









































Abstract
Inspired by the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child, educational policy makers in Africa are requesting 

schools to implement democratic practices in the classroom. This study attempts to shed light on the effects 
of classroom democratic practices on cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes using cross-sectional 
data about student performance and indicators of classroom democracy from Francophone African countries. 
To simultaneously account for the cause and effect of democratic practices on learning achievements and 
the nested nature of the data, use is made of the error components-two stage least squares estimator. The 
results confirm the endogenous nature of learning outcomes and indicate that teachers and parents are 
the most important stakeholders in the process of having children internalize democracy in the classroom. 
It is recommended that teachers develop skills to assign and supervise pupils’ work in small groups in the 
classroom. Education stakeholders should take measures to preserve and promote indigenous cultural values 
because they facilitate learning achievements.

Keywords: Classroom democracy, Educational outcomes   

Njong, A. M.  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2 
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31205

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Njong, A. M.,. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits 
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you give appropriate 
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes in 
Primary Schools in Francophone Africa

Aloysius Mom Njong

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Francophone Africans are familiar with classrooms 

where the teacher is the principal actor with all atten-
tion focused on them. Francophone Africa includes 
countries where French is the official language even if 
not all residents speak French, a result of the influence 
of historical French colonization. Like in many other 
countries, teachers transmit textbook knowledge to 
pupils who are encouraged to memorise the course 
material, perhaps only to reproduce it on demand, 
usually to pass an examination. In such traditional and 
authoritarian schools, textbooks and teachers are the 
main sources of knowledge, and children are hardly en-
couraged to participate. There is a growing awareness 
that such teacher-centred and text-book centred in-
structional approaches produce future passive citizens 
who fall short of critical thinking, decision-making and 
socialisation skills (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; 
Nagaraju, Madhavaiah, & Peter, 2013). Given this aware-
ness and inspired by the UN Charter on the Rights of 
the Child, educational policy makers in Africa

are requesting the enhancement of democracy in the 
classroom which is more likely to promote children’s 
social, moral and academic development (UN General 
Assembly, 1989). Despite this policy directive, very lit-
tle attention has been paid to the practice of democratic 
principles in the classroom and the delivery of edu-
cation in a transformative manner. Perhaps research 
in this area has been hampered by the lack of readily 
available data, and difficulties in quantifying social 
education variables (Borghans, Duckworth, Heckman, 
& Ter Weel, 2008). The traditional education produc-
tion function has centred on conventional schooling 
input-output variables perhaps because these are more 
easily measurable. Non-conventional inputs such as 
democratic practices have been neglected. 

As part of classroom democratic practices, I agree 
with Serpell & Marfo (2014),  Bodrova & Leong (2007), 
and Mucherah & Mbogori (2019) who argue that learn-
ing outcomes are influenced by the cultural values and 
norms of the local setting where children go to school. 
African countries have cultural values which are specif-
ic and diverse and often different from those in devel-
oped countries. Yet few attempts are made to explicitly



 47 Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

factor in African cultural values in the education pro-
duction processes. Thus, in this study an attempt 
is made to consider some aspect of African cultural 
identity as a special dimension of classroom democra-
cy in the modelling, and to show how it contributes to 
the motivation of children’s educational achievements 
in Francophone Africa. In addition to issues of data 
availability, the focus of the study on Francophone 
African countries is to capture the hangovers of French 
colonialism on the school curriculum of these coun-
tries. There may be some aspects of French colonialism 
and post-colonialism that interact with other factors to 
shape schooling realities in postcolonial Francophone 
African countries.  

As concerns learning outcomes, focus in the liter-
ature has been on literacy and numeracy test scores 
(Glewwe & Jacoby, 1994; Glewwe, 2002; Glewwe & 
Kremer, 2006; Wamalwa & Burns, 2018). Non-cogni-
tive outcomes have not been given the attention they 
deserve, perhaps because they are difficult to measure. 
The classroom should not only aim to produce individu-
als who can read and write, but must go beyond to pre-
pare active, sociable, culturally viable and well-behaved 
citizens of the country.

