Through our research so far, we have found that Olive Grove Academy prepares students to be democratic leaders using two pathways: democratic mindset and democratic action. Student interviews reveal that through a heavy emphasis on critical thinking, conversation-based learning environment, and independent choice, the school is helping students to adopt a democratic way of mentally approaching the world. Additionally, by encouraging students to engage in community service and other student leadership opportunities, the school is guiding students to global citizenship initiatives which help to steer students towards democratic action. Despite understanding everything the school is doing to situate their students to be democratic leaders in the future, I still can’t help but wonder are these democratic habits actually enough to make someone a democratic leader in this political environment? And what would this leadership look like?
An important component of this question is understanding the intangibles of life at Olive Grove Academy. In particular, social class and furthermore social divides are an ingrained part of the social structure at the school. As an elite school, students at Olive Grove Academy primarily come from affluent backgrounds and elite families, with only a small portion coming from working class backgrounds. While one student noted that the school takes efforts to reduce social divides, she highlighted that they are still present and mostly revolve around social class. She also added that the reason for this, as she observes it, is simply because these students knew each other before school.
From the perspective of a student in the school, there might not be any obvious association between the class divide and students knowing each other from outside of school. However, Weis and Dolby present the point that class is reflective of lifestyle practices and shared cultural experiences, going deeper than just material realities (Weis & Dolby, 2012, pp. 1–2). Students from similar class backgrounds likely knew each other prior to school because they experienced similar lifestyles. As a result, at Olive Grove Academy, where there are now various clusters of students who are accustomed to different lifestyles, class divides emerge. Under the veil that the social divides are simply due to students knowing each other before Olive Grove Academy, the reality is that the social hierarchy emerges due to a lack of blending of the class characteristics that each cluster has been raised with.
These class differences might be less apparent between students from upper and middle class backgrounds, however, they are likely much more noticeable for the students who receive full scholarships. While the student interviewed mentioned that the school does a lot to minimize the class divides, Kenway and Howard highlight that elite universities often take advantage of diversity for marketing and ranking purposes while using the front of meritocracy in order to preserve the social hierarchy (Kenway & Howard, 2022, p. 84). I think that this insight is notable in highlighting the ongoing tension between the school trying to teach students to believe in equality when the structure of the school still reflects a very unequal environment.
Furthermore, I would argue that this contradiction parallels the Jordanian political system. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the nation is ruled by a king who holds most of the power along with the royal court. The “constitutional” part of that label means that the government has a parliament and elections for some roles, but in reality, citizens have few genuine opportunities to influence governance and political dissent is not tolerated warmly. In this sense, Olive Grove Academy can be viewed as a reflection of the larger national system. The school preaches and adheres to democratic values, yet in reality, functions within and thrives on the preexisting elite structures.
While students are encouraged to think critically and take democratic action, in all reality, they don’t always actually do it. In a similar way, Jordanian citizens may be taught to participate, however, these efforts are likely illusory due to the lack of mechanisms provided by the government to actually do so in a meaningful way. This creates a system that, in many ways, values the image of transparency and democracy, but often stops short of the real structural change those values would demand.
What struck me the most about this is how the fundamental contradiction between democratic ideals and elite structures can coexist in such a seemingly seamless way. My inclination was that in preparing students for democratic leadership, there would be an inherent push for social change towards a democracy, however, I have come to see that it is much more complicated than that. Olive Grove students are clearly thoughtful, engaged, and committed to making a difference, but they’re also navigating systems that reward conformity and privilege. Whether democratic education in this context is truly transformative or simply another tool for maintaining elite status is still unclear to me, however, I do not believe that this question can truly be addressed without long term research on the alumni of the school.
Sources
Kenway, J., & Howard, A. (2022). Elite universities: Their monstrous promises and promising monsters. Routledge
Weis, L., & Dolby, N. (2012). Social class and education in globalizing contexts. Routledge.
