Considering Education and Social Class: A Case Study of the Toronto District School Board and the Availability of Democratically Enriching Electives

Abstract

This Master's Thesis explores the relationship between course availability in the Toronto District School Board and democratic education relative to socio-economic status of the student. This project combines Instrumentalist and Cultural privilege theories to better understand how course selection can impact citizen construction. In addition, prior scholarly work on democratic citizenship was utilized to determine indicators of "Fundamental Democratic Values" within curriculum documents. Utilizing ATLAS.TI to evaluate courses for these "Fundamental Democratic Values", this project was able to examine the course offerings of 5 cases, and consider the potential correlation between income based wealth and higher access to courses which promote the values necessary for effective democratic engagement. Due to this correlation, it is reasonable to suspect the potential for differences in access based on class to be impacting democratic engagement. The results of this first line of analysis into these topics indicate that access to courses which promote "Fundamental Democratic Values" could be connected to socio-economic status, emphasizing the necessity of further research into this topic.