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Book:
Barnes, James. 2017. Social Movement. London: Prisma.
Book chapter:
Goldsmith, Adam. 2006. Crimes across borders. In Goldsmith A, Israel M and Daly K
(eds) Crime and Justice: A Guide to Criminology: 219-225. Sydney: Law Book Co.
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Clark, Stephen. 1994. The Law of Nations.Global Journal Vol III No.20, 2016: 328-356.
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www.un.org./doc./34345/pdf (accessed 10 July 2010).

Title The Place of Democratic Thinking in Philippine Education

DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM: PERCEPTIONS

FROM FOUR JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KGATLENG REGION OF BOTSWANA
Lizamarie Campoamor-Olegario
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Abstract
abstract of no more than 150 words

Keywords: 3-6 keywords.

democratic education, Social Studies,

Introduction
The education system in the Philippines has been blamed for its failure to educate the
citizens on the dark period of the history during the martial law regime under the late
President Ferdinand E. Marcos (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2016). The textbooks offer
limited information and tend to depict the era positively. History professors from top
universities of the country have called out the kin of Marcos for distorting facts and
claiming that the martial law period was the “golden era” of the country (Suarez, Kalueg,
& Mia, 2016).
The existence of a revised history for personal benefit of the Marcoses has caused a
divide among the Filipino citizens. There is one group yearning for the return of the
“golden age” of Marcos, while there is another group fighting for “never again to martial
law”. While the martial law era in the Philippines witnessed many infrastructures built,
thousands of individuals were imprisoned, tortured, killed or disappeared (Philippine
Daily Inquirer, 2016). The era was also characterized by control of legislature, crony
capitalism, graft and corruption, human rights violation, suppression of media, and
widespread poverty (Klitgaard, 1972, Suarez, Kalueg, & Mia, 2016). Democracy was
lost.

The members of the Marcos family have successfully made a political comeback since
1995 when the wife of the late President Marcos was elected into office as
congresswoman of Leyte (Suarez, Kalueg, & Mia, 2016).

when its critics are no longer around, the book will live on to tell a tale which readers,
particularly those who have no historical discernment, will assume to be gospel truth
simply because it is published in a book.

While arguing that democracy is a political concept, and in many ways a cultural ethos,
a philosophical framework, and a set of values, it is important to examine how
educators foster democratic thinking and action in education. T

ethnic conflicts and nationalism;

– global threats and insecurity;
– development of new information and communication technologies;
– environmental problems;
– population movements;
– emergence of new forms of formerly suppressed collective identities;
– demand for increased personal autonomy and new forms of equality;
– weakening of social cohesion and solidarity among people;
– mistrust of traditional political institutions, forms of governance and political leaders;
– increasing interconnectedness and interdependence – political, economic and cultural –
regionally
and internationally.
In the face of challenges such as these, it has become clear that new kinds of citizens are required:
citizens that are not only informed and understand their formal responsibilities as citizens, but
also
active – able to freely contribute to the life of their community, their country and the wider world,
and actively participate in ways that express their individuality and help to solve problems.

Democratic citizenship requires citizens to understand the issues under discussion, which requires
citizens to be informed and capable of analysing problems and lines of argument and conflict.
This
is the cognitive dimension of competence development (learning “about” political issues).
Without this level of understanding a citizen is easy prey for demagogues, lobbyists and
populists,
and will not be able to identify and negotiate his or her individual or group interests. We depend
on
media as sources of information, and we must be able to use them critically
This study aimed at assessing the extent to which democratic practices are entrenched in
the Social Studies classrooms and factors that hinder democratic classroom practices in the
teaching of Social Studies in public Junior Secondary Schools in the Kgatleng region of
Education in Botswana. A case is made that although democratic education is treasured as a
pedagogical approach to education, the reality on the ground is that teachers of Social
Studies find it difficult to educate learners through a democratic approach because of
daunting challenges such as huge class sizes, lack of resources, linguistic barriers etc. which
compel teachers to teach for assessment without nurturing deliberative democracy.

Social Studies is supposed to educate for civic participation rather than a totalizing narrative in a
coercive and intellectually domesticating curriculum (Deleon, 2010). The purpose of this study
therefore is to assess the extent to which pedagogical democratic practices are entrenched within
the teaching of Social Studies at Junior Secondary Schools in the Kgatleng region of Botswana.
The study is guided by the following objectives. To:
a) examine the extent to which democratic engagement in the teaching of Social Studies is
entrenched in the Kgatleng region of Botswana
b) Study the degree of influence of democratic practices within Social Studies classrooms on
students’ academic performance
c) investigate factors that are a hindrance to effective democratic engagements within Social
Studies classrooms.