Another motivation for this study is at the meth-
odological level. From the foregoing, it is apparent that 
schooling produces several learning outcomes, such 
as formal cognitive skills and behavioural skills. These 
educational outcomes are jointly determined in the 
learning process and any single equation modelling 
may not capture the entire picture of interrelationships 
in the educational process. Therefore, I attempt to take 
into account the  simultaneity and interdependence be-
tween learning outcomes and inputs, leading to a more 
realistic formulation of the schooling production func-
tion. Another important methodological issue is related 
to the nested nature of the data. Ignoring clustering in 
analysing hierarchically structured data will underesti-
mate standard errors due to the decrease in the effec-
tive sample size for explanatory variables defined at the 
cluster level (Baltagi, 2011). 

It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to 
establish the causal relationships between democracy 
in the classroom and learning outcomes in primary 
schools in Francophone African countries. Specifically, 
the study attempts to:

i. analyse democratic practices in schools as an ap-
proach to classroom management in Francophone
African countries.

ii. determine the effects of classroom democracy on
learning outcomes in primary schools across Fran-
cophone African countries.

The study is organised as follows: Section 1 ex-
plains the context and motivation of the study. Section 
2 presents the conceptual framework wherein the 
concepts of classroom democracy and learning achieve-
ments are defined and operationalized. Section 3 dwells 
on the methodology which describes the data used, 
model specification and estimation strategies. Section 
4 is reserved for results and discussions. Section 5 con-
cludes the study with a summary of the key findings, 
together with educational policy implications.

Conceptual Framework
In this section, I define the concepts of classroom 

democracy and learning outputs in the context of this 
study so as to establish the causal relations between 
them. 
Classroom Democracy

A modern pedagogical approach to classroom 
democracy focuses on the promotion of self-learning 
(Fearnley-Sander, Moss, & Harbon, 2001). This means 
that pupils are actively engaged with their own learn-
ing. To be more explicit, I consider classroom democra-
cy as a set of classroom practices that put the children 
at the centre of the instructional process. This requires 
that each pupil is accepted as a unique personality and 
shown respect. It also requires that pupils’ opinions be 
considered in education decision-making. As members 
of the society make decisions in a democracy, so the 
pupils who are actual elements in the democratic class-
room should actively participate in decision making. 
For example, the curriculum to be taught and rules to 
be obeyed at school and in the classroom should be de-
termined together with pupils. Democracy comes along 
with freedom of thinking and expression. Consequently, 
pupils should be given the opportunity to express what 
they feel and think. 

The democratic classroom as a way of life is rein-
forced by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 
(UN General Assembly, 1989) which proposes rela-
tionship changes between adults and young children. 
Both parents and teachers are expected to be agents of 
change in the learning process of the child. In building 
a democratic classroom culture, the role of the teacher 
has to change from an authoritative personality to a fa-
cilitator. The teacher is no longer that person dictating 
a lesson as pupils copy and assimilate, but is expected

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



 48 Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

to help pupils to cultivate the habit of accessing infor-
mation by themselves and learning it (Maftoon & Shak-
ouri, 2012). The teacher is expected to guide the pupils 
in their learning process, and not force them to learn. 
The parent is expected to promote processes designed 
to enable and empower children to learn conveniently. 
Such processes would involve providing children with 
basic needs such as adequate nutrition, health, and 
protection against abuse and violence. 

Another dimension of classroom democracy is 
enshrined in the concept of discipline in schools. It 
is well recognized that if discipline is not taken into 
consideration, the classroom/school environment will 
be unsafe and may disrupt the learning process as well 
as the academic achievement of the children (Mothata 
& Squelch, 1997; Levin & Nalon, 1991). Teachers and 
school administrators have a major role to play through 
guidance and counseling of children in order to instill 
in them a sense of responsibility and curb incidences 
of disruptive behaviour in schools. Every school has 
a code of conduct which every child is supposed to 
respect. When the rules are broken, it is expected that 
disciplinary measures be applied according to the edu-
cational regulations in force. Therefore, it is important 
to factor in child discipline as a transformative educa-
tional input that will lead to a healthy classroom envi-
ronment in a democratic manner. 

