" finds
its way into schools, typically linked to state and subject-area standards. Aspects of
market philosophy, which Robertson calls "market populism," override notions of
solidarity among teachers, students, and the public: "Thus it is not just our money
that the market craves; it is our recognition of its authority, its superiority to
democracy, and its domination over everything that matters" (p.731).

As hooks (2003) notes, the use of multicultural language in the workplace is only
allowed if it furthers capitalism and tacitly acknowledges that Western culture
remains the standard by which others are measured.

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Kahn, Richard. Critical Pedagogy Taking the Illich Turn. The International
Journal of Illich Studies.

Illich was a friend of Freires helping to free him from prison and translate some of
his works.

Analyzed the hidden curriculum, questioned Marxist notions of production and
progress.

http://www.educationevolving.org/teachers/inventory/map

Lists 59 schools across the U.S. with collective teacher autonomy.



Williams, Joe. Revolution from the Faculty Lounge: The Emergence of
Teacher-Led Schools and Cooperatives. Phi Delta Kappan 89, 2007.


Denver has teacher-led Beacon schools

In late 2006, the New Commission
on the Skills of the American Workforce, a group
spearheaded by the National Center on Education and
the Economy, included in its recommendations for reform
the argument that more public schools should be
run by teacher-led independent contractors, similar to
the way public charter schools are organized in some
states.1


In 2003, Public Agenda asked a national
sample of teachers, How interested would you
be in working in a charter school run and managed by
teachers? Nearly six in 10 teachers indicated that they
would be somewhat or very interested.3

EdVisions
There is no tenure; rather, teachers work under a oneyear,
at-will contract. Shareholders, by contrast, are also
known as voting members of the cooperative and get
to decide EdVisions policy. A teacher becomes a shareholder
by applying to the EdVisions board and purchasing
one share in the co-op for $100. As of March
2006, there were 58 shareholders.

In Milwaukee teachers in cooperatives are members of Miklwaukee Teachers Education
Association and provide services to district-sponsored (not independent) charter schools

The teachers select
their colleagues, decide on the work assignments, determine
the expenditures, and most importantly, they
say shape the learning program.

Milwaukee Learning Laboratory and Institute
Milwaukee Advanced Language and Academic Studies

Called Educational Professional Partnership (EPP)

Fall River Maritime Charter School

Teacher co-ops have not been studied much by academics


Sedlak, Michael W. Review of The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and
Education in the United States by Paul Avrich. Journal of Education, Vol. 89, No. 2
(Feb., 1981)

First modern school in U.S. founded in New York 1911, one of 20 modern schools in
country

1914 Ludlow massacre scare labeled school as a bomb factory, forced to relocate to
Stelton, New Jersey 1915 where it initiated largest anarchist experiment in
education in U.S.

refused to permit competition, rewards, punishment, or discipline

teachers were not prepared to deal with students, political hysteria surrounding
WW1 that threatened them with deporation and unemployment

last modern school closed 1958 and modern school association disbanded several
years later


Tager, Florence. Politics and Culture in Anarchist Education: The Modern School of
New York and Stelton 1911-1915. Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter, 1986)

There are two strains within radical education, the romantic, libertarian strand that seeks to
liberate the child and cultivate creativity and an awareness of personal freedom. Also
theres a communitarian strand that seeks to educate children with a new political
consciousness. Modern school, sponsored by Ferrer Association, aimed to unite these two
strands

Romantic has roots in Tolstoys school, libertarian has roots in Ferrers school

Stelton school closed 1953

In 1860s Tolstoy opened a libertarian school..in in children organized their own classroom
and proposed their own activities

Tolstoy believed that through freedom children learned to rebel against oppression

Francisco Ferrer began modern school 1901, children were of city workers, not peasants.
Stressed class commitment over individual exploration , called theory rational education

Said that most school literature tried to hide class or had heroes who were predominantly
upper-class.

