One of the first major events hosted by SchoolScape, centre for educators was the 12th International Democratic Education Conference – IDEC – for ten days in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, India in December 2004.
In November 2018, SchoolScape was again the host for the 25th IDEC. This time an offshoot, the 3rd APDEC – Asia-Pacific Democratic Education Conference and a new initiative, the 1st InDEC – India Democratic Education Conference – were also held in tandem at Bangalore, India.
History
Since 1993, when the first IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) was planned by representatives from just four schools/organisations from different countries, the number of democratic schools all round the world has grown rapidly.
IDECs have been held every year on a different continent, and each conference is attended by hundreds of people from thirty or more different countries.
There are also annual conferences held by EUDEC (the European Democratic Education Conference), ADEC (the Australasian Democratic Education Community), APDEC (Asia-Pacific Democratic Education Conference) & InDEC (India Democratic Education Conference) in their own regions.
During one of the conferences, in New Zealand in 2002, some wanted to arrive at a definition of Democratic Education. It was discussed and, in the end, it was resolved that by arriving at a definition, one keeps many out of the defined circle; whereas the very idea of democratic education was to include as many as possible in the movement.
DE is a continuum and one needs to locate oneself or the organisation on it and move on to the next stage or layer. It is a process of reflection and action, a cycle that creates its own praxis; with each school or individual continuing to be unique…
