Mentoring and Democracy in Schools: The Case of Democratic Schools in Israel

Abstract

Israel has about 30 democratic schools where students participate in all important decisions such as selection of staff, curriculum, and discipline rules. In order to ensure student voice and support, all schools provide personal adult mentoring to all students. This chapter will describe how mentoring, school environment, and school ideology in five Israeli democratic schools contribute to student development as future citizens and fulfilled individuals. The study is based on observations and interviews with about 40 parents, students, and staff in 2019 and 2022. The study provides implication to how schools could support students’ healthy development and participation in democracy

1. Introduction

John Dewey argued that schools should be organized as miniature democratic communities in which students learn the meaning of democracy through their everyday interactions within the school. However, schools tend to be hierarchical and traditional institutions. Dewey [1] elegantly articulated the problem with traditional education and the need for a progressive approach, “The traditional scheme is, in essence, one of imposition from above and from outside. It imposes adult standards, subject-matter, and methods upon those who are only growing slowly toward maturity. The gap is so great that the required subject matter, the methods of learning and of behaving are foreign to the existing capacities of the young” (p. 17). Noddings [2] criticized contemporary reform strategies as focusing too much on uniform standards, governance, and accountability and neglecting to promote dialog - the essence of education in a liberal democracy. These practices reduce student choices and fail to assist student participation in political discourse. Discourse when designed to promote critical thinking, inquiry, personal autonomy, and reflection, gives students a feeling of control in their own schooling and makes school meaningful.

While democratic education emphasizes shared participation in decision making, recent research suggests that school atmosphere of caring and acceptance is key to implementing democratic education principles [3, 4]. This study explores the role of teacher-student mentoring and dialog in five democratic schools in Israel. These schools are based on the belief that there is no one model of learning and children should choose their own unique way and express their freedom through dialog. Therefore, students choose their own classes and are not required to attend class. In addition, all major school decisions are done through democratic deliberations through committees and general assembly. Third, the schools advocate providing children with a protective environment through teacher-students mentoring and dialog. Hence, all students select a mentor from a list of school mentors who are full time teachers and engage with them in a weekly dialog [5].

2. Literature and conceptual background

Democratic education has been tried in schools including the famous Dewey’s laboratory school. Shultz [6] analyzed data from Dewey’s school and concluded that the school failed to equip students to act effectively in the world. In envisioning a school that would be better positioned to empower students, Shultz [6] wrote, “I imagine, then, a school that would encompass a wide range of different discursive spaces that are not equally open to all. A myriad of different teachers might teach in and advise these different spaces, ensuring safety and “rigor” within diversity” (p. 296).

Teacher youth-mentoring could indeed provide spaces for discourse engaging students and addressing their social, emotional, and developmental needs. The process of youth mentoring involves student and teacher engaging in a dialogic pedagogy. According to Snell & Lefstein [7] dialogic pedagogy involves (a) teacher and student joint construction of knowledge and meaning, (b) students gaining voice and multiple perspectives, (c) open approach toward knowledge claims, and (d) a climate of caring, inclusiveness, and reciprocity. This teacher-student positive engagement tends to promote children’s executive function as defined as the mental processes needed to control behavior, thoughts, and emotions [8]. Furthermore, close relationship between teachers and students might reduce stress and enhance student self-confidence and feeling of safety and resilience [8, 9].

Mentoring children seems to support progressive education. Liberal Humanism, a strand of early progressive education believed that “schooling should be student-centered to advance the political voice of all children and prepare them for active citizenship in a democratic society” [10] (p. 49). Progressive educators therefore sought to focus on the “whole child,” individualize instruction, and empower children as self-directed citizens who can meaningfully participate in a democratic society [11]. Some progressive educators then created mentoring structures that promoted these goals. For example, in the 1970s Debra Meier created an advisory at Central Park East Secondary School in New York in order “to create a space to develop close bonds between students and advisors,” and “to have one adult who truly knows each kid and family well and can make the needed connections and adjustments as kids maneuver their way through school and into life” [12].

