Date of Graduation

Summer 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Transformative Education and Social Change

Committee Chairperson

John Elmore, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jason Wozniak, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Dana Morrison, Ph.D.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to position a traditional public school as an adultist and authoritarian institution and correct its orientation to that of education with a democratic role. I am attempting to democratize public education for teachers and students by creating an emergent, integrated youth participatory action research academic program during the school day that reorients school to have a democratic role. First, I orient myself in this work by introducing some of my teaching experiences in the public and private domains. These experiences have led me to question the structure of school and how students are dehumanized in the process of schooling. Education should provide a language and to articulate the world. Education should be liberatory for its students; therefore, education must be democratic. In Chapter 2, I explore the origins of the common school movement and its impact on the children of European immigrants, Black Americans, and Indigenous Americans. Then, I detail different kinds of student-led and community-led resistance to mass education. While the institution of schooling has evolved, traditional schools remain anti-democratic at their core. To close Chapter 3, I analyze potential models for intergenerational democratic spaces within traditional public schools. These models serve as inspiration for my Youth Participatory Action Research curriculum in Chapter 4. This program guides students through the process of identifying an issue within their school, researching said issue, collecting and analyzing data, and drafting a proposal to present to school members. The curriculum ends with students enacting their plan

Final Version Confirmation

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