ABSTRACT
I have argued in this book that language and literacy classrooms are potential sites for building democratic culture. Although literacy learning is part of much broader chains of sustainability and development in South Africa, especially in the case of the rural poor (Nelson Mandela Foundation 2005), it is important to focus on the conditions in classrooms which constrain, guide or enable open discussion of different values, perspectives and forms of reasoning. Varenne and McDermott (1998) in their study of successful school failure in American schools, suggest that democracy in classrooms can be thought of in terms of the conditions against which participants struggle that can inhibit or open up possibilities for ‘personal action’. Such possibilities for personal action are linked to the extent to which people, together, open up and extend the boundaries of freedom for each other.