In Israel, progressive education has also become influential. It has also been particularly influenced by the Polish Jewish educator Janusz Korczak [13]. Through working with orphans, Korczak developed what he called a pedagogical love approach – a pedagogy based on developing mutual understanding, caring, and respect relationships between children and teachers. This required the teacher to act as mentor, advisor, and facilitator [13]. Democratic education is the most popular form of progressive education in Israel and has become prevalent in the past 30 years establishing more than 30 democratic schools [5].

3. Research methodology and data collection

Basing the general method on that of case study researchers such as Yin [14] and Stake [15], the researcher conducted case studies in five democratic schools across Israel. The schools reflected diverse geographical setting including rural (1 school), suburban (2 schools), and urban (2 schools). In addition, the schools were spread between the far north to the center of Israel where most of the thirty democratic schools reside. The researcher made two visits to the schools—one in 2018 and one in 2022 after the Pandemic. Visits included an hour-long interview with the principal and a tour of the grounds. Four of the five schools also included interviews with mentors and students—some individually and some in groups. Overall, interviews were conducted with 6 principals (one school had a new principal in the second visit), 1 assistant principal, 16 mentors, 3 mentoring coordinators, 28 students, and one parent. In addition to school visitations, data was collected from a mentoring workshop conducted during a yearly professional development gathering of the democratic school network, where the author and a retired teacher/mentor conducted a dialog among 30 teachers from various democratic schools about their mentoring children experiences. Interview questions attempted to elicit information about democratic school practices, the nature of mentoring in the schools and their connection to democratic practice, the advantages as well and the challenges involved in the mentoring process, and the impact mentoring had on school participants. During the 2022 school visits, questions also explore the impact of the pandemic on the children and adults in general and more specifically on the mentoring process. Qualitative methods were used since the goal of the study was to explore the dynamics and context of mentoring at each school. This is best achieved by conducting observations, conversations, and interviews in the field [16].

The data including field notes and interview transcripts, were compiled, transcribed, and translated to English. For analytic purposes, the researcher initially created codes form each data source searching participants’ reactions to and comments about their interactions with their mentor or mentee. The codes from all sources were then combined to create common themes as well as differences using a constant comparison method [17].

4. Results

4.1 Democratic school as a home

An inviting school climate is key to student participation in a democratic school [18]. When visiting each of the five schools, although some schools were in urban and some in rural setting the view was similar—children walking around, some playing often in multiage groups, some sitting on benches talking to peers or one-on-one with teachers. Often those teacher-student dyads were in effect mentoring sessions. There was no school bell nor a teacher on duty to supervise the school grounds (although there were always several adults in the school grounds). Students, depending on their age, could leave the school grounds if they wanted to. The scene was similar in many respects to a college campus. Students and staff seemed to be at home. An 11th grader describes how when he goes to buy snack in the nearby convenient store he always says “I am going home”—referring to going back to school. One veteran teacher describes his school experience this way, “On my first day at the school, it seemed to me like a circus – everyone is happy, everyone likes one another, everyone is having a good time – it looked like a summer camp not a school.”

This feeling of a home expressed itself when students liked to go to school. As one 8th grader described:

(I like to come to school because) first thing because of the social life. I have many very good friends here. The school gives me a platform to express my opinion. I am the type of person who talks a lot and it’s important for me to express myself. This (school) gives me the platform to speak to many adults…

The opportunity for social life was enhanced by the many recesses provided at the schools which provided for multigrade interactions as one second grader revealed, “In recess you could play with people from other classes. We have recess between every class and our biggest recess is for 20 minutes and we have another one for 15 minutes…I have the same number of friends in 4^th as in 2^nd grade.” Another opportunity for socialization was through weekly discussion circles grade level classes conduct as one teacher describes “We have discussion circles – the students choose groups and teachers bring up discussion issues on a weekly basis.”

