Stewart Ranson, (2018)  Education and Democratic Participation, Oxfordshire/New York.
I read this in February 2020.



This book, published in 2018, was partly relevant as a response to the divisiveness of the 2016 Brexit vote. However, it is now also relevant as Britain and other countries around the world respond to and deal with the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic. It can only be tackled by a community based response, with the challenge of protecting old and vulnerable people, as well as health workers, while dealing with huge disruption to the economy. As I write, it has led to unprecedented (in peacetime) ‘lockdown’ measures, particularly in Europe, quite apart from the location of its origin, in Wuhan in China, as well as international transport restrictions.

Obviously, a short review will not allow me to go into detail on the content of this work. The writer includes discussion of important theory from writers including John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky on pedagogy and, more widely, writers including J.S. Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville on participation in democracy. These provide a model for the writer’s desire to see democratic and community based education. In the case of the U.K., this would be based around comprehensive schools, which educate all students together from the age of 11. Having experienced one himself after failing in the previous system, where students were divided into grammar and secondary modern schools by the 11 plus examination , he is therefore negative about current changes to a more divisive system of ‘academies’, especially at secondary level. These are outside the control of L.E.A.s (Local Education Authorities), which connects with less democratic control by the local community. He sees a democratic local community as a cohesive force and the divisiveness created by these autonomous ‘academies’, even though they are publicly funded, as negative. This is in line with the views of Robert Verkaik in Posh Boys, who sees independent (private) schools as even more divisive. As Ranson sees it, the current system in the U.K. involves, “Self-managing schools, and different types of school….created in a quasi-marketplace of parental choice regulated by Whitehall (central government) which sought to undermine ‘the producers’ of education - teachers and local authorities - in favour of a competitive market of ‘consumers’.” (p.6)

For him, education is important to allow, “reimagining the nature of citizenship, not as a client to o professional authority, or a consumer in the marketplace, but as active participation in the public sphere.” (xvii). Particularly interesting are short ‘vignette’ sections, which act as case studies, including schools where community participation became much improved through active and wider involvement. In one which describes a situation outside the U.K., in Wisconsin in the U.S., such changes were a struggle, but, “the conflicts had a positive effect, too. They brought the parents and teachers together and taught us that a successful urban school needs an active parent/teacher/community alliance to sustain it and a common vision of what the school is working towards. Our ability to overcome these problems also gave us the courage and the energy to confront the many challenges that lay ahead.” (p.100)

Working together is precisely what we need to do as we face the challenges which are with us as I write.

See the previous book which I have outlined.