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)
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