Critical of religion, government, and private property, tied to a revolutionary program that
spanned several schools and countries

Modern school repression eventually forced them to separate adult political program from
school program

Ferrer Association formed after Ferrer was executed, mostly by Russian, Jewish, and Italian
immigrants

Children raised in freedom would be likely to resist political oppression and become
revolutionaries

Evening classes for adults, members participated in Lawrence Strike and Mexican
Revolution

Saturday discussion club and Sunday lectures by people like Goldman

Adult center produced materials for the children

School and Ferrer Association in the same building

Clarence Darrow and Margaret Sanger spoke there

History focusing on labor strikes

Children taught Esperanto and brought to international Esperanto conventions

Parents argued over whether the curriculum was either too political or not political enough

School ran magazine published by children that talked about free speech, anarchism, and
boycotts of the day

July 4 1914 bomb went off, killing makers. Police claimed it was intended for Rockefeller
for his role in Ludlow massacre and makers were members of ferrer center, put under
surveillance

1915 Children moved to new jersey now in environment away from working class struggles
while Ferrer Association remained in city

students in nj school became isolated from radicals and were seen as acting superior to
others because the school lost its connection to the working class..rebellion by the students
came to mean lifestyle choices

with each new generation the students were less connected with the repression that their
parents had experienced in Europe


Weltman, Burton. Revisiting Paul Goodman: Anarcho-Syndicalism as the American
Way of Life.

Ferrer Taught that American teachers and students needed to regain a sense of
craftsmanship and looked to the apprenticeship model in revolutionary America

Suissa, Judith. Anarchism, Utopias, and the Philosophy of Education. Journal of
Philosophy of Education 35(4), 2001.

In 1906 Ferrer school shut down by government, 1909 he was executed by firing squad on
false charges of organizing a mass uprising

Ferrer believed capitalism divorced manual from mental work
Ridiculed contemporaries like Montessori and Pestalozzi as reformers of the system

The state is not something that can be destroyed by a revolution, but is a condition, a certain
relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other
relationships, by behaving differently.
-Gustav Landauer

In todays worldthe goal of a committed anarchist should be to defend some state institutions
from the attack against them while trying at the same time to pry them open to more meaningful
public participation-and ultimately, to dismantle them in a much more free society, if the
appropriate circumstances can be achievedThis stand is not undermined by the apparent
conflict between goals and visions. Such conflict is a normal feature of everyday life, which we
somehow try to live with but cannot escape.
-Noam Chomsky, 1996 p. 75 Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature
and the Social Order


Freire-Inspired Programs in the United States and Puerto Rico: A Critical
Evaluation-by Blanca Fecundo

DeLeon, Abraham. Oh no, not the A Word! Proposing an Anarchism for
education. Educational Studies 44, 2008.

Judith Suissa has argued that anarchist theory is absent from texts on the philosophy and
history of educational ideaseven amongst those authors who discuss radical or progressive education
(1)

Direct action: strikes, sabotage, blockades, guerilla gardening, street theatre, pirate radio, free schools,
graffiti,

Critical pedagogy is rooted in Marxist theory

NCLB is preparing students for standardized testing at a much earlier age, Kindergarten in some districts
Crocco and Costigan 2007; Hursh
2007, 2008Crocco, Margaret and Costigan, Arthur. 2007. The Narrowing of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the
Age of Accountability: Urban Educators Speak Out. Urban Education. 42: 512535.

Gribble, David. Good News for Francisco FerrerHow Anarchist Ideals in
Education Have Survived Around the World. From Changing Anarchism:
Anarchist Theory and Practice in a Global Age edited by Jonathan Purkis and
James Bowen,

New schools movement in Britain founded by middle-class teachers looking for a system
outside of the public school system
Included private schools like Bedales, Abbotsholme, and King Alfreds (expensive
private schools) as well as the progressive schools of the 1920s, of which Summerhill is
the only survivor

Except for Summerhill all drifted from radical roots with the pressure of testing

John Shotton, in his book No Master High or Low, says that progressivism claims to be
child-centered but is actually teacher-centered

Sudburry Valley has so many rules that one of its founders, Daniel Greenberg, wrote a
book Free at Last, just to contain them

At Barbara Taylor School whole community is held responsible when violations occur, at
Tamariki children call meetings of three or four individuals to deal with norm violaters
on the spot

Institute for Democratic Education working on democratizing over 100 schools

In Thailand government has decreed that all schools must make plans for changing to
child-centered education





Hursh, David. 2007. Assessing No Child Left Behind and the Rise of Neoliberal
Education Policies
American Educational Research Journal. 44: 493518.

