Students’ views on fostering democratic values and skills through teaching-learning practices in Bangla language classroom

This paper argues for the necessity of critical citizenship among future generations, recognises the value of democratic practices in acquiring critical citizenship and subsequently investigates the students’ perception of fostering democratic values and skills within the prevalent teaching-learning practices in Bangla language classroom at the secondary education context in Bangladesh. In terms of acquiring democratic values and skills, shared decision-making , acceptance of diversity , meaning-making and participatory evaluation are identified as deemed essential for Bangladeshi students. Under the constructivist research paradigm, valuing the interpretive reality—meaning explanation needed to understand the reality—this paper collected data using Focus Group Discussion from the Grade X students. Analyzed data indicates that students hold a positive mindset to participate in classroom collaborative teaching-learning practices and there is always scope for fostering democratic values and skills using student-centered and interactive teaching-learning practices. One key implication of this study is that from the policy level, a clear articulation in the curriculum regarding the democratic practices is required, and for the better actualization of these democratic practices, a specific training provision for the teachers should be initiated.