The feeling of home was further supported by the school administration in each school as it promoted a relaxed school environment. One principal elaborated on such efforts, “As a principal of a school I would do everything I could to slow thing down and not to speed things up…I will do everything to allow more leisure and less emphasis on output (e.g test scores)”. Similarly, a teacher in another school described their approach, “You are dealing with people. You are more sensitive; you are more attentive. You are not in a hurry. We are much less in a hurry here. As a teacher I don’t rush all the time to finish the material.” Furthermore, the schools promoted relaxed environment with many opportunities to go outdoors and participate in field trips.

4.2 Student choice

An important contributor to democracy in schools is student opportunities to make choices [19]. Indeed, the opportunity to choose has always been an important aspect of schools’ democratic ideology. In the five schools, students were able to choose their mentors, their classes, whether to attend classes, whether to participate in committees and which ones, and much more. One of the mentors explained the importance of choice in their school,

Here, in contrast (to regular schools), there is more freedom, we honor personal freedom and the autonomy of both students and teachers. Here there the freedom to choose both for the students and teachers. The students choose whether to attend classes. While about 80% choose to attend and 20% choose not to, if they decide not to attend some classes, we find other solutions. No one makes a big deal out of it.

Beyond freedom and autonomy, democratic schools see the education value of students’ choice as an essential contributor to their development as one assistant principal explained, “We let the child understand who he is how he learns by choosing the learning subject. It doesn’t matter what he learners, as long as he learns how to learn. And if he wants to learn something else, he could always do it another time.”

A mother of five students in one of the schools further highlighted the focus of the school on choice,

Our choices here are much more than (voting in) parliament. In this system you choose every minute who you want to be. At this moment I want to be a child who visits the kindergartners and tells them stories and all the kids there adore me and then I could join my older brother’s friend, and everyone spoils me.

One of the most important choices the schools were providing was the choice of mentor. In each school, at the beginning of the school year, students are given the opportunity to list their top three choices of mentors and in most cases would be able to get one. The importance of such choice is highlighted by a teacher who was also a mentoring coordinator,

How to create a personal environment in the school? First you provide students the opportunity to choose their mentor which is very significant. You are enabling mentees to choose the figure that will be their mentor who will accompany them, support them, will be with them during good and bad times, (and) will be in touch with their parents.

Another major choice is choosing classes to take. Students are not required to take specific subjects and often mentors help them make choices. All mentors indicated the important role they had in helping students to choose their academic schedule to promote student motivation. One mentor said, “So, the democratic school uniqueness is to allow the child to utilize the school to promote his own interests and motivate the child to try to change… (For example) to encourage a new student to utilize the opportunity to create his own class schedule.”

Beyond choosing class schedule, student could choose whether to attend classes. All students indicated this choice was valuable. For example, one 10th grader said how choosing whether to go to class or not was valuable to him, “…if I go to class, I enter knowing that I chose to participate. That means I am willing to accept the rules that the teacher set up. Instead, I could not attend class and study the material alone….You go to class because you choose to.” Similarly, the staff in the democratic schools expressed how valuable choice was for them. A new principal reflected on his experience,

(What attracted me to the school) was the school’s approach that I had believed in the principle of choice for years. (I like) that children go to class because they choose to….As a teacher who had to be in a classroom with 35 youngsters who the last thing they wanted was to be there with me, (I cherish the value of choice).

4.3 Student voice and involvement

In addition to choice, democratic schools were founded on the principle that children are to be equal to adults in managing their school. Indeed, students’ feeling of home at school emanated not only from being offered choices, but also from their involvement and influence in school affairs. Each school had a founding document or a constitution that specified student voice and input as one principal indicated:

(Democracy in the school) means some basic things. It means that at least on paper the children are expected to manage the school. The children are expected to be full partners in the school. We have (for example) a school comptroller committee that does a yearly school assessment.

Each school’s constitution specified some basic required committees that schools should have. The typical required committees were parliament, teacher/staff recruitment, budget, rules, and appeals. An assistant principal further described the idea as “The essence of the democratic school is that it breaks down systems of power and authority. It breaks down hierarchy.”