Statement of the Problem

The following research questions were central to the study:
a) To what extent is democratic engagement entrenched in the teaching of Social Studies in the
Kgatleng region of Botswana?
b) What is the degree of influence of democratic practices within Social Studies classrooms on
students’ academic performance?
c) What factors are hindrances to effective democratic engagements within Social Studies
classrooms?

Literature Review
According to Cochran-Smith (2005; Cochran-
Smith & Lytle, 1999), because inquiry can promote the consciousness of lived
experiences
essential to a prospective teacher's evolving identity as a democratic educator, learning to
teach
should be situated within a framework of inquiry. This is particularly important for
secondary
social studies teacher education students who have a special obligation to prepare
students as
participating citizens in a culturally pluralistic, democratic society (NCSS, 1994).

Cochran-Smith, M. (2005). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in
teacher
education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice:
Teacher
learning in communities. In A Iran-Nejad & P.D. Pearson (Eds.) Review of research in
education (Vol. 24). Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association.
National Council for the Social Studies (1994). Expectations of excellence: Curriculum
standards for social studies. Washington D.C., Author.

Like democracy, democratic education cannot be defined in a static way. Rather it is a

way of being in classrooms that focuses on understanding and improving interpersonal
and
intercultural relationships and the world condition (Dewey, 1916; Mitchell, 2001). It
avoids
blueprints for teaching and learning in favor of an examination and assessment of social
practices
and existing knowledge, the construction of new knowledge as it relates to issues of
importance
in students' lives, and the blazing of new paths for personal and collective agency. In a
democratic context, students become aware of themselves as participants in local,
national, and
global communities whose lives are shaped by social, cultural, economic, and political
forces,
and whose agency is motivated by concerns for equity and social justice. Because the
mission of
social studies education is to prepare students for the privileges and responsibilities of
citizenship
in a pluralistic, equitable, and just democracy and a diverse and dynamic world
community
(NCSS, 1994), social studies teachers and teacher educators need to place concerns about
democratic citizenship and what that implies in the forefront of their educational work.

Because democracy is grounded in social and global interaction, social studies

teachers play a distinct role in forging its future. Therefore, the role of social studies
teachers is
to create spaces for students' voices, engage students' experiences, offer indigenous and
contrapunctal knowledge alongside mainstream academic knowledge, involve students in
collaborative inquiry and problem solving that focuses on recognizing and acting in
opposition to
hierarchical and colonial relationships, disrupt ethnocentric and hegemonic ways of
knowing that
support subjugation and under-representation, and expand student understanding of what
it
means to be part of a culturally democratic community and to act as responsible citizens
of an
interdependent world community.

Social Studies Research and Practice

www.socstrp.org
Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2006
17-29
Narrating Democratic Education
Ellen Durrigan Santora
University of Rochester

The concept of classroom democracy stems from the broader concept of democratic and
emancipatory education. Democratic education is a product of pragmatism that suggests
that the process of teaching should produce critical thinkers through exploratory teaching
than explanatory teaching. It connotes a number of factors that include processes of
curriculum design and the actual implementation at school and within the classroom. Apart
from the design and curriculum content makeup, democratic education is concerned with
the degree to which instructional pedagogy employed by the educator is seen to be
empowering and living up to democratic expectations. Direct correlation between
education and democracy cannot be disputed. As such, schools should be seen to be
promoting democracy from grassroots especially in subject areas such as Social Studies
which is mandated to produce proactive and democratically conscious citizens. Davies
(1999, quoted in Jotia & Morapedi, 2011, p.13) notes that attempts to democratize schools
should embrace strategies such as developing processes of decision-making where students
and teachers can constantly come together on the basis of school mission to set rules, code
of conduct and any other school governing policy. This could be done through vibrant
bodies such as the Student Representative Council (SRC) which would work well in
secondary schools but could prove to be a challenge at primary schools where children are
still very young to be trusted with authentic critical decision-making regarding leadership
selection.

