School Participatory Budgeting: Democratic Renewal and Civic Reimagining

• In Event: Democratic Renewal through Innovations in Civic Learning

Abstract

As we take up efforts for democratic renewal, we must strive to achieve three necessary endeavors: 1) to embed effective processes of participatory democracy alongside and within existing institutions of representative democracy, 2) to simultaneously combat threats of democratic exclusion with increased opportunities of democratic inclusion (e.g., more civic engagement opportunities for politically marginalized groups), and 3) revise existing approaches to K12 civic education (e.g., less rote memorization of historical facts and figures for multiple choice assessments) and provide support for the training and implementation of innovative citizenship education programs. Our presentation focuses on one strategy that aims to achieve these endeavors by connecting citizenship education, youth civic engagement, and participatory democracy: School Participatory Budgeting (School PB).

School PB is an innovative civic learning process in which students learn democracy by doing in deciding how to allocate a portion of a budget to improve their school or their surrounding community. School PB derives from the municipal Participatory Budgeting (PB) model, which started in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1989 and is now present in thousands of towns and cities around the world (Dias et al., 2019). Both School PB and municipal PB aim to build more democratic political cultures, nurture more democratic citizens, and foster more democratic institutions (Baiocchi, 2001; Cabbanes, 2004). From a pedagogical perspective, however, School PB aligns with traditional beliefs that experiential civic education interventions can build the capacities, dispositions, and social relationships necessary for participation in democratic communities by influencing individual and collective understandings, competencies, values, attitudes, and practices (Dewey, 1916). We emphasize the need for high-quality, impactful civic learning because younger generations foreshadow the future habits, dispositions, and practices of society.

Although the School PB process varies across geographies and contexts, it is typically organized in five phases: idea proposal, project development, deliberation and campaign, voting and implementation. In the first phase, students identify needs on their school campus and propose ideas to address those needs. In the second phase, through research and school community input, those proposals are transformed into viable projects with a budget and project timeline. Next, students deliberate on the pros and cons of the different projects and campaign for the projects they support. Then, students vote, and the winning projects are implemented.

School PB focuses on three main areas of impact: civic learning, school climate, and school improvements. While the impacts of School PB vary depending on a host of factors, research reveals several common trends. Some studies found increased knowledge of the history and tenets of democracy, political efficacy, budgeting and project management skills, deliberative and decision-making competencies, research skills and several leadership abilities needed for long-term civic engagement (Abrantes et al., 2017; Bartlett & Schugurensky, 2023; Brennan, 2016; Cohen et al., 2015; Crum & Faydash, 2018; Duncikaite, 2019; Gibbs et al., 2021; Johnson, 2023; Todd, 2022). Impacts on school climate have been observed via increased levels of trust, peaceful resolution of conflicts, a mindset of the common good, and stronger relationships between members of the school community (Albornoz-Manyoma et al., 2020; Brown 2018; Kupriyanov, 2023). School PB also changes educators’ perceptions of young people and nurtures leadership competencies among teachers (Bartlett et al., 2020; Cheerakathil, 2023).

School PB is on the rise worldwide. Countries that have implemented School PB include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, France, Georgia, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, South Korea, the Republic of Serbia, Russia, the United States, and Zambia. This presentation discusses School PB processes taking place in ten different countries in anticipation of our edited book to be published in Fall 2024. The volume, with contributions from both researchers and practitioners, makes an original contribution to the field of civic and political education for two reasons that we discuss in our presentation. First, the collective of chapters provides an international overview of School PB as a democratic innovation with its many iterations and innovations. Second, the authors provide theoretical and practical insights to those interested in reimagining civic education and school governance. In our presentation, we discuss the various contexts in which School PB has been implemented, the internal and external challenges experienced, and lessons learned and recommendations.

Authors

• Daniel Schugurensky, Arizona State University

• Tara Lynn Bartlett, Arizona State University