The International Democratic Education Conference is a coming together of individuals and organisations of educators, parents and young people interested in finding and creating paths of learning in line with children’s own natural ways of living and learning.

It is not an organisation; but more of a community keeping in touch through a few common e-lists. Every year, the Conference is held in a different country and rotated round the continents, to make it easier for those in that region to attend.

IDEC was called HADERA CONFERENCE FOR DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS for the first 4 years. Just in the second time in the UK – during the fifth conference – it was called IDEC. The format of the conference was not made at a certain point. It evolved from the beginning, each host adding or changing.

The conference gives an experience to the participants as to what a democratic culture could be. Nobody is pushed into seminars or activities; it is for each participant to choose how to participate in the conference. It is a supportive, nourishing, challenging environment for those searching for meaningful ways to live and support young people.

It is held together by the host organisation for that year and passed on to the next year’s host school or organisation. Usually, the keynote speakers are scheduled in one time slot of the day; then there are workshops that participants may announce before or even during the conference. The format of the conference was designed by students at the second I D E Conference, in the U.K (the first one in 1993 being held in Israel, where it was named the democratic conference) to be for about ten days; with structured and unstructured time spread out through the day.

Visits to schools and programmes in the country; tours to other parts of the country are done before, during or after the conference. In 2018, the IDEC is being clubbed with the newly formed Asia Pacific Democratic Conference, which will be in its third year. So, IDEC@APDEC 2018 is announced by InDEC, with its first gathering to be held in November 2018, in Bangalore, to work towards the conference and its own goals for India.

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These are the people behind the organising of the InDEC 2018.

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Amukta Mahapatra

Director, SchoolScape, centre for educators, Independent Consultant, Promotes learning for life and life for learning

Amukta is the convenor of InDEC 2018.

She has worked with small schools, NGO-led education programmes, large-scale government interventions in the domains of professional development of all cadres of educators and administrators, baseline studies, assessment of children and evaluation; in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and across the country. She is interested in crafts, indigenous knowledge and practices, wildlife & nature. She currently lives in Bangalore.

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Nivedita Ram

Consultant, English language enrichment, Sishugriha Montessori and High School, Bangalore

Nivedita is a part of the editorial team for IDEC 2018. She spoke about the history of democratic culture in India at InDEC 2017 held in Bangalore.

Nivedita is a consultant for English language enrichment at Sishugriha Montessori and High School, Bangalore. She creates curriculum for the primary school as part of reading and book discussion activities in the Reading Room. She also teaches English online and is looking for new ways to facilitate language learning outside the school environment.
She has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and has worked with the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai on mangrove conservation. She is interested in the sustainable, zero waste lifestyle.

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vandana saxena

Researcher, Associate Professor

vandana is part of the editorial team and helps with advocacy.

In her academic persuasion to cultivate democratic educational environment in schools, vandana is engaged in rigorous research and has developed research based thought provoking pedagogical designs addressing issues of Diversity and Democracy in a regular school system. She has been diligently promoting the case of equal opportunities for all. Even while spelling her name, she believes that all the alphabets are equally significant and the thought is more important than the person, so a conscious use of lowercasing for the name. vandana has been working with Central Institute of Education (CIE), Department of Education, University of Delhi, India for the last twenty years. She has taught in a school for four years before joining the university. She has worked with many national and international organizations like World Bank, MHRD India, NCERT, NCTE, SCERT, Roehampton University, London , USIEF, UGC.

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Aditi Aparajeeta

Senior Mentor, Language and Learning Foundation, New Delhi

Trained in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Aditi’s special focus has been on Language Learning and Literacy development in the early grades. Her work areas include School Readiness, Early childhood care and Education, Critical Pedagogy, Classroom processes, Learning Environments, Student Learning, Teacher Education and Professional Development, Community and Stakeholder Engagement, Quality Education Outcomes and Education delivery, Assessments, Child Rights and Child- friendly schools. She is currently implementing a Distance learning programme for Teachers and Teacher Educators to design and put into practice early grade reading programmes.

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Josephdeyone Jacobi

Educator

Deyone helps with the logistics and venue management.

He is an educator focusing on mathematics teaching and learning. He co- founded and works full time with Gubbachi Learning Community, an NGO that works with school drop outs from migrant communities in Bangalore. He enjoys working with children from primary classes to high school and create knowledge with them.

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Ankita Rajasekharan

Teacher, Shriram Montessori

Ankita helps with Logistics & Documentation.

An enthusiast of birds, rainbows & the hills, Ankita is currently working with children (6 to 13 year olds) in the area of art & language.

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Tanay Khandelwal

Entrepreneur, Education Technologist

Tanay helps manage the website & social media presence for InDEC.

He is an EdTech entrepreneur, currently developing an online platform to improve motivation levels and learning outcomes using phenomenon based learning. Previously, he developed a learning platform to encourage reading and study without class boundaries. He has worked with schools to encourage self-directed learning and adoption of technology to enhance classroom teaching.

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Prem Kumar Aparanji

Technologist, Child Learning & Development Promoter, Wildlife Conservationist

Prem helps manage the website & social media presence for InDEC.

He is based out of Hosur, Tamil Nadu, and helps his wife runs Vismaya Montessori House of Children and Indian Montessori Training Courses – Hosur in addition to being a managing committee member of Kenneth Andersen Nature Society, an NGO concerned with wildlife conservation in Melagiris and earning his bread and butter in the Indian IT industry.

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You can mail us your queries at info@indec.net.in or our organisers at SchoolScape2@gmail.com

You can also call us at +91.9901228442 if you prefer to speak with the organizers.