Sociocracy in Schools

<< Background >>The partnership decided to apply for this project as we considered it important to establish and strengthen sociocracy in schools in order to create an effective and collaborative working environment for school staff and to propose an inclusive, open and respectful environment for pupils. We wanted to provide a method by which democracy was not only taught but also actively practised. Indeed, pupils in sociocratic schools can experiment with direct democracy, having a voice in the management of the school, and therefore learning active citizenship.We realise that the administrative structure and standards in education often puts teachers, school administration and governments in a somewhat conflictual position and we wanted to provide tools to enact productive collaboration between teachers, headmaster and government.The project was therefore focused to provide support to schools to enable internal collaboration and enact change towards a sustainable participatory-democratic society.<< Objectives >>This project aimed at supporting the development of sociocracy as a governance method in schools, in order to allow schools to become more inclusive democratic centres, where every voice is heard, every role has full support of the group, while at the same time guaranteeing efficiency and quality education.The General Objective (GO) of the project was to promote the development of sociocracy in European schools.The GO was supported by the following Specific Objectives (SOs):SO1: Promoting the professionalisation of teachers, school managers and staff involved in sociocratic schoolsSO2: Creating an exchange of competencies among European sociocratic schoolsSO3: Improving the application of sociocracy in European schoolsSO4:Promoting this approach to traditional schools/educational organisations not practising sociocracy yetSO5: Fostering change in education<< Implementation >>The project objectives have been accomplished in three main activities of the project, everyone having a specific project result:A1. Research. We observed the status of affairs on the application of sociocracy in European schools, what are the school needs in terms of training in sociocracy, and we published the results into a Research ReportA2. Workshop. We organised a series of Workshops on sociocracy, based on the needs identified in A1, and we published a Workshop proceedings that contained all the outcomes of the workshops.A3. Guidelines. We delivered practical Guidelines on how to apply sociocracy in schools for newcomer schools<< Results >>The concrete outputs of the project have been the production and publication of the following tangible results, corresponding to the final result of every Activity: Research Report, Workshop proceedings, Guidelines. Each of these documents has been done into four languages (EN, NL, FR, DE)Besides tangible results, the project obtained the following Intangible results:Improved professionalisation of teachers, school managers and staff involved in sociocratic schoolsExchanged competencies among European sociocratic schoolsImproved application of sociocracy in European schoolsPromoted sociocracy to traditional schools/educational organisations not practising sociocracy yetFostered change in education