While there are several existing studies of schools which have been deliberately set up to be democratic, there are few of schools which have set out to democratize their existing, primarily authoritarian structures. This article seeks to begin to fill this gap by discussing the reasons for democratization and the responses of participants in two schools that have attempted such democratic change—one in the United Kingdom and one in South Africa. In both studies, the role of pupil participation as one means of enhancing levels of school effectiveness is explored.
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