STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND SCHOOL DEMOCRACY: A THEORETICAL REFLECTION

Abstract

Student participation is related to teaching and learning processes and to the construction of a democratic school culture, although it is frequently addressed in pedagogical discourse, tensions persist between the forms of participation promoted by educational institutions and the experiences developed daily in the classroom, this essay aims to analyze student participation from a critical perspective and its relationship with the construction of democratic school practices, for this purpose, a reflective academic essay is developed based on a critical review of specialized literature on student participation, critical pedagogy, and school democracy, as the main theoretical contribution, the distinction between regulated participation and transformative participation is proposed as analytical categories for understanding the interaction dynamics present in school practices, the analysis shows that participation is not limited to verbal intervention, but corresponds to a process related to the collective construction of knowledge, citizenship education, and the recognition of students as members capable of contributing to the educational community, finally, it is concluded that strengthening participatory practices favors the construction of democratic learning environments and contributes to the development of critical thinking, autonomy, and school coexistence.