IDEC 2012

The 2012 IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) which was held in Puerto Rico in March, and was attended by about 800 people from more than thirty-five different countries.

For the last ten years or so most IDECs have been divided into two parts – one for democratic schools, their students, staff and parents, and people already involved in democratic education, and the other intended as a presentation for the general public. The 2012 IDEC in Puerto Rico concentrated on the second part. Derry Hannam, from the UK, was delighted. Here are some of his comments: –

‘The conference was an outstanding success. For me the great thing was the real integration and dialogue between the democratic schools and their philosophies and the Puerto Rican public school system (which is in a dire state thanks to the US No Child Left Behind high stakes testing regime which blatantly punishes the poor for being poor!!). These ranged from the Governor's adviser for education through senior politicians and bureaucrats to school principals, teachers and of course many wonderful students from all sectors of the system. For example in the space of two hours I was able to talk with a roomful of students and more or less encourage them to start an ESSA [the English Secondary Students Association, now called Student Voice] and then have a conversation with the governor's adviser for education and set up a meeting between them so that she can recommend policy changes around their ideas.’

Some of the delegates from the schools were disappointed by the predominance of lectures and panels of speakers, and the consequent lack of opportunity for discussion, but everyone was impressed by the music.

EUDEC 2012

EUDEC, the European Democratic Education Community, currently represents about 58,000 people and 53 groups from 28 countries, including more than 57,000 school students, 35 schools, 13 school start-up groups and 5 other organisations, including the German National Association of Free Alternative Schools (BFAS), the UK-based Phoenix Education Trust and the Swiss Union of Student Organisations (USO), as well as numerous individual members.

Every two years there is a European Democratic Education Conference (also referred to as EUDEC). This year’s is being organised by a school called Kapriole, in Freiburg, Germany, and will last from July 28 – August 5. The conference will start with five days (29.7.-2.8.) focussing on the exchange between people already –or intending to become –actively involved in democratic education.

‘This part is not only for EUDEC members,’ they say. ‘Others are very invited to participate as well. It's just that, during those days, the focus will not be on explaining democratic education but on collaboration in EUDEC projects. Those days will be organised in the "open space" method: all participants are invited to spontaneously initiate workshops, present their new ideas and/or questions etc. – the EUDEC conferences of the past years have shown how well this works, and we are looking forward to having five days available to work together like this. Some workshops are also being planned/prepared in advance. Our goal is to collaboratively make substantial progress on concrete projects of the European Democratic Education Community.‘

Registration is already open. For more information go to http://www.eudec.org/EUDEC2012