Chapter 10: Towards a democratic ECEC system
Excerpts
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This chapter is an attempt to discuss democracy equally from both a public and a private perspective. I will use my lenses as a citizen, an educator, a researcher, a migrant and all the other complexities, intersectionalities and positionalities that constitute myself. I will bridge my personal and professional experiences in England (where I live) and Portugal (where I was born) to explore meanings and ambiguities of democratic relationships, with a focus on education, not as a tool to teach democracy but as a means of experiencing a democratic life.
For the purpose of this introductory overview, there are concepts and ideas that I will use throughout this chapter that need to be clarified. Many of these ideas are rooted in the philosophies of the pedagogues Célestin Freinet (1896–1966) and John Dewey (1859–1952), both pivotal in my education in Portugal as an early childhood educator. I will also use concepts that are central to the Movimento da Escola Moderna Portuguesa (MEM; Portuguese Modern School Movement, see www.movimentoescolamoderna.pt for further information), which I will later present as one of the most active and widespread democratic pedagogical approaches to be found in any country today.
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Although I recognise that socio-political developments within the history of England are certainly different from those of Portugal, my objective in this chapter was to bring attention to MEM to signal that, indeed, there are challenges, but there are also alternatives. All of the developments explained throughout the chapter supported my earlier claim that MEM is one of the most active and extensive democratic pedagogical approaches to be found in any country. As stated by Santana (1998, 6), MEM is no longer a small group of friends fighting for the same pedagogical ideals but, rather, an institution with responsibilities towards the education system.
This chapter has only scratched the surface of the magnitude and significance of MEM’s democratic work. It is clear, nonetheless, that this is an established pedagogical movement with meaningful expression. As emphasised by Nóvoa (1998), MEM has a past, a history and a culture all of which deserve to be known and celebrated.
MEM invests in the formação of education professionals, engages in social transformation and promotes the democratic development of young people and communities. Indeed, MEM’s relevance emerges from the fact that this movement is as much about children as it is about teachers, as much about schools as it is about society, as much about formação as it is about pedagogy, and as much about early childhood as it is about higher education. Most importantly, MEM expresses a refreshing coherence between what is said and what is done. And as elucidated by Freire (1998), this coherence is one of the fundamental conditions for democratic education.
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From the book "Transforming Early Childhood in England: Towards a Democratic Education"