Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Social and economic inequities are often associated with access to civic participation, and educational systems tend to reproduce those inequities. Our presentation discusses the expansion and major impacts of inclusive School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) on student empowerment and civic equity. Stemming from Participatory Budgeting (PB), a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making over budget allocations that is currently implemented in over 7,000 cities around the world, SPB is a more recent phenomenon that has grown internationally and throughout North America with Arizona at the forefront of these efforts in the United States. SPB started in one Phoenix, Arizona high school in 2013 and has since expanded to four cities throughout Arizona, involving over 50,000 students in historically minoritized, underserved public schools. SPB educates students to “learn democracy by doing” through an emancipatory process that builds stronger school communities, improves multidimensional relationships, and amplifies student voice. In an inclusive SPB model, thoughtful efforts are made in implementing inclusive practices at every stage of the process: representation in the steering committee, process design, idea collection, proposal development, the campus-wide vote and evaluation. With our inclusive SPB toolkit, we present our findings on challenges in overcoming the traditional understanding of disabilities in schools and how the SPB experience can positively impact and provide counternarratives through empowering experiences, an increased focus on action civics learning and an overall sense of belonging in school -all of which can have a positive impact in increased levels of civic participation later in life.

Presenters

Tara Bartlett
Research Assistant/PhD Student, Teachers College/School of Public Affairs, ASU Teachers College/ASU Participatory Governance Initiative, Arizona, United States