Another dimension of classroom democracy may 
be borrowed from social cultural theory which holds 
that culture and social interactions are essential fac-
tors in children’s acquisition of knowledge (Okonji, 
1971;  Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Marfo & Biersteker, 
2011; Marfo, Pence, Levine, & Levine, 2011; Mucherah 
& Mbogori, 2019). The African child grows up in a local 
context where the mother tongue is spoken, traditional 
music is listened and danced to with formidable dexter-
ity, domestic chores are often distributed among family 
members, and telling of folk stories are common prac-
tices. Furthermore, the extended family system which 
includes, in addition to nuclear family; uncles, aunties, 
cousins and grandparents is order of the day (Degbey, 
2012). Democracy as a way of living and everyday 
experiences should not be indifferent to these local 
contextual factors in which African children are grow-
ing. Therefore, African socio-cultural values need to be 
extended to the classroom setting in order to properly 
motivate children in the learning process in the context.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are multidimensional and 

complex. However, to facilitate understanding I divide 
learning outputs into cognitive and non-cognitive com-
ponents. 

According to Anderson et al (2001) the cognitive 
domain involves the acquisition of knowledge and the 
development of intellectual skills from the educational 
process. This way of learning encourages pupils to use 
their brains more effectively, and enables them to think 
and remember easily. This does not mean that memo-
risation or repetition is encouraged, it simply ensures 
that the concepts learnt in class are understood. Out-
comes from the cognitive learning process usually in-
volve academic achievement tests in reading, language 
and mathematics.

The non-cognitive component is made up of self-es-
teem and sociability outcomes. According to Emler 
(2001), Olsen, Breckler, & Wiggens (2008) and Harter 
(2012), self-esteem is considered a child’s evaluation of 
self-worth and acceptance in the classroom. It is a judg-
ment of the self. Research results indicate that there is a 
correlation between self-esteem and children’s devel-
opment (Papadopoulos, Metsiou, & Agaliotis, 2011). For 
example, children with high self-esteem show greater 
motivation and take initiative. They are more prone 
to express sociable behavior and show more feelings 
of happiness (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 
2003). On the other hand, children who have low self-
worth tend to treat themselves badly and are more 
likely to invite bad treatment from their peers (Saigal, 
Lambert, Russ, & Hoult, 2002). The consequences of 
low self-worth amongst pupils would include unhap-
piness, symptoms of depression, and difficulties in 
forming and sustaining friendly relationships with 
their peers (Emler, 2001). The social outcome of the 
education process revolves around the social learning 
theory (Bandura, 1977). The theory posits that people 
can acquire new behaviours by observing and imitating 
the behavioural patterns of other people. The theory 
further posits that learning would also occur through 
practices of rewards and punishments. In this way, a 
behaviour that is often rewarded would persist, while 
the one that is constantly punished would most likely 
not be imitated. The classroom is a social setting, and 
pupils through their interactions with peers and teach-
ers would pick up new patterns of behaviour that are 
likely to uphold the spirit of team work, cooperation 
and love for one another.



 49 

only the items that pass the reliability or internal 
consistency test in analysis improves measurment of 
the latent constructs and facilitate the convergence of 
estimations (Wooldridge, 2009). Based on the retained 
items in each construct I built composite indicators 
using multiple correspondence analyses (Njong & Nin-
gaye, 2008). In this sub-section I analyse the measured 
latent variables/constructs of interest in this study. 
Indicators of classroom democracy

The main explanatory variable in this study is class-
room democracy. Drawing from the conceptualisation 
of classroom democracy in section 2, I build and anal-
yse four composite indicators of classroom democracy. 
The first is the indicator of group work. This composite 
indicator is captured based on primary items shown on 
Table S1 (see Appendix). Table S1 indicates that about 
38% of the teachers organised the children to work 
in small groups. About 67% of the teachers reported 
they lack the techniques to make pupils work as teams, 
while 56.3% of them complained that the classroom is 
inappropriate to organise children in smaller groups. 
The second construct of classroom democracy is an 
indicator of children’s rights. The primary items of 
children’s basic rights retained are displayed on Table 
S2. It shows that about 26.4% of the children attended 
nursery school, while 64% of them slept under mos-
quito nets. As concerns health challenges, 17.7% of the 
children reported having hearing difficulties, and 23% 
had sight problems. Children nutrition seems to be a 
serious problem because about 57.5% of the children 
reported always feeling hungry in class. The third con-
struct of classroom democracy is an indicator of child 
discipline. Child discipline was surveyed by getting 
responses to the statements captured on Table S3. It is 
observed on Table S3 that about 38% of the teachers 
punished or shouted at children in class. The method 
of punishment ranged from asking the pupils to copy 
exercises (32%), and /or do manual labour (49%). Note 
that about 5.5% of the teachers did administer corporal 
punishment although it is prohibited by law in these 
countries. The fourth construct of classroom democracy 
is an indicator of cultural identity. The statements that 
captured cultural identity, and based on which the cul-
tural identity indicator is built, are displayed on Table 
S4. Table S4 shows that 22.4% of the children did not 
speak their mother tongue at home, while 69% of them 
did so occasionally. Only about 18.5% of the teachers 
used the native language spoken by the children of that