4.3.1 Student involvement through committees

Students at various age groups provided detailed description of their involvement in committees. A 9th grade male student described his involvement in the parliament committee:

We are the committee that organizes the parliament. People submit proposals to school’s parliament, and we choose which proposal fits or contradicts the school’s constitution and other school laws as well as the state regulations. We also discuss whether the proposals are relevant. We have many proposals that are denied because they are not related to pedagogical issues.

The same student was also involved in the planning committee that deals with the school’s status vis-à-vis the local and state education authorities as he provided insight into school affairs children rarely if ever become involved with,

This committee has a lot of authority – it is planning the future of the school…We talk about moving the school to another building. Currently, since we are a recognized school but not official, we do not get a building from the city. We are discussing moving the school to another location. We are also discussing adding more students and we are discussing how to become a city-recognized school…

Student committee involvement went beyond parliament and planning. For example, they were involved and had major say on school events, and school marketing. A female 9th grader described her long-term involvement, “In third grade I was on the event committee for 1^st to 3^rd grade. In 4^th grade I was in a school wide marketing committee and now I am on the digital marketing committee.” An eleventh grader who has been in the school since first grade, described his involvement in organizing hiking trips in his role on the field trip committee as well as serving as a junior counselor for younger children. He also attended musical shows and worked on theater productions.

A major committee where children’s voice was prominent was the search committee that hires staff. A new principal of one of the schools described the role of the students in his job interview process:

(The process of the interview for principal position) was impressive, profound, and beautiful – it was a mutual process…(The children were involved) in the whole process – the head of the search committee was a high school senior. The children and parents interviewed me as well as the staff, and throughout the search process it was open to the community… one child asked me what I think about legalizing drugs. Some young children asked me what I think about planting lawn in the soccer field. There were also questions about whether my service in the army would affect my ability to work in a democratic school.

Another important committee where children played a key role was the rules/discipline committee. Students and adults who had a conflict or felt that school rules were violated could “write up” a complaint and appear for a hearing before the committee made of children and adults. One 9th grader described the process:

Three students played basketball in our clubhouse and made noise, completely blocked the place, and almost hit me with a ball. They did this despite a rule we voted on in the parliament… So, we are suing them - me and a few other children…During the session, we will sit in front of a teacher and two or three children, and we will present our side and they (accused students) present their defense. Each will present its case and the judges will try to understand who is lying and what happened before and during the case. The judges will ask us questions. And then the prosecutor and defendant will leave the room and the judges will decide whether to give punishment.

4.3.2 Students’ involvement through parliament and grade level parliaments

An important part of involvement of students in decision making was through the schoolwide parliament and at grade level assemblies. One 9th grader explained:

The school develops your oral skills and expression thanks to the (school’s) parliament. You learn how to talk in front of people and how decision making goes. You learn that if you want to have a voice and an influence on the decisions you have to come to the parliament where everyone has one vote…

Another 11th grader elaborated on issues that come up before the parliament,

I attend parliament meetings usually when the issues are relevant to me…For example, when they wanted to move the music room to another location…When we came back from isolation (the pandemic), there was a proposal to continue staying home for one day a week….I supported this because the sudden returning from home…it was scary…I thought we needed to return to school gradually.

5. Mentoring role in democratic schools

Students, mentors, and school administrators all felt that mentoring was key in implementing the democratic principles of the school as one mentor expressed it:

a democratic school without mentoring is like a democratic state without democracy…Mentoring is necessary for democracy but it’s not enough, you also need a parliament. A school where everything is decided by the principal (is not democratic).

Mentoring, school members felt, was necessary in contributing to the homelike school environment, in helping students make choices, in involving students in decision making and in promoting their voice. All mentors felt their role was to promote their students’ humanity as one mentor stated, “(the) student is a whole human being with past, present, and future, dreams, and values… mentoring helps with knowing oneself and self-realization.” Indeed, in a system where children must make difficult choices and are encouraged to express themselves and have a voice in school affairs, they need support. One mentor contrasts his role as a mentor to the traditional role of a teacher,

My role is to create a dialog, create intimacy, and be an address that is not a teacher. A teacher has a different role….(in my role as a mentor) I am not their teacher, I do not admonish them if they misbehave; rather, I am the adult at school whom they could consult with, tell me things that they do not want to tell teachers or their parents.