Leistyna, Pepi. 2007. Neoliberal Nonsense. In Critical Pedagogy: Where Are We
Now? edited by Peter McLaren, and Joe Kincheloe, 97126. New York: Peter Lang.

Abraham P.DeLeon, Luis Fernandez, Anthony J.Nocella, andDeric Shannon.
NewYork: Routledge.Shannon, Deric. in press. As Beautiful as a Brick Through a
BankWindow: Anarchism, the Academy, and Resisting Domestication. In
Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Anthology ofAnarchy in the
Academy, edited by Randall Amster, Abraham P. DeLeon, Luis Fernandez,Anthony
J. Nocella, and Deric Shannon. New York: Routledge.

Rouhani, Farhang. Practice what you teach: Facilitating Anarchism in and out of
the Classroom.

Vegh, Steven G. Two Norfolk Teachers Put on Leave over Material on Police.
The Virginian Pilot. 27 May 2010.

Suissa, Judith. Anarchy in the Classroom.

Garland, Christian. We teach all hearts to break: On the incompatibility of
education with schooling on all levels, and the renewed need for a de-
schooling of society. Educational Studies 48, 2012.
McLaren, Peter. Teaching against global capitalism and the new imperialism.

Araiza, Karen. Report: School Cops Beat Student for Being Late. NBC. 16 Dec.
2009.
Haworth, Robert H. Anarchist Pedagogies:
Collective actions, theories, and critical
reflection on education. Oakland: PM Press,
2012.


Mueller, Justin. Anarchism, the state, and the role of education.

Stephven Shukaitis (2009) makes an important argument that one can find ways to use the institutional
space without being of the institution, without taking the institutions
goals as ones own (p. 167).

Shukaitis, S. (2009). Infrapolitics and the nomadic educational machine. In R. Amster,
A. DeLeon, L. Fernandez, A. Nocella II & D. Shannon (Eds.), Contemporary anarchist
studies: An introductory anthology of anarchy in the academy, 16674. New York:
Routledge.

There are common principles, however, that unify anarchists. The
word anarchy comes from the Greek, an , meaning no or without,
and archos , meaning ruler or authority.

Anarchist educators, unlike radical or libertarian theorists such as A.S. Neill or Paulo Freire, see human
nature as not essentially good, nor do they imagine the kind of human nature William Golding envisioned
in Lord of the Flies, where a thin line stands between law and order and reverting back into barbarism.
Many anarchists would not be surprised at the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment, and would argue
that this experiment proves the danger of giving anyone ultimate authority over other human beings.

Summerhill: free to come and leave, at school-wide assemblies teachers and students get one vote

One distinction is that of Neills
understanding of human nature, which rests on the belief that a child is an
innately good, not an evil being and that without adult suggestion of any
kind a child can reach her potential (ibid., 9).

As Judith Suissa (2010) notes from her contemporary visits
to Summerhill, One has the impression of a lively group of self-confident,
happy children, who may, as one imagines, very well grow up to be happy,
but completely self-centred individuals . . . there is little attempt to engage
with broader social issues or confront present socio-political reality (p. 96).

Ferrer, after searching for non-hierarchical textbooks, eventually gave up, installed a printing press in the
school, and commissioned works by authors who shared the philosophy of the school. (Avrich 1980)

Ilich took critical pedagogy to the next level and questioned whether or not a school is the best place for
which education to take place, noting that education should remain open to the community as a whole and
not be segregated into hermetically-sealed locations closed off to the rest of the world

In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our
molding hands. The present education conventions of intellectual and
character education fade from their minds, and, unhampered by tradition,
we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk.
John D. Rockefeller (1906)

A principal critique from anarchist educators has been that the authority
relations between students and teachers, teachers and administrators,
and between schools and the state are part of a formidable hierarchy that
seeks to instill and reproduce amenable attitudes toward institutional
authorities and deference toward authority as such (Chomsky, 2000, p. 17)
Chomsky on Miseducation
(Goodman, 1964, p. 18). For Goodman, the
bell-ringing, time-accounting, and hierarchical authority and disciplinary
system of state schools function as a form of behavioral operant conditioning,
developing obedience rather than spontaneity or initiative




Deborah Mayer fired for telling a student she honked when passing by an anti-war demonstration

Emma Goldman made similar observations early in the twentieth
century. What, then, is the school of today? she asked. It is for the child
what the prison is for the convict and the barracks for the soldiera place
where everything is being used to break the will of the child, and then to
pound, knead, and shape it into a being utterly foreign to itself. . . . It is but
part of a system which can maintain itself only through absolute discipline
and uniformity (Goldman, 2007).

