Is Students’ Autonomy Possible at Contemporary School?

Abstract

The article shows that the modern educational discourse is shifting from discussing the conditions for achieving academic results to analyzing the conditions for the implementation of learning and, more broadly, the life of children and adolescents at school. The question is raised about the importance of analyzing and taking into account the socio-pedagogical conditions for the formation of independence in schoolchildren. Independence is considered as the most important non-objective result of education, non-specific for a traditional school. The condition for the development of independence is the possibility of a trial, a trial action. The school as a social institution is considered within the framework of E. Hoffman’s theory of total institutions. It is argued that the disciplinary practices of the school make horizontal communication “teacher-student/group of children” impossible. The article reveals the insufficiency of reducing educational practices to school practices alone and outline, the processes of enriching the educational space through expanding the access to informal and non-formal education.