To support the process of self-exploration and decision-making mentors felt their role was to get to know their mentees through observation and conversation; to create emotional connection with their mentees; to empower their mentees through challenging them; to serve as coaches and guides; and serve as mediators between and advocates for the children and their surrounding social environment. To clarify this supporting role several mentors used metaphors to explain that the ultimate responsibility lies with the student. For example, one mentor compared her role to a driving instructor,

I will hold the stirring wheel momentarily. And yes, there is another set of eyes. I have the breaks if needed….Driving is not the gospel truth. You just need to understand where everything belongs. What we do is practice many things. We practice joint living, we practice socializing, we practice learning, we practice everything.

Another mentor compared the role of the mentor to a mountain climbing instructor that provides support but does not do the climbing for the student,

Our (school’s) mentor is someone who walks with you. If you climb a mountain, he will climb with you and hold your hand. He will not pull you or push you….If you fall, the mentor will let you fall and will be with you in the pit, and help you figure out how to get out. The mentor is simply a person who is there for you non-judgmentally and without criticism.

An example how this role expressed itself in the classroom is illustrated by one mentor of middle school age children who felt his role was to teach his mentees “how to sit in a group; how to listen to one another; group dynamics how to communicate; how to introduce oneself; how to create a social circle; interpersonal connection; how to conduct a discussion; and how to know what to say and when.”

The mentor’s role in student socialization appeared to be key in helping students’ voice and ability to deal with conflict. Often children had conflicts with peers and mentors provided alternative ways to deal with conflict. An 11th grader recounted,

They (mentors) teach me how to look at things in a different way… to take a step back and take a different perspective. To zoom out…When there is a conflict between friends, I learned to take a distant perspective, (in order to) understand what is happening in a more neutral way. This helps me decide on my next step.

Another important aspect of mentor-mentee interaction was that it was done between equals or as some described it as an encounter at eye-level. If students are to feel heard and equal participants in school affairs, then the mentor-mentee interaction had to be between equals. A mother of five children explained,

They (my children) are used to a conversation (with their mentors) like between two friends when they go (with their mentor) to the café together – it’s not a question and answer, it’s a conversation on the way to the café, and they speak on the way to the parking lot and sometimes what is said in the parking lot is more important than in a formal conversation…this is the real mentoring.

Student interviews confirmed the role of the mentors as adult friends. One 9th grade student said, “(My interaction with my mentor) is like getting to know a friend. You have a conversation like anyone you meet in life. He is a person that you happen to meet on your way.” Many students felt they could share secrets and intimate aspects of their lives they would rather not share with their parents. For example, 11th grader said,

I share with him (my mentor) things I would not share with my parents – how I drink, how much I drink, what are drugs, what is alcohol, how do you use it, why is it needed if at all. I feel really at ease in talking to him about everything.

In a democratic system there are rules and regulations as well as systems of enforcement. Similarly, in the democratic schools there are various bodies that enable the schools to function democratically. An important role mentors had was to be mediators and advocates who help students deal with these systems. For example, an 11th grader described how his mentor helped him change math class level, “I wanted to switch level, but I didn’t dare ask for it. I spoke to the teacher, and it didn’t help. I went to my mentor and in a day or two the coordinator of school came to talk to me about it.” Another student wanted to take a language not provided at his school, so his mentor provided a solution,

I wanted to study Arabic but our school does not offer Arabic language but another school provides it. So, I asked my mentor what to do and he matched me with a student in 12th grade who learns Arabic and she gives me private lessons.

The mentor’s role as mediator also involved Advocacy. A 9th grade student recalled how he received an unfair punishment by the discipline committee and his mentor came to his defense,

Once time, when I was in second or third grade, a child sued me because I kicked his ball. And then the judges…punished me by prohibiting me from playing outdoors for three weeks. This was supper exaggerated. So, I went to my mentor, and she told them, hey it’s not fair. I ended up writing an apology.