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, 7,000 students drop out every day in the U.S.
http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis








Day, Richard J.F.; De Peuter, Greg; and Cote, Mark. Utopian Pedagogy: Radical Experiments
against Neoliberal Globalization

Saltman, Kenneth J. Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of our
Schools.

Wolfmeyer, Mark. In defense of mathematics and its place in anarchist education. Educational
Studies 48, 2012.

Wolfmeyer points out that the knowledge of mathematics has been used by Wall Street hedge funds to form
algorythms that will enrich themselves at the cost of exploiting others, perpetuatues inequlity by tying
everything to GDP

War profiteers like Boeing and Batelle contributed money to Achieve Inc, which sets Common Core math
standards (Achieve Inc 2010)

Proving racial inferiority phrenology, John Dewey

Gutstein has a Marxist mathematics, but it removes the self-exploration from the picture

If students are
indoctrinated to view mathematics as primarily useful for analyzing oppression
and for playing the power game, then once they achieve the goal of liberation, they
may not understand the continued use for mathematics.

Tolstoy, a religious anarchist, put the words Come and Go Freely
above the doors of his experimental school at Yasnaya Polyana (Tolstoy 2000, 1).

DeLeon, Abraham. Anarchismis a living force within our life Anarchism, education, and
alternative possibilities. Educational Studies 48, 2012.

Anarchism has mostly been framed in terms of the threat it poses for the police and state, rather than the
liberatory possibilities it offers (Borum and Tilby 2004)
Borum, Randy, and Chuck Tilby. 2004. Anarchist Direct Actions:AChallenge for LawEnforcement.
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 28: 201223.


Hierarchies can be found in power, also in the way that knowledge is constructed

From the streets of Seattle in 1999 to the anarchist that has infiltrated
an animal testing laboratory or a public school classroom, authority is met with
skepticism, resistance, infiltration, and subversion (Guerin 1970).

DeLeon, Abraham. The time for action is now! Anarchist theory, critical pedagogy, and radical
possibilities.

Critical pedagogy arose from the Frankfurt School

Historically, anarchists have been marginalized in academic literature, but have still been
involved in radical political struggles throughout the world (Bowen, 2005; Chomsky, 2005;
Day, 2004; Goaman, 2005).

Schools sometimes mention the Bill of Rights, but dont examine how these rights are being violated. They
briefly mention Congress and the judicial system but dont explain anything about the un-elected world
institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and WTO that make rules that pull the rug out from under nation-
states.

Free association (Guerin 1970)

Rocker (1989) envisioned an anarcho-syndicalist cooperative to be formed based on the
workers trade union, in which workers were in direct control of their trade and
involved in the decision-making process (pp. 92-93).

Liberal progressive education is often framed in a kind of feel-good discourse that
does not reveal the sense of urgency that is needed to confront attacks on public
education

Anarchists use direct action as the main mode of producing social change.

Direct action regardless of legality-fixing up abandoned buildings to house the homeless,
pirate radio, feeding people with food not bombs, guerilla gardening

Love, Kurt. Love and Rage in the Classroom: Planting the Seeds of Community Empowerment.
Educational Studies 48, 2012.

Hardt and
Negri (2000) argued that governments and countries have essentially dissolved
almost entirely, giving way to the rise of the global corporate empire that set their
own political agendas and policies because of their abilities to manipulate governments.

Kropotkin held nave view that science would lead to greater human freedom

Schools are under the tight
grip of educational policies like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top that
ultimately narrow learning experiences to rote memorization and decontextualized
information (Ravitch 2010). Ravitch, Diane. 2010. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing
and
Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books.

