Making Decisions Collaboratively and Sharing Power with Students

Topics on the Page

 
Creating Rules with Students

 
Consensus and Democratic Decision-Making

• Martha's Rules as an Alternative to Robert's Rules

Cooperatives as Democratic Organizations

• Teacher-Led Schools

Voting in America

• Citizen Participation in Politics

School Suspensions and Restorative Discipline
 

Anti-Bullying and Safe Schools

Creating Rules with Students

Student Council, Banneker Junior High, Washington, D.C, 1942

Positive Classroom Environments and Rule Setting. Michael Depear (2021)

We the Students: Writing a Class Constitution, Constitutional Rights Foundation

Collaborative Rule-Making and Citizenship Education: An Antidote to the Undemocratic Hidden Curriculum, David Schimmel, 2003.

• Interest-Based Bargaining

• For a perspective on collaborative rule-making from the labor and management field, see Interest Based Bargaining from Maine.gov
• See also Can We Bargain--Amicably? A Primer on Interest-Based Bargaining from ALA-APA

Creating Classroom Rules with a Bill of Student Rights, Nicholas Provenzano, 2011

Creating Classroom Rules from Science NetLinks

Creating Student-Generated Classroom Rules

Magna Carta Template: Create your own Magna Carta

Consensus and Democratic Decision-Making

Consensus Decision-Making

Teacher Notes: Consensus Decision Making

1876 Cover of Robert's Rules of Order

Martha's Rules as an Alternative Robert's Rules

Robert's Rules of Order

Is Robert's Rules Too Restrictive? Consider Martha's Rules of Order for Meeting

Comparison of Robert's Rules of Order, Consensus Process and Dynamic Facilitation, from the Co-Intelligence Institute

Point of Order, The New York Times Sunday Book Review (May 20, 2007)


Democracy 2.0: Rules of Order for Everyday Democrats. C.D. Madson, The Solon Academy (2014)

Cooperatives as Democratic Organizations

Cooperative stores, Minneapolis, Minnesota

"A cooperative business is any business that is worker-owned and operated in a democratic fashion" (Surprise! It's a Cooperative, Valley Advocate, August 4, 2016, p. 12)

2.5 million co-ops worldwide; in the United States 30,000 cooperatives provide 2 million jobs. For more, Facts about Cooperatives

Measuring the Size and Scope of the Cooperative Economy: Results of the 2014 Global Census on Co-Operatives from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Cooperative Identity, Values and Principles from the International Cooperative Alliance.

• Principle 2: Democratic Member Control

What is a Co-op?

History of Co-Ops

Food for a Change Film Trailer (2014). Discusses retail food cooperative movement in the United States

Employee-Owned Businesses

The Employee Ownership 100: America's Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies (July 2020)

More Worker-Owned Businesses are Sprouting, USA Today, May 12, 2016

Find a Worker-Owned Business or Cooperative Organization in the community where you are teaching or where you live.

• What skills do students need to learn in school to succeed as a member of one of these organizations? 

• PVSquared Solar Installations

PV Squared is a worker-owned cooperative focused on high quality, full service solar for homes and businesses throughout western Massachusetts and southern Vermont.

Teacher Led Schools

A School Without Principals? Yes Really, U.S. News & World Report (September 2014)

Teacher-Led Schools: A Rare Point of Agreement for District, Union and Charter Advocates

Teacher-Powered School Inventory--90 schools in 15 states

Teachers Lead the Way in Denver March 2014.

Leadership for Teaching and Learning: How Teacher-Powered Schools Work and Why They Matter. American Educator/Summer 2016

Voting in America

Political Cartoon of Boss Tweed by Thomas Nast 

For more, see AP Government Political Parties and Elections


Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections, 1828 to 2008 from the American Presidency Project.


Voter Turnout Data, 1787 to 2012 from the United States Elections Project.


Voter Turnout by Age, 2012 Presidential Election

Age of Brass: Women's Rights Political Cartoon, 1869

Voting in Early America from Colonial Williamsburg


Gender Gap in Voting from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University

For more resources, see American Government USG.5.2

See also Keith Devlin on Counting Votes: Which Flawed Voting System Do You Prefer?

Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy. Darryl Pinckney, New York Review Books, 2014

Citizen Participation in Politics

• See Grade 5.8 for information on the history of town meetings

• See Government 3.10 for further information on town meetings as a form citizen participation in politics

See Populist Proposals Win in 2014 for national voting on issues of minimum wage, fracking bans, corporate money limitations, paid sick leave, conservation and marijuana.

For more on the process of direct citizen involvement in political decision making, see Initiative, Referendum and Recall from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

School Suspensions and Restorative Discipline

Restorative Discipline Program in San Antonio Middle School Reduces School Suspensions

Colorado High School Replaces Punishment with "Talking Circles" from PBS Newshour, February 20, 2014.

Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in Schools? American Psychological Association, 2008

Anti-Bullying and Safe Classroom Initiatives

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity, Massachusetts Department of Education, 2011.

Anti-Bullying and Safe Schools Resources from Teaching Tolerance

Books and Resources

Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons, David Bollier, New Society Publishers, 2014.

For an example of open source activity, see the Open Source Seed Initiative that has created a "protected commons" of 37 seed varieties that are released to with no property rights attached to them.