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

Methodology
In order to understand the causal relationship 

between democratic classroom practices and learning 
achievement, secondary cross-sectional data collected 
by reviewing PASEC surveys were used. The PASEC 
survey methodology was a stratified samplying design 
where schools were first randomly selected, and grade 
6 kids were subsequently randomly interviewed from 
each school. Given the stratified nature of the data 
collection process, multilevel analytical framework is 
adopted to better unravel the inter-relationships, but 
before addressing this, a discussion of the data genera-
tion procedure is necessary.
Data

Since 1960 The Conference of Ministers of Educa-
tion of Francophone countries, better known in French 
acronym as CONFEMEN1, has been making enormous 
attempts to promote the delivery of educational ser-
vices and professional training (PASEC, 1998). To facil-
itate this, it pilots a survey called ‘Programme d’Analyse 
des Systèmes Éducatifs de la CONFEMEN’ (PASEC) to 
collect data that are used to assess the efficiency of 
the educational systems of its member countries. The 
data I use in this study come from the PASEC survey 
conducted across 10 Francophone African countries in 
2014 (PASEC 2017). As part of the PASEC survey design 
information was collected from pupils in grade 6 who 
are at the end of the primary school curriculum. The in-
formation collected from these pupils included reading 
and numeracy test scores and the pupils’ characteris-
tics. Information was also collected from the children’s 
parents, teachers and head teachers of the various 
schools relating to knowledge, welfare, pedagogic re-
sources and governance issues. The 2014 PASEC design 
surveyed 31213 pupils in grade 6 nested in 671 schools 
across 10 countries2. The unit of analysis is the pupil. 
Measurement of Constructs

Apart from the cognitive skills’ construct, the rest 
of the constructs in the survey data are captured using 
several items.  I subjected the items in each construct 
to an internal consistency test and retained for analysis 
only those items with positive inter-items correlations 
and/or that loaded high on the construct in question. 
The Cronbach’s alpha test was used for 3-4 points 
Likert scales items, while the Guttman’s split lambda 
coefficient was used for yes/no responses. Retaining
1CONFEMEN is Conférence des Ministres de l’Éducation des États et 

Gouvernements de la Francophonie.
2The ten countries are: Benin; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; 

Congo; Cote D’Ivoire; Niger; Senegal; Tchad; and Togo
3In the case of items with mixed scales, I used the          

Cronbach’s alpha test.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  50 

locality. Above 70% of the teachers did not allow chil-
dren talk or sing songs in their mother tongue in class. 
Table S4 also indicates that 77- 84% of the schools did 
not have textbooks in the language of the majority of 
the children. 
Dependent variables

The dependent variables are learning outcomes 
which are cognitive and non-cognitive and are consid-
ered endogenous, because they are determined with-
in the system4. The cognitive outcomes are standard 
scores in reading skills and mathematics skills. This is 
a simple scale of test scores that are continuous from 
grade 2 through grade 6. The standard scores reported 
for each of the grade levels ranges from 100 to 400. I 
compute the mean value of the test scores across the 
grades for reading and math.  These scores indicate that 
the higher the score, the higher the academic achieve-
ment of the child.

