Democratic schools, alternative educational settings that have recently been gaining popularity in Poland, are by definition supportive of participation. According to the European Democratic Education Community, in democratic schools “students have the right to make their own choices regarding learning and all other areas of everyday life … [and] to have an equal share in the decision making as to how … their schools are run” (EUDEC, nd). This presentation, based on ethnographic research conducted in 8 Polish democratic schools, addresses the following questions: How is participation conceptualized and enacted in democratic schools? What makes participation in democratic schools possible? What challenges to enacting participation in such schools can be discerned? Participation is a basic premise on which democratic schools are founded. It is identified primarily with an involvement in decision making and conceptualized as self-governance enacted on a micro-level (personal autonomy and self-determination) and a macro-level (whole school decision making) (Hope, 2019). School members (students, staff and, to some extent, parents) have a say in all issues that concern themselves and the community, and the aspects of space, voice, audience and influence (Lundy, 2007) are attended to. Participation is enacted in a social context, and while individuals have a right to make decisions concerning themselves, the others’ views and interests must be taken into account. The collective decision-making processes are situated in spaces such as whole-school meetings (Fielding, 2013; Hope, 2019) and in informal interactions among school members. Factors that foster student participation in democratic schools include the vision of a child as a competent decision maker with a self-determination right; the commitment to listening to each other and facilitating children in expressing their views; and the development of mechanisms supportive of participation. Simultaneously, legal regulations limit children’s decisions concerning their learning. Further, ensuring children’s participation requires the adults’ conscious efforts and dedication as they have to relinquish traditional hierarchical child-adult relationships to be able to give children the freedom to decide, and to find the balance between children’s decision-making and their own rights and obligations. Participation can also be restricted for children and adults as a result of power dynamics that are present, but not always openly discussed. Finally, with school meetings as the main forum for collective decision making, verbal means of expression are prioritized which may limit the participation rights of children who are less competent in these (Gawlicz & Millei, 2021).

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