This project aimed at supporting the development of sociocracy as a governance method in schools, in order to allow schools to become more inclusive democratic centres, where every voice is heard, every role has full support of the group, while at the same time guaranteeing efficiency and quality education. The General Objective (GO) of the project was to promote the development of sociocracy in European schools. The GO was supported by the following Specific Objectives (SOs): SO1: Promoting the professionalisation of teachers, school managers and staff involved in sociocratic schools SO2: Creating an exchange of competencies among European sociocratic schools SO3: Improving the application of sociocracy in European schools SO4:Promoting this approach to traditional schools/educational organisations not practising sociocracy yet SO5: Fostering change in education
The partnership decided to apply for this project as we considered it important to establish and strengthen sociocracy in schools in order to create an effective and collaborative working environment for school staff and to propose an inclusive, open and respectful environment for pupils. We wanted to provide a method by which democracy was not only taught but also actively practised. Indeed, pupils in sociocratic schools can experiment with direct democracy, having a voice in the management of the school, and therefore learning active citizenship. We realise that the administrative structure and standards in education often puts teachers, school administration and governments in a somewhat conflictual position and we wanted to provide tools to enact productive collaboration between teachers, headmaster and government. The project was therefore focused to provide support to schools to enable internal collaboration and enact change towards a sustainable participatory-democratic society.