(Ferrer) Students would not only learn art,
crafts, science, math, and reading, but they would be involved in philosophical
discussions about power, coercion, and justice. Students were not asked to engage
in rote memorization, but were supported to investigate, question, and creative
thinking. (Avrich 2006) Avrich, Paul. 2006. The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States.
Oakland, CA: AK Press.


An anarchist learning experience is one that starts in students
home communities with authentic investigations relationships and tensions that
are present (and historically formed),

There is a real intimacy that students would
explore looking very closely at the complex relationships within their home communities
and the many intersections with a global community. Anarchist learning
experiences in K12 settings would position community issues, histories, and
members at the center. Students could spend whole years identifying and describing
specific relationships among actual members and groups in their hometowns,
neighborhoods, and municipalities. They could investigate the impacts of a big box
retail store, flush out hegemonic practices along with tensions different community
members experience as part of the impact, and seek out deeper understandings of
various forms of resistance

Contemporary anarchist educators might find meaning in the core arguments of
ecojustice theories and pedagogies. Early anarchist educator pioneers such as Paul
Robin advocated for outdoor education and learning that was directly related to
nature (Avrich 2006).



April 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 7
Reimagining School
When Teachers Run the School
Eleni Natsiopoulou and Vicky Giouroukakis
In a high school in Greece, teachers assume all administrative roles, freeing up the principal to take school
governance to the next level.
Today, it has become nearly impossible for a single individual to properly administer and lead a school.
School leaders must assume responsibilities in an ever-wider range of areas: instruction, school culture,
management, strategic development, micropolitics, human resources, and external development (Portin,
2004). Any one principal will have difficulty successfully managing all these areas on his or her own.
One alternative approach to school governance has great potential for successthe democratic and
distributed leadership model. This model secures staff members' full participation in the school's decision-
making processes, promotes meaningful collaboration and harmonious work relations, generates passion
for accomplishing goals, and boosts student and teacher productivity.
Beyond Distributed Leadership
The democratic and distributed leadership model is similar in some ways to the distributed leadership
model, which involves distributing responsibility on all administrative levels, working through teams, and
engendering collective responsibility (Ritchie & Woods, 2007). In the distributed leadership model, the
principal shares authority and power; teachers take leading roles, assume responsibility, and act
independently as individuals or groups. However, the distributed leadership model
does not necessarily imply that the entire faculty controls decisions related to the school. Rather, principals
create leadership positions that allow capable and willing teachers to work in a more focused leadership
capacity. (Loeser, 2008, p. 3)
For example, teachers with expertise in one area of instruction who want to share with colleagues may
assume the role of coaches; alternatively, a school leader may select a few teachers to lead decision-making
groups.
Unlike the distributed leadership model, the democratic and distributed leadership model promotes the
staff's full participation in key decision-making and implementation processes and also makes them
accountable. The model requires the principal to serve as both chief coordinator and evaluator of processes
and results.
Two Defining Characteristics
During the 200809 school year, while doing fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation, one of the coauthors
observed this model of leadership at Ellinikon, a large high school in Greece. Ellinikon is located in one of
the most impoverished areas of Athens. In the observation year, the school served 600 students of low
socioeconomic status, 3540 percent of whom were of non-Greek descent.
The democratic and distributed model is not unique to this school. In fact, it is the model of administration
common to all Greek schoolsbut not all schools implement it as rigorously as Ellinikon does. As in the
distributed leadership model, shared responsibility is rooted in the structure and culture of the school. The
staff is autonomous, change is internal and bottom up, and the principal's role is dispensable. Two
characteristics, however, make the model as practiced at Ellinikon distinct from the distributed leadership
model.
Minimal Structural and Functional Differentiation
Teachers at Ellinikon have a contractual responsibility to collectively administer the school; there is no
separation between teaching and administration as we know it. Appointed by the Greek Ministry of
Education, the principala teachertypically serves a four-year term, which may or may not be renewed.
His or her main duty is to coordinate the teachers' decisions and actions.
All teachers must have a leadership function in the school because, if not, they are unable to fulfill their
contractual obligations. The principal, by law, is not supposed to make important decisions on his or her
own. That is the role of the Teacher Assembly. Participation in all assembly meetings is mandatory for all
