School work, then, like any other human activity, consists of three basic components:

• The Forming of Concepts.
• The Taking of Actions.
• The Evaluation of Outcomes.

This linear process applies whatever the activity, whoever the agent, wherever the circumstances. Now clearly, we can decide the extent to which children are included or excluded from any stage or part of this process. They can shape their own ideas about both the form and the content of their work and these can be used as guidelines for activities in the classroom - or they can be ignored. Obviously, everyone's ideas are realised from the start of a project and not all actions are accomplished smoothly or as planned. Similarly, co-operation and conversation with others is necessary for the execution of a whole activity and not all evaluations, therefore, can wait until the end of a string of actions. But if we are to democratise school work and if we are to help children to utilise their ideas and experiences through school work, then we need to ensure that they participate in each and every stage of the work process - conception, action and evaluation. The key question, however, is what pedagogical principles might apply so as to achieve such participation.

Education which seeks to give children democratic rights and coinfluence must ensure that it is possible for them to gain direct experience. Workshop education is to be arranged in such a way that pupils slowly but surely learn to manage the whole classroom work process. As we have explained above, an important part of this learning curve is the encouragement of experimentation and the requirement that pupils experience some of the consequences of working in the way they have proposed or influenced. As a way of handling the practical problems and possibilities which arise in workshop education, we have found it invaluable to apply the very same paired concepts we use in the organisation of action research method, and which we first introduced in chapter two of this book. There are six concepts and we normally see them as pairs, each pair having an individualistic (person) and a collectivistic (group) reference:

The main Education Act in Denmark lays down that all pupils have the right to express their ideas on issues to do with school work. But freedom of expression and the power of acting through public opinion belong together. There is little to be gained from expressing oneself if others do not listen and reply. If one's 'audience' does not adopt an attitude and put forward alternative views and opinions it is questionable whether or not one has influence.

Participation in the work process requires that any individual involved has the resources with which he/she can act in each one of the phases of the process. But there is little point in taking actions unless they are of consequence; self-administration, then, is to do with taking responsibility for the consequences of one's own actions. The group reference here applies to the taking of a common or shared responsibility for the fulfilment of agreements which have been entered into with other people. On both their own account and in association with others, individuals must learn to administer as large a part of their lives as possible - and to do this in solidarity. Resourcefulness as paired with self-administration shows itself particularly when ideas and decisions need to be put into practice. This requires both skill and knowledge. Such democratic ability is something over and above mere 'meeting techniques'.

Social fellowships are built upon interests, inclinations and agreements. But schools are not voluntary fellowships and are built upon power-structures. The experience in the classroom of some kind of restriction on the amount of influence one has as an individual will frequently result in one or two of the participants dominating a mutually significant relationship. The widest and most fruitful of fellowships are developed when those involved in the relationship have a free hand in developing themselves as individuals and as members of the group. It is essential that an individual can visualise the various and varied possibilities for further development of both self and group which could be achieved through a fellowship.

The characteristic aspect of this type of experience is that one produces something which one has conceived of before starting to work upon it. We can talk about workshop education being democratically organised when all participants take an active part in the conception phases as well as the production and evaluation phases of the work being accomplished.

In this field one does not always have a clear idea as to the actual results which might be achieved from one's activities, but some methods of approach and some provisional belief about what is likely to emerge is a prerequisite.

Here it is the sensuous aspect which is central in the perception and formation of learning experiences. When working with self-expression, it often proves to be the case in schools that conception production and evaluation phases run in series. But when judged as sufficient by those involved, conception and production fuse.

Although socio-linguistic activities arise as part of the actualisation of all of the other three fields of learning experience, it is still worth keeping it as a category of experience in its own right. Thus, activities in this field can be either the means of realisation in another field or subjects in themselves. A considerable part of cultural mediation is linguistic; in planning, in conversation, in song, in working with texts, images and pictures.