‘Educating For Democracy’ book teaches through budgeting

Two ASU professors wrote a book about a hands-on program teaching and educating democracy through budgeting decisions.

The book details a model for civic education in which students learn about democracy through the actual practice of it. Instead of listening to lectures about allocating public dollars, students decide how to spend the money themselves on projects to improve their campuses.

The authors, Tara Bartlett, Clinical Assistant Professor at Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, and Daniel Schugurensky, Director of the Participatory Governance Initiative at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss.

“This is the first book on school participatory budgeting, There are many books on participatory budgeting, which is used on the municipal level in more than 10,000 municipalities around the world. But this is the first book about school participatory budgeting and we have 14 chapters with different countries, chapters from different countries. And the idea is to, disseminate for any schools around the world who are interested in doing this,” Schugurensky said.

Bartlett shared how their experiences in Arizona helped to shape this new learning experience into something for all students to be able to access.

“So I was an educator before and actually did this process in my classroom with students and I would have to say my favorite process was actually an inclusive model. We partnered with the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Council and they had kind of this mandate of this inclusion of students with disabilities. The process was a learning experience for everyone to ensure that this school participatory budgeting process is accessible for all students,” Bartlett said.