Using an approach inspired by conversation analysis, the present study investigates how Swedish students draw on democratic discourse during group work. The analyses demonstrate the importance of democratic issues to students. The analyses also point to how students repeatedly employ democratic discourse for a number of strategic purposes. Moreover, the analyses show that democratic arrangements at school are not always productive for schoolwork. The results are discussed in relation to previous research. In sum, the study implies that democracy must be studied as an interactive process. This entails a focus on how students do democracy at school rather than how they appear as democratic beings or how they experience student democracy retrospectively.
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