faculty members in the school because in a democratic model of school governance, it is considered a duty
to participate, become informed, advance the school's education and administrative agendas, and vote for
the common good. The decision-making process is entirely transparent.
Democratic and Full Participation
During the first Teacher Assembly meeting of every school year, faculty members distribute all
administrative duties, either through consensus or by vote in case of disagreement. The criteria of the
distribution, to borrow MacBeath, Oduro, and Waterhouse's (2004) terminology, may be formal (with a job
description); pragmatic (indicated by necessity); strategic (when an individual's expertise is needed);
opportunistic (based on people's preferences); incremental (based on previous performance); or cultural
(when it promotes school culture).
For example, the position of the assistant principal was a formal assignment: Staff members nominated four
teachers; one got the most votes. The selection of the leader of the electronics laboratory was strategic: This
person's expertise was crucial for promoting this subject area; staff members elected him unanimously. The
selection of the payroll administrator was incremental: She had done an excellent job the previous year as a
member of the budget group. The selection of the members of the information technology administration
team was opportunistic: This was a prerequisite for their working on a larger district project.
Every year, the leadership roles get reassigned. Ideally, all faculty members have the opportunity to assume
each of the administrative duties. These include organizing the administration and scoring of schoolwide
and national exams, ordering and distributing textbooks, planning teachers' schedules, keeping student
records, handling school correspondence, computerizing school records, doing statistical analyses of data,
and so on.
Some people tend to gravitate toward specific administrative functions, but a large percentage chooses or is
chosen to cover a wide range of tasks. One teacher likes to request a new administrative activity every year
simply because he gets bored; others prefer to assume as many administrative duties as possible as a way to
understand how the school works. As the principal confessed,
I was a teacher for 10 years before getting my first appointed assignment as a principal. [During each of
those 10 years] I chose a different administrative post because I wanted to have a grasp of the school
functions as a whole. I learned a lot. If I hadn't had this experience, I wouldn't have been able to coordinate
all these functions successfully.
So Who's Monitoring the Teachers?
The principal, by law, is responsible for evaluating the professionalism, collegiality, and punctuality of the
teachers. External counselors appointed by the Ministry visit the school, observe the practices of teachers in
the classroom, and confer with teachers whose performance is unacceptable. The principal may invite the
external counselors to intervene if a teacher's subject-matter knowledge or pedagogical skills are lacking.
The principal also ensures teachers' effective performance through input from the student body. Students
participate in elected school communities that meet at least once each month. If students are dissatisfied
with a particular teacher, they can bring their complaints to the principal, who then calls a meeting with the
students and teacher to solve the problem.
Each school monitors its own student achievement in Greece. The Teacher Assembly discusses each
student's performance every trimester. The national university entrance examination provides the standards
against which to gauge this achievement.
Democracy in Action
To understand how the democratic and distributed leadership model works, let's look at how Ellinikon
created its electronics laboratory. Science teachers at the school wanted an electronics laboratory so they
could enter their students in national and global science competitions. They presented arguments in favor of
the laboratory at the Teacher Assembly. Some teachers expressed concern regarding funding and space; a
few even questioned the need for such a laboratory. After researching the issue, however, the assembly
voted unanimously to go ahead with it.
The assembly then elected members to serve on the planning and implementation committees and created a
timetable indicating when the principal would evaluate everyone's committee work and report back to the
assembly. Teachers also encouraged students to serve on the committees so they could experience
democracy in action and contribute to the common good of the school. A year after the lab was
implemented, students won first prize in a national competition for their design of electronic automobile
parts.
Why Implement the Model?
The benefits of distributed leadership are clear: connecting teachers with the goals and values of the school
and freeing the principal of the many responsibilities of administration. Nevertheless, schools have not
widely embraced distributed leadership. So why should we consider going even beyond this conceptto a
democratic and distributed leadership model?
One problem that arises from the distributed leadership model is that the administration may appear to be
entering into a partnership with a select few teachers while excluding the rest. This may perpetuate or
exacerbate conflicts between teachers and administrators as well as among the teachers themselves. In
short, the model does not necessarily promote harmonious cooperation among all stakeholders even though
