Educating for Democracy: The Case for Participatory Budgeting in Schools

This captivating book provides a detailed examination of school participatory budgeting (SPB), a democratic process that combines citizenship education, civic engagement and participatory governance. Presenting insights from SPB processes across the globe, it advocates for the wider rollout of programs which amplify students’ voices, their deliberative capacities and decision-making power while improving school climate and campus infrastructure.

Daniel Schugurensky and Tara Bartlett bring together an international range of practitioners and researchers to analyse the main accomplishments, challenges and lessons learned through the design, implementation, and evaluation of SPB. Chapter authors highlight how SPB is gaining traction and how national and local contexts can explain similarities and differences. The authors contend that this learner-centered pedagogy nurtures student agency, cross-curricular learning, prosocial behaviors and democratic practices.

This book is an essential tool for teachers, educational leaders, and scholars from social sciences and related fields interested in implementing SPB and evaluating its impact.

Edited by Daniel Schugurensky, Director, Participatory Governance Initiative, Professor at School of Public Affairs and School of Social Transformation. Arizona State University and Tara Bartlett, Senior Research Analyst, Participatory Governance Initiative, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, US