Abstract
Can the idea of democracy be turned into practice in the classroom? If we hope students will practice democracy outside of the classroom, including encouraging more citizen participation, we need to model the processes of democracy—deliberative discourse, active participation, empowerment, and so on—in the classroom. The model of democracy envisioned here is par-ticipatory, deliberative, and extra-formal (Barber, 1984; Bogason, Kensen, & Miller, 2004)—that is, a democracy that includes a high level of interaction among citizens and between citizens and government, not necessarily part of the formal electoral process, what Barber (1984) describes as “strong democracy.”Our classes are testing grounds for action in broader society—the class is a case (Feldman & Khademian, 1999). But, how does one practice democracy in the classroom? In classrooms where teachers must assign grades, for example, there will always be a power differential between students and instructors that may be impossible to overcome. Yet, this is reflective of society more generally—there are always power differentials in democratic society, so the classroom actually is a good experimental testing ground for democracy in action.