A Democratic Defense of the German Gemeinschaftsschule

This article argues for the relevance and democratic potential of a form of progressive schooling that has developed in Germany over the past decade, the Gemeinschaftsschule (GMS), or community school. Using this type of school as a case study in democratic education, the author responds to relevant criticism and highlights the promise of this approach to satisfying democratic educational ideals that the United States and other national contexts have long fallen short of. Drawing on a developing distinction between integration and inclusion in German educational thinking, and ongoing conversations in philosophy of education broadly, the author argues for the relevance of the GMS to the international comparative education community. Grounded in the work of Amy Gutmann and John Dewey, the second half of the article defends the GMS as a compelling actualization of democratic education, in both its structure and pedagogical commitments.