‘Participation’ at The Deck House School

If the living, experiencing being is an intimate participant in the activities of the world to which it belongs, then knowledge is a mode of participation, valuable in the degree in which it is effective. It cannot be the idle view of an unconcerned spectator.  [John Dewey, Democracy and Education, 1916]

‘Participation’ is the theme of our Academic, Life, Co-curricular, and Community Service Programs at The Deck House School. ‘Participation’ is categorized by apprenticeship, guided participation and participatory appropriation, defined as follows (Rogoff, 2002):

APPRENTICESHIP: Engaging in community activities with experienced mentors and elders may encourage students to develop a mature participation style. A student pursuing an apprenticeship with a local boat builder within our Co-curricular Program is an example of this type of participation.

GUIDED PARTICIPATION: Experiences working side-by-side characterize this manner of participation, students and mentors making an effort to accomplish something together. One example is students and faculty planning and preparing evening meals in our Life Program.

PARTICIPATORY APPROPRIATION: This participation category is at the individual level, where learning is a process of becoming. The process is the product (Rogoff, 2002).  ‘Becoming’ refers to each student growing and changing as a result of his participation in connecting academic studies to experiential activities outside the classroom.

Students’ participation in each one of our four programs, Academic, Life, Co-curricular, and Community Service, reinforces and enriches their participation in the others.

Dr. Melinda Evelyn Browne, Head of School

References

Rogoff, B. (2002). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural Studies of Mind (pp. 139-164). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.