Baloc, Sto.

Domingo Nueva Ecija Kettering research has identified democratic practices that have
everyday applications in the life of a community. Democratic
practices are ways citizens can work together—even when they
disagree—to address shared problems.

Ordinary Questions, Extraordinary Opportunities

Democratic practices are variations on the things that happen

every day in communities. In order for these routine activities to
become public, citizens have to be involved. Yet this doesn’t

Democratic
mean that communities have to do anything out of the
ordinary—they just have to do the ordinary in different ways. If
the routine business of politics is done in ways that are open to
citizens, the routines can become democratic practices.

Practices These practices are reflected in the ordinary questions people ask
one another when something threatens their collective well-being.
Their conversations revolve around such questions as:

What’s bothering you?

How does this problem affect you and your family?

What should we do? What would be the consequences?

Prepared By:
If there are negative consequences to what you propose, do you
think we should still do it?
Airon Mark Suratos
What is the right thing to do?
Jonie Taruc
Who else do we need to solve the problem?

What resources do we need? What do we have that we can use?

What are we learning?

Democratic Practices

​ The Political Meaning of the Democratic Practices
Kettering has selected a set of terms that it uses to describe what
is going on politically when people ask these everyday questions.
Each term identifies one of the democratic practices just
mentioned. When people talk about what bothers them, Kettering
would say that they are naming problems. Naming is a political
practice because the name that is given to a problem affects what
is done to solve it.
When people talk about what can be done, they often propose
options, and when all the options are put on the table, they create
a framework for tackling a problem. The framing structures
everything that happens thereafter. Framing issues with only one
or two options sets in motion a political debate that is very
different from what happens if there are multiple options on the
table.
When people move on to assess the possible consequences that
might result from one course of action or another, Kettering
would say they are making decisions deliberatively. They are
weighing possible consequences against what is deeply important
to them. They are mulling over or sorting out what they hear,
perhaps changing their minds as they learn about someone else's
experience. Eventually, they may settle on some work that they
need to do with other citizens, something they want a government
to do, or both.
Once a decision is made about how to proceed, people test to see
if anyone or any group is willing to act on the decision and
identify resources that they can draw on. Kettering calls this
political practice identifying and committing civic resources.
Commitments produce collective political will. When citizens
then join forces to do something, we refer to that as organizing
civic actions, a practice that brings the many and various
resources a citizenry has to bear on a problem. Action is normally
followed by evaluating what was accomplished, which the
foundation has labeled learning together in order to distinguish
collective from individual learning. This practice provides the
political momentum needed to follow through on difficult
problems.
All six of these practices are part of the larger politics of
self-rule, not stand-alone techniques. They fit together the way
the wooden matrëshka dolls from Russia do. People will continue
to name, frame, and deliberate even as they assess what they have
done, and people will learn together throughout.
30 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR SCHOOL MORE
DEMOCRATIC
What have you done, as a classroom teacher, a student, a parent,
administrator, to make your school more equitable, less
hierarchical, more welcoming to everyone, and more like a place
where real thinking happens?
1. Invite 5 students to a faculty meeting
2. Eliminate staff and student bathrooms
3. Ask students to facilitate important school wide meetings
4. Start each day with a morning meeting and check in, and
listen to each other. (How are you? How are you feeling today?)
5. Ask students to develop rubrics for judging “excellent” work
6. End courses/units with a culminating projects designed by
students, about something that really matters to them
7. Have students read each other’s papers and comment on
them, directly to each other
8. Get students to determine the homework policy (even in the
early grades)
9. Charge students with deciding what goes up on the walls at
school
10. Pass a “talking stick” during intense discussions so that
everyone gets a chance to speak
11. Eat lunch with kids (or teachers) you rarely talk to
12. Ask students to attend parent/teacher conferences
13. Ask students to evaluate themselves prior to parent/teacher
conferences
14. Ask students to run parent/teacher conferences
15. Have everyone practice “yes/and” more than “no/but”
(because success is available to everyone!)
16. Use participatory budgeting to engage the whole school
community in setting budgets and involve students in staff
appointments
17. Make sure any school inspectors or visitors talk to any
students, not just those staff select or who are self-selecting (e.g.
student council)
18. Keep track of student involvement as well as attainment
(Who is taking on what leadership roles? Who is engaged in
programmes that allow them to be involved in decision-making?)
19. Make sure your student council isn’t just a fundraising or
school improvement club, but is a students’ union – – make it
clear that its primary role is to represent the views of students.
20. Get students to research what helps them to learn
21. Get them to present their findings to staff

22. Give students the funding, trust and time to set up and run
their own extra-curricular clubs and activities

23. Get students involved in planning lessons

24. Get students involved in teaching lessons

25. Get students involved in evaluating lessons

26. Make sure your School Development Plan has a ‘student

voice’ column, so that every issue has a ‘student voice’ from
reducing truancy to improving attainment. ‘Student voice’ should
not be a line that is separate from anything else

27. If you don’t have a School Development Plan, look at all

your other policies, add in a student voice element

28. Train students and staff together.

29. Have student mediators

30. Have student mentors