Sociocracy in Schools
“We are so happy to be using Sociocracy in our school with full participation in Member (children), Staff, Parent, and Board circles joined by a Community Circle. The kids are amazingly confident, free, happy people who are excellent communicators because of our weekly Change Up meeting, where we try out new practices one week at a time.
Sometimes our meetings end in tears because people have never experienced a workplace where every voice truly matters both in sharing feelings about how things are going and checking in with each other emotionally, and also in policy decisions such as paid overtime, staff hours, and how our governance works. Every time we ask for feedback on our processes, people share how clear and efficient our meetings are. There are still difficulties, as collaborative skills are not widely shared in the larger world, and we are starting from scratch with a lot of our parents and staff so training is necessary to bring everyone on board. We are still learning how to be clear about power and responsibility with roles and our circle structure. However, seeing the children lead effective meetings, make consent based decisions together, and check in about “good enough for now, safe enough to try,” it gives me hope for the future.
For classrooms
Tools and processes that support more democracy and participation in classrooms
For entire schools
How can everyone’s voice sing the same song – each in their different way?
For Classrooms
Open Sociocratic elections for classrooms
A brochure for teacher who are ready to try consent decision making instead of an election using majority vote.
Self-determination only with co-determination
An article about the important of participation in decision making in education.
By Simona Zäh, Unico School, Switzerland
Consent decision-making for student voice
“The Conversation Series – Episode 1 – Audrey Cheynut – “Consent decision-making for student voice” by Learn to Change
“I’m so glad to have found sociocracy- which is democracy, as it could be- to help with the subtle art of compromise.”
Hope Wilder, Pathfinder
For Entire Schools
How does one organize a whole school in circles?
Click through the images to see how others do it.
Who is already using sociocracy to run their school?
Note: this list is FAR from complete! Help us make it more complete (see map). Another resource to find sociocratic schools is Wondering School with a map.
- Austin Waldorf school ( TX, USA)
- Arpego (Berlin, Germany)
- Pathfinders (US)
- LOS school (NL)
- Unico Schule (Bern, Switzerland)
- Integrale Tagesschule Winterthur (Switzerland)
- Enkindle School (Australia)
- Lighthouse project (Wales)
- Morey Flextech school (MI, USA)
Highlights of School-Related Resources
Sociocracy Starter Kit
An article describing the phases of introducing sociocracy into a complex orgainzation.
School circles
A wonderful, feature-length documentary about three sociocratic schools in the Netherlands.
A must-see for anyone who is interested in sociocracy and schools.
Produced by Marianne and Charlie from Wondering School.
Sample governance agreements
Documents that lays out a governance agreement for schools
See Unico school document (translated to English from German)
General Resources for Learning and Implementation
Meeting posters
Having a visual makes every meeting easier to follow.
Use them in your meeting room, or laminate and bring along?
Study group curriculum
6 1.5-hour sessions with exercises, readings, handouts, perfect for groups of 5-8 people. Video-led – just turn on the video and learn! By donation/coaching on a sliding scale.
Talk to a real human!
You’re not alone on this journey! We can connect you to others who have done it before, or talk you through a strategy that works for your particular circumstances.
Sociocracy Handbook
Written by the co-founders of Sociocracy For All. 300 pages.
All Education-Related Resources in Sociocracy For Al
Building Sociocracy into Morey Flextech High School
A presentation by Will Gowen. Two years of building student agency at a small public charter school in rural Michigan, USA. Learn about the first two years of a newly started public charter high school that attempted to utilize different democratic methods to give students voice and choice in their schooling. Eventually landing on sociocracy, this high school utilizes sociocratic methods both in the classroom and for school governance. Hear about our successes, challenges and opportunities for growth!
Sociocracy in Schools
Presentation by Hope Wilder. Case study from Pathfinder in Durham, NC. How does consent decision-making work on the ground with ages 5-14? What does sociocracy look like when including the whole school community? Hope Wilder will discuss implementation of sociocracy in a self-directed learning community with Board, Staff, Parent, Community, and Member’s (children’s) circles.
