Deliberative Democracy, People’s Agency and Education

Abstract

This chapter briefly looks into the ways of invigorating democracy by constructing deliberative decision-making spaces in access to school and its curricular and governance practices. The theoretical framework is largely informed by works of Amartya Sen on democracy and social justice, Archon Fung on empowered participatory governance (EPG), the Brazilian experience of the Citizen School Project, and the structural provisions made in the Indian Constitution for local governance. Drawing on case studies of bottom-up approaches to strengthen school functioning, the chapter examines an array of innovative forms of people-based participatory governance practices that emerged in diverse settings to make the state more responsive and accountable for the education of marginalized children in the traditionally unequal Indian society. These practices also enabled a fuller realization of peoples’ rights, as even citizens drawn from the lowest strata of the society experienced empowerment by influencing larger state institutions and policies that affect schooling and life options of their children. These peoplecentric efforts gain further significance as they emerged against the backdrop of enduring inequalities and asymmetries embedded in the mainstream social and educational system. The article ends on a cautionary note, warning that in the absence of an enabling context, in existing neo-liberal times the emerging practices of school transformation and social justice run a risk of either withering away, or degenerating into piecemeal measures for crisis intervention, leaving neither a legacy of empowerment nor a hint of systemic change.