Analysis of types and levels of school participation in the context of democratic education principles

The aim of this research is to determine and examine the views and experiences of teachers and parents working in state secondary schools in Zonguldak province Devrek district in the decision-making and implementation processes, the types and levels of participation, their approaches and reasons, and their views and expectations regarding the participation of other school components. The data obtained were analyzed with the phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research designs in the context of participation theories and democratic education principles. Semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researcher for teachers and parents were used. The data obtained from 14 teachers and 17 parents by in-depth interview technique were analyzed by content analysis using the MAXQDA 2022 analysis program. The factors that most affect the democratic participation of the teachers in the school are the attitudes of the school management and school principals, they agree and want to participate in the decisions related to the issues that concern them and fall within their field of expertise, they avoid expressing their opinions because their willingness to participate turns out to be a workload for them, professional seniority, relations between school components It has been concluded that their communication and communication are effective in their participation in the school. It is stated that the attitudes of the school administration and teachers have an important role in the democratic participation of the parents in the school, their participation is limited to attending school meetings or school-parent association activities, the subjects they participate in are the issues related to the problems of the students and their academic success, the most important and most expectation of the school from the parents is financial participation. conclusions have been reached. According to the results of the study, suggestions were presented for the development of decision-making and implementation processes in schools in line with the principles of democratic education. These suggestions include organizing participation and working environments to be created with an equal, fair and democratic approach in schools, planning institutional meetings to support participation, giving priority to practices by education and school administrators to develop the awareness of rights, duties and responsibilities that determine the framework of teachers and parents' democratic participation in school, their will to participate does not create additional workload for them and the responsibility of democratic participation is not confused with the work performance specific to neoliberal participation. Keywords: Democratic education, democratic participation in school, teacher participation, parent participation, participation types and levels