Teacher: Revolution in the classroom
Context:
You are considering two different approaches for your course. One is a highly participatory pedagogy where students lead discussions and make conceptual presentations, creating a genuinely democratic classroom. The other is a more traditional approach where you deliver most of the lectures and guide discussions.
Dilemma:
A) Design a participatory course. This approach fosters student ownership, but it demands more of your time and may face student resistance.
B) Design a traditional course. This format guarantees efficient coverage of material and provides a predictable structure.
Story behind the dilemma:
At the University of Alberta, David Kahane redesigned political science education through a radically democratic seminar. Minimizing lectures, the course empowered students to lead discussions and analyze case studies from the Citizenship Development Research Consortium (CDRC). While innovative, this approach faced challenges: students initially struggled with both the unfamiliar democratic structure and complex case study contexts without sufficient background knowledge. Kahane adapted by planning deeper dives into fewer cases and utilizing CDRC's supplemental archives. Despite early resistance to challenging traditional classroom hierarchies, students gradually embraced their roles as co-creators of knowledge. This experiment demonstrated both the transformative potential and practical difficulties of practicing democratic citizenship through participatory pedagogy.