Dear collgeagues,
for my most recent research project on democratic education in schools, I want to measure the democratic competences of the teachers themselves.
Does anyone know of a scale that can be used in a questionnaire with closed answers?
I could imagine it to be some kind of self-assessment or quiz.
Thank you all a lot in advance,
Markus Gerold
Hi Markus,
Interesting research. I do not know of any scales that exist in this area, but there might be a backdoor way into looking for one or creating one. if you are looking to measure democratic competencies, it appears you are interested in determining the level of competency teachers have in this thing called democracy. If so, it further appears to me that you have to figure out what this thing called democracy is such that it requires competence in other areas or things in order for it to be fully lived or realized.
I suggest that you look into some key literature on democracy that discusses it in ways that lay out criteria (there's almost too much to suggest, but I'm a fan of the little known text "Radical Democracy" by C. Douglas Lummis). From there you could extrapolate some competencies. For example, if democracy is in its simplest form about "people power" or "rule by people" then a competency involved must also relate to "self rule", or, can somebody regulate themselves in successful ways before they can be responsible for regulating the lives of others, etc. This could lead into some research on openness to others, compassion, empathy and other such areas that I'm sure have scales if you look deeply enough.
Marcus: It's a very interesting question. While I do not have it closed in questionnaire, my advice is to contact Dr. Michael Apple at the University of Wisconsin, as well as Dr. James Beane and Dr. Barbara Brodhagen. Both Beane and Brodhagen have published on democratic schools.
Thank you very much for your imput everyone, I will have a look into this!
Dear Markus Gerold,
Very interesting topic. I hope you successfully finish your research project. I have recently published an article on Students Perceptions on Public High School Teachers’ Class-room Management and Democratic Attitude. You may review it for in case you may fine some the crumbs of information relevant to your research. besides you may check the link for another resource : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10464-005-8629-8
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