The Democratic School Meeting and Foucault's Care of the Self: technologies of Self in practice for purpose

This presentation offers a theoretical and philosophical look at an intriguing aspect of democratic education. The argument is put forward that democratic educational modes are a particular species of post-modern philosophy, creating peaceful freedoms of thought, action and interaction, suited to children in the early stages of the formation of the Self, by using pedagogic processes that fracture in order to build.

The foucauldian project, as well as the post-modern directions of authors such as Lyotard, are analysed as a philosophical mirror image –suitable only to sophisticated, highly educated adults - of the use of democratic modes for an ‘alternative’ Self that children find in democratic education and utilise in self-regulated Self formation.

It is suggested that an appreciation of the similarities between these two projects; one philosophical and one educational, may highlight a practical positivity for life lived, that Foucault himself considered missing ‘at least from the humanistic period of the Rennaissance til now...’

Questions are also asked about the philosophical identity and roots of democratic education and their relevance to questions about hermeneutics of the self and the notion of using education to facilitate the ‘true’ inner being of individuals, with a view to changing societies for greater levels of co-operation and cohesion.