6. Dialog: the technology of mentoring

The key vehicle for the mentors to accomplish their mission in establishing close relationship with their mentees was dialog. In the previous sections, dialog was mentioned as a key ingredient of mentoring. This section will examine more closely how mentors attempted to create a conducive dialog with mentees.

Mentors felt that creating close relationships with mentees was facilitated by:

(1) Breaking the ice – engaging in conversations of common interest and in fun activities. One mentor describes his approach,

My strategy to begin with is, I try to be the least threatening and pressuring. My priority is to create an inviting environment. It’s not easy for 7th graders, especially those arriving from schools with a different environment than the school. These students tend to keep a distance from adults. When they see an adult, they cross to the other side of the road. So, at first, I talk to them about unrelated things that put them at ease.

(2) Catering to diverse needs and developmental levels – adjusting mentoring to the mentees’ needs and developmental levels. One typical approach mentors adapted, was engaging in play activities first to create a connection as one mentor described, “Some children open up from the start and tell me they need conversations and that enables me to engage them talking about school. Some children need playing games to create intimacy – more playing and less talking. Talking will come later.” Young children presented a challenge in creating a connection, so mentors tended to use more activities to create connection as one described,

With young children you need to do things with them. In order to create a connection with them you need to be part of their world. So, you cook with them, you do art projects, and sometimes observe them playing with their friends. Young children cannot go to the park alone, so you walk with a group of them. I then sit and watch them interact with their peers.

On the other hand, teenagers posed a different challenge as one mentor pointed out,

“Older students need more time (to talk). Teenagers are struggling with the meaning of life, love, relationship, gender (identity), parents. Things are more complex and require more time.”

(3) “Soul-to-soul” dialoguing – engaging in confidential conversations about issues that are personal and meaningful. Mentors tended to create close relationships with many of their mentees. One described such relationship, “There are children that I feel they are my brothers, my friends, or my children – I love them, and I can go visit their homes in the evening, and we’ll be in touch for should after high school.”

An important aspect that mentors focus on their dialogs was goal setting – enabling children to set goals for themselves and reflect on how they achieve these goals. One mentor coordinator described how he taught new mentors to facilitate children’s reflection,

(I teach new mentors to) interview children and ask them about goals they want to set for themselves, the most important things they want to achieve this year – things they had difficulty in. And what were their challenges and help them provide self-feedback and become reflective… (such as) I did not learn math, but I learned other things as valuable like how to be a good friend, how to help a fellow student who has difficulties in class…While I could not score goals in soccer in the past now my peers respect my soccer skills, and so on.

(4) Feedback through mirroring –providing feedback to mentees helped them gain multiple perspective and make better decisions. One mentoring coordinator explained the importance of mirroring for mentees,

(Mentors need to) be able to conduct a dialog with children, to be able to mirror for the children – where are you today. How are you doing. Where are you going from here. The issue of choice. What do you choose and how much do you run away from making choices.

(5) Containment – listening and taking in mentees’ statements even when they are getting out of hand. Containment often happens when students are frustrated and angry. Mentors’ role was to allow students to express themselves and keep them safe as one mentor elaborated,

If he (mentee) has a very big nervous breakdown and he becomes crazy and hits the wall and everything, I am here by his side. I accept the situation. He curses me because he is so nervous. I accept it, I take it all in. (I know) that the issue is not me but him. So, I contain it. I do not immediately react.

A former student of one of the democratic schools summarized the role of the dialog with his mentor in gaining new self-understanding this way “(while engaging in a dialogue with my mentor) I felt like I was on a glider looking from above at myself and at everything else.”

7. Characteristic of mentors

Analyzing how students described their mentors confirmed many of the ways mentors described their approaches as previously discussed. Students felt that the key to their mentors’ supportive role was that they: did not “wear masks” by being authentic and true to themselves; stayed objectives and did not try to sway them to any one direction; accepted students and refrained from judging them; provided intelligent suggestions that enabled them to make better decision; and helped them feel safe.

