The proposed presentation explores the discourses and practices of learning in so-called democratic schools in Poland. These are relatively recent, but increasingly popular educational initiatives aimed at parents who decide to teach their children outside of the state-organized schooling system. Democratic schools are perceived as a remedy for the formal education system's alleged failure to respect children, to recognize their right to express their views and for those views to be taken seriously, and to enable the development of children’s personalities and abilities to their fullest potential. Drawing on alternative educational traditions such as Summerhill (Neill, 2006) or Sudbury Valley School (Gray, 2013) and unschooling approaches (Holt, 1981), and usually situating themselves in the framework of democratic education (as evidenced by their membership in the European Democratic Education Community), these are informal, private settings financed nearly entirely by parents that develop their own educational philosophy and approach.

In this presentation we intend to critically examine the relationship between children’s rights to education (as enshrined in Articles 28 and 29 of the UNCRC) and the ramifications of the discourses and practices of teaching/learning in such schools. One of the founding principles of democratic education is self-directed learning seen as a prerequisite for full development of one’s potential. In the discourse of democratic schools this should mean that adults don’t control education and children learn on their own (Gray, 2013), i.e. children are free to choose what to learn and how and when to do it, rather than following a prescribed curriculum taught by a teacher. In the Polish context, this principle clashes with the legal requirement for children to pass yearly state exams administered by a formal school to demonstrate the acquisition of material included in the national curriculum. As a result, families and educators involved in the democratic school movement frequently call for the abolition of obligatory schooling as a prerequisite for real learning based on intrinsic motivation to happen (Hartkamp, 2017). Taking these tensions as a starting point, we explore the following issues:

• How are education and learning conceptualized by parents and educators involved in democratic schools in Poland? In particular, how is children’s right to learn vs. obligatory schooling perceived?
• What conditions are created for the development of a child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential in democratic schools? Can any aspects of the schools’ organization threaten the achievement of this goal? How, if at all, is a space made for the achievement of other goals set out in Art. 29 of the UNCRC?
• Given the fact that this quasi-movement of democratic schools (as a broader community of families, educators and experts associated with them) tends to formulate educational ideas in radical opposition to the “system” (i.e. educational policies and mainstream schooling typically organized and controlled by the state), what are the possible risks in a wider social context? Can democratic schools be seen as a symptom of a middle-class parents’ flight from the formally egalitarian schooling and as a formation, perhaps unintentionally, of a social enclave? How is the democratic ideal of education reconciled with the mechanism of social selection based on parents’ economic capacity (tuition and other costs, time needed to get involved in democratic school community etc.) as well as their social and cultural capital (the very awareness of the existence of alternative education, ability to assess the mainstream schooling critically, participation in like-minded circles etc.)? Can such contradictions affect the nature of an educational environment and, in turn, the learning process itself?

The empirical material that this presentation builds on was collected in five schools in the course of a long-term research project on democratic schools in Poland. In order to obtain a comprehensive view of the schools’ functioning that would capture their diversity, the sample of schools varied in terms of their size, location, organization and pedagogical approach. Methodology included ethnographic observations in schools, in-depth interviews with school founders, staff and parents, and photo-based interviews with children. These were complemented by desk research (an analysis of school documentation, legal documents and media coverage). Fieldwork spanned a period of two years and was carried out either continuously (with visits in schools several times a month) or in 5-6 phases, each lasting three days. In this presentation we utilize (1) transcripts of interviews with parents and staff, (2) content posted on the schools’ websites or social media profiles – both in order to reconstruct the educators’ and parents’ discourses of learning. We also use (3) excerpts from observational notes in order to explore how teaching/learning actually happens in schools. Drawing on such different kinds of data, we aim to identify possible links and ruptures between the explicit discourse and practice of learning.

Parents and educators identify tensions between, on the one hand, the obligation to ensure compulsory education based on predetermined standards (state policies) and, on the other hand, both the principle of respecting children’s autonomy in learning and effective learning as such, seeing the systemic requirements as detrimental to the latter. Their perception follows from (1) the ideal of a child who develops freely at a natural speed if given the chance to follow their own interests (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007) and whose competence, rationality and ability to take responsibility can be trusted, (2) an understanding of learning as an inborn need and a process that takes place always and everywhere (Gray, 2013; Hecht, 2012), and (3) the priority given to learning social skills over academic skills. Such an approach to learning seems to ignore the wider social context in which education takes place. In particular, educators and parents tend to overlook or downplay the fact that autonomous learning requires competences that are themselves a product of learning vastly dependent on a child’s family’s social and cultural capital and happening within a supportive environment that facilitates the development of such competences. Our fieldwork demonstrates that while self-directed learning can be successfully carried out in schools that have access to high-quality resources (well-qualified staff specialized in a range of subjects, material infrastructure or educational resources outside of school), in settings where those are missing, academic learning tends to be pushed to the background. It could therefore be argued that children’s right to education can potentially be threatened in some democratic schools. Furthermore, given the diverse resources needed for good education to take place, in the Polish context democratic schools appear as an instrument of reinforcing inequalities, which calls their democratic character in question.

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