2 – Work file 17: Focus on democratic school governance

For assessing the status quo of a school with regard to EDC/HRE practice and its relation between theory and practice or between policy and lived democracy we suggest the following matrix (Council of Europe, Democratic Governance of Schools, 2007).

Every school encompasses three main principles in connection with EDC/HRE. These are:

• rights and responsibilities;
• active participation;
• valuing diversity.

In every school there are also key areas where these principles are shown. These are:

• governance, leadership and public accountability;
• value-centred education;
• co-operation, communication and involvement: competitiveness;
• student discipline.

As the following matrix shows, in all key areas different levels of expression of the key principles can be looked at.

	Rights and responsibilities	Active participation	Valuing diversity
Governance, leadership, management and public accountability
Value-centered education
Co-operation, communication and involvement
Student discipline

For detailed understanding and use of this matrix the tool “Democratic school governance” will give further information (www.coe.int/edc).