Sociocracy and Permaculture Design in a School Setting
A presentation by Andreas Jonsson. How can we integrate Sociocracy with Permaculture Design to get things done effectively and sustainably, and at the same time learn a lot? Andreas is a Permaculture Designer & Teacher. He works as a selected School Head Master at Holma – a school for Adult Education, which is run with Sociocracy and built on the Permaculture Ethics & Principles. It caters to around 200 students over the year.
Enkindle Village School
Enkindle Village School is the first independent democratic school in North Queensland, Australia. Egalitarian in nature, the school is founded on democratic principles, with the belief that everyone affected by a decision should have a voice in that decision.
Pathfinder
A school in North Carolina (USA)
Sociocracy & Montessori
What do Sociocracy and Montessori have in common?
Sociocracy Handbook: Many Voices One Song
The practical sociocracy handbook written by the co-founders of Sociocracy For All. 300 pages full of real-life support!
Morey Flextech school
A project-based learning school that just started adopting socoicracy
Sociocratic elections of a class representative
A booklet for teachers who want to try out sociocratic elections with children. By Lisa Praeg
Holma – a permaculture folk high school
A permaculture folk high school in Sweden with a full mission circle.
Self-determination – only with co-determination
(By Simona Zäh, Switzerland. Translated from German original) In my last blog entry, I pleaded for more self-determination in schools - and only in passing did I mention that one of the basic conditions for self-determined learning is participation. In the following,...
A permaculture school in Sweden
Andreas Jonsson is showing us around in a sociocratically run permaculture school in Sweden.
The Art of community
A presentation and interview with Gregory Rouillard on his take on sociocracy.
Sociocracy in schools (webinar recording)
Democratic education matters
Presenter: Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard https://youtu.be/8wP030A_AtQ
Integrale Tagesschule Winterthur
ITW is a non-profit private school and the main ingredients of the operating culture are Solution Focused Approach, Nonviolent Communication and Spiral Dynamics integral extended by elements of Teal practices.
Pulse
The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) is a community of faculty leaders in the life sciences from higher education institutions.
El Roser
We are a mix cooperative school (composed of working members and consumer members). We started working with sociocracy from the very beginning of the foundation of the cooperative.
Enkindle Village School
We are a new democratic school opened in Townsville in 2019. We use a sociocratic school circle model from the ground up, from the development of the school through to initial implementation.
Unico school diagram
Circle diagram of the Unico school in Switzerland
Another School is Possible Association
A movement striving for a childcentered, playfocused, nonprofit primary education.
Non-profit: Learn To Change
Case study: Learn to change is a Non Governmental Organization that brings together a community of teachers and educators working to support educational transformation for the benefit of building sustainable democratic societies.
Mindfulness first
Mindfulness first is a nonprofit that promotes mindfulness in schools and beyond.
Sociocracy in Schools: The Harvest Bounty Restaurant Project: Gina Price and Jessie Barber
Jarrahdale Primary School in Western Australia used Sociocracy to produce a restaurant evening featuring food cooked by the students from produce grown in the school garden. All students, including kindergarten and pre-primary, participated in at least one of the nine circles which formed a 3 tier structure.
Storytelling of an action research – Pascale Gaillard-Mompoint
Sociocracy in an international online community of education professionals for a democratic culture. Action research has been a powerful tool to develop Kaizen, a reflective stance, presencing and dialogue working with teachers, teacher...
LOS school
LOS is a sociocratic school located in the small village of Duerne in the south of the Netherlands.
Homeschool cooperative
This case study features a homeschooling cooperative in Massachusetts (USA), after just having started out using sociocracy This case study is helpful if you are a volunteer organization with very flat hierarchy at the risk of burn out would like to get an...
Holma Folk Highschool
This case study features a large permaculture school in Sweden.
Consent decision-making in a family meeting
Family meetings are a wonderful and easy way of giving (your) children a voice. In family meetings (just like any other time almost), they can learn what it means to be heard and taken seriously. If you have never tried it, give it a shot!
