Democratic public life: Building participatory civic communities through charter schooling

This dissertation explores the possibility of charter school reform vitalizing distinct public schools that may serve as arenas of and schools for deliberative democracy. The central problem tackled is how charter schools might balance public interests in democratic social reproduction against other public interests such as school efficiency and private interests such as cultural transmission. Jurgen Habermas's discourse theory of deliberative democracy is offered as a normative model for balancing public and private interests. According to this model, proceduralized deliberations generate collective agreements that are equally in the interests of all.; Whereas Habermas's discourse theory offers "legitimate conditions" for democratic decision making, public education is about more than making collective decisions. In terms of democratic social reproduction, charter schools also need to prepare future citizens for civic life. Thus, I argue that charter schools fulfill public interests in democratic social reproduction to the extent that they approximate deliberative ideals--manifest equality and inclusion of all affected--within their practices of school governance as well as their civic educational practices for citizenship. Focusing upon civic education, I conclude that deliberative democracy minimally requires that public charter schools cultivate in students: (1) skills in reasoned deliberation, (2) a willingness to participate in democratic processes according to principles of mutual respect and reciprocity, and (3) a sense of agency or a sense that what they say matters.; After outlining these three minimal requirements, a case study explores the challenges of implementing a civic education mission within one charter school. This case demonstrates the use of deliberative ideals as "critical yardsticks" for evaluating the extent to which a charter school's civic educational practices are egalitarian and inclusive. The case study indicates that realizing civic educational objectives is complicated by unequal status between teachers and students as well as socio-cultural differences and inequalities among students and teachers.; At a more general level, the case study suggests how deliberative democratic ideals can serve as normative standards for assessing whether charter schools are satisfying public interests in democratic social reproduction. I end with recommendations for civic education pedagogy, state-level policy, and future research pertaining to charter schools.