Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning (Dec 2023)
Political and Civic Engagement among Free School Alumni: A Range of Outcomes
Abstract
Civic and political engagement are at an inflection point in the United States. While some forms of engagement are on a negative path (e.g. contested civic education, dwindling community group membership), other forms are increasing (e.g. unionization, volunteerism, protests) (Atwell, Stillerman, Bridgeland, 2021). Many scholars and activists claim that one way to increase civic and political engagement is through civic education, yet most studies of civic education deal with conventional public schools. Minimal attention has been paid to the civic/political engagement potential of alternative forms of education. This article seeks to add to the relatively small body of knowledge about democratic free schools and their outcomes, especially as related to civic and political engagement. The Albany Free School (AFS) is a democratic free school where students self-direct their education. Such schools are part of a counter-hegemonic movement in the United States that dates back to the early 20th century and which has both anarchist and libertarian roots (von Duyke, 2013). Such schools purport to create spaces where students can develop critical authorial agency (Matusov, 2020) and habits/skills of engagement in the political/civic sphere. This article, based on data from interviews conducted with 18 alumni of the AFS, focuses specifically on discussions of alumni political and/or civic engagement and begins with a literature review defining how political and civic engagement manifests, and then moves into exploring the existing literature on the political/civic engagement-related outcomes of democratic free schools. This literature is mixed as to whether such schools are successful at nurturing such engagement, and the findings of the data collected in this study confirm these mixed outcomes. The article concludes with a discussion of the paradox presented in democratic education between having no defined curricular endpoints and a declared set of characteristics and dispositions that are sought.