although learner-centred pedagogy in Botswana schools is officially mandated because of

its democratic pretensions, the reality on the ground is that teacher-centred pedagogies
reign supreme, thus suppressing leaner-centred pedagogy. Freire (2006) refers such an
approach to education as oppressive and necrophilic in nature since it suppresses the
intellect and consciousness of the learner where they ultimately become ‘objects’ in the
teaching and learning process. Tabulawa (2013, quoted in Jotia and Sithole, 2016) contends
further that democratic pedagogies challenge us to deconstruct relationships in the process
and move to a situation where teachers and students shift from banking education
pedagogical style to more robust and productive leaner-centred pedagogies which repel the
oppressive and irrelevant technicist approach to issues related to curriculum and pedagogy.
Such kind of pedagogical approach is lacking generally in Botswana’s education system
especially in Social Studies, a subject which should be seen to be pursuing the goal of
transformative and emancipatory education that empowers the learner to become a
conscious, critical and authentic thinker. Over the years, lack of participation and voter
apathy has been a mountain issue in Botswana’s democracy for quite some time.

Green (1999, p. 4) insists that democracy encourages students to actively participate and play a
meaningful role in public life, “questioning, challenging, making real decisions and solving
problems collectively.” McHaney (2004) further argues that democratic classrooms allow for
shared power, where every voice is heard instead of authority being concentrated in the hands of
one person (the teacher). Morrison (2008) acknowledges that democratic classroom foster the
development of people who value diversity, who are not only autonomous but are aware of
others’ needs and rights, and who are open-minded. Classroom democracy makes people to
become conscious of their rights (Dundar, 2012). The democratic theory in education treasures
deconstruction of the so-called mainstream ideas and affords the learner the opportunity to
rethink ‘reality’ within their own intellectual understanding. Buroway and Holdt (2012) argue
that Freire saw education as a process which is supposed to usher in a rational alternative
pedagogy through empowerment of the learner rather than it promoting a culture of learner
subjugation. As such, this study embraces the theoretical orientation of Classroom Democracy to
examine democratic engagements in Social Studies classrooms.

In a democratic education, schools are made democratic by giving the heads of schools, teachers,
supportive staff, students and other stakeholders a voice in the running of their institutions.

According to Tabulawa (2003), the learner-centred approach regards knowledge as a product of

social interaction, a product of social processes and not solely an individual construction. The
learner-centered pedagogy embodies the principle of democracy because the learner’s academic
interests are recognized and given express attention (Duze, 2011; Joubert, 2007; Moswela, 2010).
Within that same score, an argument could be advanced that democratic education shares the
ideal that within the teaching-learning atmosphere, relations should be such that there is a
harmonious social discourse between the students and their counterparts as well as between
students and teachers. If democratic education is supposed to sustain democracy, then it has to be
democratic itself (Abdi & Richardson, 2008).

While the Social Studies curriculum prescribes learner-centred approach as preferred pedagogy,
the situation on the ground proves otherwise. Mhlauli (2010) reports a contradiction within this
philosophy. She argues that the reality is that teachers believe in learner-centred pedagogy but
practice teacher–centred approaches. Learner-centred pedagogy is a democratic teaching-learning
pedagogy and an ideal means of achieving democracy in the classroom. Griggs (2010) charges
that curricula are now packaged and delivered without any form of student contribution. He
queries that education systems treat the student as an object and not as a subject.

This study has established that there is very little practice of democratic classroom among the
Social Studies teachers in the selected Junior Secondary Schools. Teaching in the classrooms is
still didactic and authoritarian (Freire, 2006). The sitting arrangement in the classroom is also the
traditional one with the teachers standing upfront and children in their usual rows facing the
teacher. The arrangement changes temporarily if learners work in groups. Phorano (1989) posits
that this sitting arrangement on its own is undemocratic as it positions the teacher as a superior
and learners as inferiors. He contends that this defeats the desired democratic nature of a
classroom.

The participants indicated that classroom democracy was impeded by several factors such as lack
of support resources like core textbooks and functional school libraries, the latter of which makes
it difficult to assign learners group or individual assignments to research on their own. They also
cited lack of subject base rooms, English as a communication barrier, poor infrastructure as well
as the calibre of learners which they regarded as poor.
Teachers also talked of large teacher-pupil ratio of about 1:40 per class on average which they
said it was too big even for classrooms and was a constraint on activities like group work and
presentations due to inadequate space. They indicated that they are forced to put many learners in
one group for class discussions, a situation which affects the quality of discussions as it makes it
difficult to give each learner an opportunity to take part. Participants complained that the Social
Studies syllabus was too congested, containing thirty-eight (n=38) topics and one hundred and
seventy-six (n=176) specific objectives of which one hundred and thirty-two (n=132) of the
specific objectives are on application. This makes it difficult to finish the syllabus on time. The
focus is on teaching for tests and examinations, and teachers resort to lecture technique as it helps
them to make progress faster.
Participants further stated that the national examinations are based on the syllabus and not on
whether the teacher employed democratic exercise with the learners; and therefore it is risky for
them not to finish the syllabus. On this issue, a participant from Kgakala JSS said:

Some participants said the use of English as a medium of instruction is a serious barrier to
democratic learning in the school set up. They indicated that some learners, particularly the
academically challenged ones, are not able to fully participate in class activities because of
language problem, and they end up frustrated when they are required or expected to take part.
Some of the participants said that Botswana’s education system itself is undemocratic and this
impacts negatively on democratic classrooms. The use of English as the sole medium of
instruction over mother tongue was cited as an example, and a congested syllabus that is rigidly
taught at a pace that is only suitable to high fliers.
The greatest challenge facing the democratic classroom approach, however, is the side-lining of
teachers in curriculum planning. According to Maruatona (quoted in Tabulawa, 1998), The
Curriculum Development Division in the Ministry of Education & Skills Development is
responsible for developing the curriculum and teaching techniques. It does this with very little or
no input at all from teachers. Teachers are only expected to receive the curriculum as it is and
implement as per instruction. This ‘top down’ or ‘centre-periphery’ model disregards the role of
other organs of the system and in the process teachers either resist the changes or disown the
curriculum because it is non-representative to them

DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM:

PERCEPTIONS FROM FOUR JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KGATLENG
REGION OF BOTSWANA
Victor Rapula Dube
Kgamanyane Junior Secondary School
victorapula@gmail.com
Agreement Lathi Jotia*
Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education
University of Botswana
agreementjotia@yahoo.com

ISSN 1021-559X /09/2017 © Victor Rapula Dube and Agreement Jotia Mosenodi Journal
Volume 20 (2): 49 – 64

The problem for Dewey was not in using the social studies to teach citizenship
but in how this teaching was being implemented. Either the curriculum would
become so inflated with the vast information afforded by the various social studies
subject areas, causing a manageable curriculum to “get submerged in a great
flood of miscellaneous social study,” or the methodology employed would reduce
the course to learning an increasing amount of factual information and minutiae,
which would trivialize the subject matter to be learned (1937, p. 185; 1938b, p. 183).

Active democratic participation required active democratic learning.

The challenge was “to make school life more active, more full of immediate
meaning, more connected with out-of-school experience.” Failure to do so would
reduce the school to being “an instrument of perpetuating unchanged the existing
industrial order of society, instead of operating as a means of its transformation”
(Dewey, 1916, p. 316). In this sense, too, the social studies, properly defined and free
from extraneous content, was the ideal subject for preparing activist citizens.
Effective preparation to teach citizenship
would require a methodology that sought to connect “school subject matter”
with “the realities of everyday life” (Dewey, 1916, p. 163). In achieving this, of
course, the role of the teacher is critical. “He must be aware of the potentialities
for leading students into new fields which belong to experiences already had, and
must use this knowledge as his criterion for selection and arrangement of conditions
that influence their present experience” (Dewey, 1938a, p. 76). In this manner,
students can individualize their understanding of the material as it connects
to their own experience. And thus the learning process evolves. To properly learn
how to be citizens, students need activities that will connect their learning of political
concepts to the reality of using these concepts in practice. The creation of these
activities is the challenge facing the social studies educator. In this regard Marker
and Mehlinger agree with Dewey, for they assert that at heart, “the formal curriculum
is what each teacher decides it will be” (p. 841). And this is why Dewey was
optimistic for the potential of the social studies: teachers could use their expertise
in managing the curriculum to guide in the reconstruction of the experiences of
students to produce truly democratic citizens.

“The Development of a
More Intelligent Citizenship”
John Dewey and the Social Studies
James J. Carpenter
E&C/Education and Culture 22 (2) (2006): 31–42 ♦ 31
42 ♦ James J. Carpenter
Methodology

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion

Recommendation

Four themes are explored: the conceptualization of democracy; the democratic

educational experience of teachers; the concern about teaching controversial issues; and
the understanding of, and linkage to, social justice.

References
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Suarez, B., Kalueg, A., & Mia, I.B. (2016). Martial law and historical revisionism: A
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