Students' Participation to the Decision-Making Process as a Tool for Democratic School.

AbstractThis research has been designed because it has been realized that there is only little research carried out about the student participation in the administration for the structuring of the democratic authority in the higher education system in Turkey. In the relevant literature, concepts of democratic authority and education have been approached from two different perspectives. One of these perspectives is the democratic school/education approach based on the alternative education paradigm, which is not practiced in Turkey. The second perspective is the democracy approach in school/education. This study seeks an answer to how the process in which students get involved in the administration of the higher education institutions works. In order to reveal students tendency between aforementioned paradigms their views and needs about their participation in the decision making process were analyzed. Within this framework, two focus groups including students at Marmara University in the 2011-2012 academic year who are taking part in the student council and those who are not taking part in the council have been focused on. The results of the study have been found by means of the content analysis of the data. The results that can be categorized under three content categories have been compared with the literature regarding the alternative education and democratic school. According to the results, significant differences were found between students taking part in the council and those who were not members of the council in terms of handling some facts and concepts using the terminology in the literature pertaining to democratic education/ school. According to the results, some suggestions have been discussed. The results of the study are also likely to lead to a set of recommendations on the basis of barriers set in front of students' participation to shape the democratic authority at higher education institutions and their suggestions.Key WordsDemocratic School, Higher Education, Decision-Making Process, Student Participation.The beginning of the democracy idea dates back to the Athens and Rome in many sources (Kaltsounis, 1990; Ober, 2003; Singleton, 2004; Soder, 1996). Some of historians such as DeWiel (2000) and Woodruff(2005) indicate that before Aristotle and Plato the first known democracy idea goes back to discussion meeting of the sophists'. It could be stated that "Demos" (people) and "kratos" (power, authority, government) refer to public authority, government and power (Buyukkaragoz, 1990). In Athens, "demos" was a homogenous group holding the authority. The sociological equivalent of this group is religious community, class or clan (Dogan, 2001). Athens learned this lesson in the hard way. But Alexander the Great ended these experiences, which was growing in 200 years by using Macedonian despotism (Woodruff). As indicated by Rousseau (2005) democracy idea, which has renascent in the age of enlightenment, based on the principle of keeping people's common benefits rather benefits of the groups by using "administration with one's consent" (Raab, 2003). The presence of well-trained public is considered essential for success of democracy (Lindsay, 1973). Democracy refers to the attitude of people with self-determination who is courageous enough to act against every problem they encounter with. This can be secured with education and education can be secured with democracy. In other words, democracy should be born again in every generation and education is the mid-wife of this birth (Dewey, 1996). Therefore, it would be true to say that democracy is an expression of a belief, which is based on logic. Apple and Beane (2011) emphasize that implementing democracy results in tension and conflicts. They point out that some people consider democracy and education as oxymoron, as well. For instance, democratic participation leads to anti- democratic opinions, such as the continuation of the historical inequalities in the school life. …