Open Collections

Abstract

This dissertation explores the possibilities of kindergarten to Grade 12 (K–12) education as a lived, democratic practice—dialogic, emergent, and grounded in co-constructed curriculum. Dewey’s understanding of democracy and education as a way of living together, more than just a governmental structure, offers a lens through which educators can interpret curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom communities. This research asks: What can we learn from educators who centre democratic habits and practices in their classrooms? What does it entail, and why does it matter? Set in British Columbia, Canada, this research is situated within the 2016 K–12 curricular redesign, which marked a shift from content-driven, standardized education to a competency-based model emphasizing communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, and personal and social responsibility. While framed as a bold departure from instrumentalist approaches, its implementation has revealed tensions between aspirations and enduring practices. This research argues that years into this transformation, much can be learned from educators’ critical reflections on enacting its vision and their insights into its unrealized potential. Guided by a qualitative, collaborative inquiry framework, this research engaged 14 K–12 educators over a school year in a series of dialogic gatherings. These educators, diverse in experience and context, participated in six in-person sessions and a public forum, collectively exploring democratic education through co-curricular wayfinding. Methodologically, the research draws on teachers as researchers, collaborative inquiry, narrative inquiry, currere, and embodiment, resisting the use of a single method in favour of a layered, process-oriented approach that foregrounds teacher agency and lived experience. The conceptual metaphor of education as conversation is threaded throughout—from writing to research design to synthesis. Findings are mapped through the metaphor of democracy as rich and rough terrain, articulated across four interrelated features: Education as Conversation and Study, Reckoning With Imposed and Emergent Control, Cultivating Trust and Community—Nurturing Ecosystem Kinships, and Daring to Practise Freedom. Together, these illuminate the complex, dynamic spaces where democratic education takes root and evolves, offering insights into how educators and learners might navigate and nurture these landscapes together while revealing the transformative possibilities for learners and learning beyond standardized outcomes.