Participatory democracy and urban school governance: Toward a developmental conception
Snauwaert, Dale Thomas
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/20838
Description
Title
Participatory democracy and urban school governance: Toward a developmental conception
Author(s)
Snauwaert, Dale Thomas
Issue Date
1990
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Coombs, Fred S.
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Philosophy
Education, General
Political Science, General
Education, Philosophy of
Language
eng
Abstract
"The purpose of this thesis is to articulate a model of school governance based upon the ""developmental"" conception of democracy derived from the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Dewey, and Mohandes K. Gandhi. In the process the philosophical underpinnings of current school governance, as well as school-based management alternatives, are explored. The analytic framework used in this study is referred to as ""constitutional choice."" Constitutional choice entails the articulation of political principles, consistent with cherised values, from which design specifications for the organization of particular governmental structures are derived. Constitutional choice applies equally to all institutions of human governance, including schools. It is argued that the current model of school governance is premised upon the value of efficiency from which the principle of expert control and the design specifications of centralized decision-making authority and bureaucratic administration are derived. It is argued that implicit in this model is the ""elite"" conception of democracy, as exemplified in the political thought of Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, Sammuel Huntington, among other political theorists. The elite conception of democracy maintains that decision-making authority should be the exclusive perogative of experts, reducing popular participation to the periodic selection of elites. In contrast to the current system of school governance, an alternative model is articulated based upon the value of human development. This model is consistent with a constellation of principles and design specifications which comprise the central core of the developmental conception of democracy. This conception maintains that the ultimate end of government is the development of human beings, and that direct democracy is the system of governance most conducive to human development. The model proposed here forms a system of governance that is fundamentally ""integrated,"" in that it is simultaneously participative, communicative, associative, and non-violent, as well as being sensitive to the need for collective, democratic deliberation concerning the public interest. This model is compared with current school-based management proposals, with particular reference to the Chicago plan."
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