it may function more effectively than traditional models do.
In the distributed and democratic model, all teachers collectively assume responsibility for the well-being
of the school. Teachers don't simply have a voice in running the schoolthey actually run it. In the
Teacher Assembly, teachers discuss and resolve school matters and issues of concern. The principal is like
an orchestra conductor; he or she helps administrators and teachers understand their roles and fulfill them
well. The result is long-lasting school improvement.
This proved to be the case at Ellinikon. A year before the new principal rigorously implemented the
democratic and distributed model, the school was paralyzed by teacher apathy and student misbehavior.
Under the new principal and the new model of leadership, all that has changed. Many teachers who had
become discouraged and who had asked to be transferred to a different school changed their minds and
decided to stay. Teacher satisfaction and retention improved. Many teachers reported substantial
improvements in student achievement as well. Students also noted an improved focus on teaching and
learning at the school.
Another reason for implementing the model relates to the education goals of the school. According to
Dewey (1975), if a school wants to prepare students for democracy, it must reproduce "within itself"
conditions of democratic life and have teachers and students experience these conditions every day. A
democratically run school becomes the right medium for this purpose.
Implementing the Model in U.S. Schools
In the United States, the education system separates teachers from administrators. Teachers are not obliged
to take part in governing the school; to the contrary, the more they concentrate on teaching, the better.
Administrators typically focus solely on the work of administration. If teachers shared in administering the
school, however, administrators could focus on more substantive issues of leadership, such as cultivating
meaningful school-community relationships, supporting teacher initiatives, connecting their schools with
the world, and cultivating partnerships with businesses and arts-related venues.
The democratic and distributed leadership model would need the following supports to work in a U.S.
setting:
Some districts would need to implement the model for study purposes. Scientific observation and
assessment of the model's processes and effects in a U.S. context would address many doubts and
encourage teachers and administrators to embrace the model.
Districts and principals must demonstrate honest willingness to give decision-making authority to
teachers. As Lambert (2005) asserts, "principals need to hand decisions and problem solving back
to the teachers, coaching and leading for teacher efficacy while refusing to hold tight to authority
and power" (p. 65). Although principals relinquish some control in this model, its strict
accountability measures promote good teaching and learning. In addition, the model successfully
addresses such pressing issues as teacher and principal burnout and principal effectiveness.
Districts and principals must create the structures necessary to sustain the new form of leadership,
make resources available to all, and give the model enough time to flourish. Teachers' schedules
must allow not only for teaching and planning but also for administrative duties and teacher
assembly meetings, which need to take place at least twice each month. Indeed, a four-day
teaching week would fit the model. The faculty could devote the one nonteaching day of the week
to meetings or to exchanges with the public, district, community organizations, and so forth.
Students could spend the day working on independent projects, library research, community
service, or internships in various businesses that have partnered with the school.
Principals should work as chief coordinators of all actions and as evaluators of the efficacy of all
actors. The fact that the model is democratic does not mean that it is not results oriented and
concerned with quality and efficiency. However, principals must be equal participants in the
decision-making process. They must not override teachers' decision making by misusing the
power they exercise as coordinators and evaluators. Although this is a challenging role, it is the
key factor for the success of the model.
Benefits for All
By focusing on both outcomes and processes, the democratic and distributed leadership model has many
benefits. It advances the efficient implementation of decisions, maximizes the range of knowledge and
experience that go into school administration, makes all key administrative decisions visible to all, holds
everyone accountable for the effective management of the school, promotes harmonious administration,
cultivates the civic goals of schooling, and may likely increase teacher retention. These benefits advance
the quality of school life and thereby foster student development and performance.
References
Dewey, J. (1975). Moral principles in education. Carbondale, CO: Arcturus Books Edition.
Lambert, L. (2005). Leadership for lasting reform. Educational Leadership, 62(5), 6265.
Loeser, J. M. (2008). School leadership. Ebsco Research Starters.
MacBeath, J., Oduro, G. K. T., & Waterhouse, J. (2004). Distributed leadership in action: A study of
current practice in schools. Nottingham: NCSL.
Portin, B. (2004). The roles that principals play. Educational Leadership, 61(7), 1418.
Ritchie, R., & Woods, P. A. (2007). Degrees of distribution: Towards an understanding of variations in the
nature of distributed leadership in schools. School Leadership and Management, 27(4), 363381