Participatory school leadership as a form of responsible citizenship education

Decreasing participation, especially of younger generations as active citizens in community, elections and civic life is a worldwide phenomenon. Participatory practices in schools, engaging parents, children, teachers and others are effective for school stakeholders to experience active citizenship in a safe environment, and as well as the consequences of opting out of decision-making. Both parental engagement and child participation also have a direct positive effect on learning outcomes of the children, but also support the lifelong learning of parents and teachers. In the framework of some successful European transnational projects the necessary training, mentoring and coaching frameworks for teachers, parents, children and other stakeholders, as well as methods for school innovation for participatory leadership were developed and piloted, and in some cases upscaled. They have been accompanied by research-based policy advocacy. These would be presented here.