School Councils Across Europe: Democratic Forums or Exclusive Clubs?

School Councils across Europe explores how uneven access to the democratic learning opportunity of being a representative on a school council may be both reflecting and perpetuating political inequalities found in societies across Europe. Kempner and Janmaat present a new analysis of data from a major international survey on citizenship education to reveal the country, school and personal characteristics that determine access to school councils. The results reveal worrying inequalities based on the socio-demographic characteristics of pupils. The findings in this book will therefore be of interest to those concerned with the link between education and social justice.

Youth political engagement is high on the agenda of governments across Europe in the face of a perceived decline in political participation amongst young people. This book engages with this issue by exploring the role of education systems in building a fair and democratic society. School councils offer a democratic decision-making forum for students at school and they may increase the future participation levels of these young people. Yet this potential comes with the risk of widening political inequalities if access is distributed unevenly.