Democratic Learning in Teacher Education: a review of experience at one institution

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Abstract
The authoritarian approach adopted in most initial teacher training courses rejects the possibility of obtaining a mandate from the learners. The methods course described adopts a consultative approach at the outset so that some shared responsibility and some mandate is established. The students may opt for authoritarian or autonomous or democratic approaches to their learning. The experience of implementing the democratic approach in the case of five of the courses is described and evaluated. Both students and tutors had to adjust to a different theory of learning since both had previously been used to authoritarian styles. Students were able to bridge back into the authoritarian styles of schools with the positive effect that they were well able to cope with schools as they are but also having had experiences and visions of possible alternatives and modifications to the status quo should the situation require them. They were prepared both for survival and for alternative futures.

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