For example, one 10th grade student described his mentor,

Of course, you get a lot of support from your… mentors… they are not trying to impose (a certain decision) rather than give you the opportunity to choose. It has its pros and cons… But the pros are better than the cons. When I decided not to take math, my mentor explained to me the implications of that decision. She was helpful.

Students offered four types of metaphors of mentors that reinforce these characteristics: family members – parents or siblings, care takers and mental health providers, friends and confidants, and guides or leaders. Kindergartners, for example, suggested that the mentor was “a friend who takes you to unknown places.” A middle schooler said, “My mentor belongs to the second circle of good friends. He is, after all, an adult. He is a kind of guide, and a chaperon.”

8. Summary and implications

Hansen and James [20] in analyzing the democratic habits students need to cultivate suggest that,

Democratic habits include learning to speak up in the classroom and school (or using non-verbal media to communicate) so that students learn to regard themselves as participants in rather as mere spectators of their lives in school. These habits also encompass learning to cooperate and collaborate with others - activities, which, in turn, intensify the formation of habits of careful listening and deliberate, thoughtful speaking. Such habits position students to communicate responsibly about their experience within the school, the classroom, and the larger world. (p. 106).

The schools’ focus on enabling students to make choice, cooperate with peers and adults, and engage daily in expressing their needs and wants in a safe and nurturing environment supported by mentors who engaged them in dialog and self-expression, provided a rich ground for developing students to become active and contributing citizens.

Woods [21] argues that “Democracy…seeks to enable people to be co-creators of their social environment and, through this, make the most of their innate capacity to learn and to develop their highest capabilities and ethical sensibilities (p. 1).” The results strongly suggest that schools’ nurturing environment that prioritize teacher-youth mentoring and dialog are powerful tools in empowering students, creating a close community, and supporting democratic and progressive schooling processes. This study points to the connection between two seemingly unrelated aspects democratic schooling and mentoring. The interrelationship between these two aspects deserves further study to explore how democratic schooling practices and adult-student relationships support one another.

This study’s findings have implications beyond schools. Feu et al. [18] surveyed experts on democracy and identified 4 basic dimensions of democracy that need to be considered if true democracy is to be achieved – governance, inhabitance, otherness, and values and virtues.

A truly democratic society needs to have: (1) a collective decision process by the people; (2) governance that ensure quality of life and well-being of all people including human rights and a climate of coexistence; (3) emotional, legal, and social protection for all people, especially minorities and those who are marginalized; and (4) values of civic virtues such as respect, responsibility, tolerance, and conflict resolution. Such dimensions in society at large could not be achieved without people experiencing such aspects as they grow up. Schools are the ideal institutions that could provide such an environment. In this study, the five democratic schools provided a schoolwide mechanism for collective decision making by children and adults, a quality of life secured by individual mentoring and focus on choice, various mechanisms to protect children, and a school ideology that values children.

Furthermore, since this study was done in Israel, the findings have further significance. In the past 5 years, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute, an increasing majority of Israelis felt that the democratic system in Israel were in grave danger; and in 2022, 80% of Israelis felt they had little or no influence on government policies [22]. Furthermore, while Israel was classified as the only democracy “of any kind” in the middle east, is has moved 6 spots lower in the global democracy ranking especially due to decline in civil liberties mainly because of the proposed government judicial reform proposals that spurt ongoing protest [23].

Finally, the issue of decision-making participation is a global issue as well. As the democratic schools in this study have done, all schools need to provide space for student participation and voice. According to the 2022 Democracy Index, 55% of the world’s countries do not live in a democracy at all and only 8% live in full functioning democracy. Furthermore, the world’s democracy index remains the second lowest since 2006 [24]. The Economist Intelligence Unit measures democracy based on 60 indicators grouped into five categories most of whom, are influenced by citizens’ belief in their decision-making participation (especially in the political culture and political participation categories); hence, if democracy is to be preserved and flourish it is incumbent on all schools to educate and practice shared decision-making.