The non-cognitive outcomes are self-esteem and so-
ciability. The items used to measure non-cognitive skills 
include measures of friendliness, happiness, self-worth, 
cooperation with one another, and feeling of security. 
Each child was asked to respond to the descriptive 
statements measuring self-esteem and sociability cap-
tured on a 4-point Likert scale as follows: 1) strongly 
agree, 2) agree, 3) disagree, and 4) strongly disagree. 
The number of items in the survey that are related to 
self-esteem and sociability are ten and six respectively. 
Based on Cronbach’s alpha analysis, I selected seven 
and four items that loaded high on self-esteem and 
sociability respectively (see Tables S5 and S6). Table 
S5 shows children’s responses to self-esteem items. It 
shows that over 83% of the children reported perform-
ing well in class. Approximately 81% of the children 
reported hard work to account for their good achieve-
ment, while 74% of them attributed the good scores to 
the fact that class lessons are easy. Children reported 
having low scores for various reasons, for example 
about 47% of them don’t study enough, and 36% of 
them consider they are not intelligent enough, while 
25% said the teacher insults them. Table S6 shows 
children’s responses to sociability items, where over 
80% of them agreed having many friends in school. 
About 87% of the children were happy being in school 
because their peers like them. 

It is important to note that the learning outcome/
endogenous variables are measured in different units. 
The non-cognitive skills are measured using Likert 
scales in the survey dataset while the cognitive skills

are mean test scores. Thus, in order to facilitate in-
terpretation of changes on learning outcomes I trans-
formed them into a common unit of measurement using 
standard z-scores. 

Model Specification
To determine the effects of classroom democracy 

on learning outcomes an econometric model is spec-
ified.  Since the schooling inputs jointly produce the 
educational outcomes, a simultaneous equation mod-
elling approach is deemed appropriate for this study. 
Simultaneous-equation models specify relationships in 
a system of two or more equations where the depen-
dent variables display an interdependent relationship 
(Wooldridge, 2009; Greene, 2011; Baltagi, 2011). In a 
non-recursive model of this nature, the focus is on the 
relationship among the jointly determined dependent 
variables in the systems, which are considered endog-
enous. I argue that these endogenous variables are 
considered cause and effect in the schooling production 
process. There is simultaneity or reciprocal causation 
among the dependent variables. The modelling sug-
gests that certain outcomes could be affected directly 
by other outcomes of the educational process. What 
this means is that all the dependent variables are ex-
plicitly taken to be endogenous to the system (Baltagi, 
2011).  That is, the endogenous explanatory variables 
are dependent variables from other equations in the 
system. Given the above, I can specify the following 
non-recursive system of simultaneous equations:

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

4This is explained in greater detail in Methodology section.

MTSijc=α0+α1ICDijc+α2RTSijc+α3ISOijc+α4ISEijc γXijc+ε1,ijc        (1)
RTSijc=β0+β1ICDijc+β2MTSijc+β3ISOijc+β4ISEijc+θWijc+ε2,ijc (2)
ISOijc=δ0+δ1ICDijc+δ2MTSijc+δ3RTSijc+δ4ISEijc+ Gijc+ε3,ijc (3)
ISEijc=ω0+ω1ICDijc+ω2MTSijc+ω3RTSijc+ω4ISOijc+πZijc+ε4,ijc   (4)
where: 

MTS = Math test scores
RTS = Reading test scores
ISO = Indicator of Sociability
ISE = Indicator of Self-esteem
ICD = Indicators of classroom democracy 
X, W, G, Z = vector of control (exogenous) variables
α,β,γ,δ,θ,π, ,ω are structural parameters to be estimated
ε1,…,ε4 are disturbance or error terms
i, j, c represent the ith pupil, the jth school,  
and cth country respectively

The explanatory endogenous variables are correlated 
with the error terms in the system of equations. All oth-
er explanatory variables are considered exogenous to 
the system and uncorrelated with the error terms. The 
exogenous variables are considered as instruments for 
the endogenous variables.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  51 

Model Estimation
To estimate a system of simultaneous equations, 

instrumental variable methods for joint estimation are 
often proposed. To account for the nested structure of 
the data due to intra-school correlations that may arise 
because responses from children in the same school are 
likely to be similar while those from children in other 
schools are different, the solution in single equation 
model is to cluster the errors at the level of the school 
(Fielding, 2010; Wamalwa & Burns, 2018). To achieve 
this within a simultaneous equation framework, Baltagi 
& Chang (2000) and Hsiao (2003) proposed an error 
components-two stage least squares (ec2sls) estimator 
to account for the random error component of the sys-
tem of equations. The ec2sls estimator is implemented 
on an equation by equation estimation basis (Baltagi, 
2008)5 to avoid having inconsistent equation estimates 
for all the equations in the event where any of the equa-
tions is mis-specified.

Pair-wise Correlation Results
Table 1 shows the weighted6 pair-wise correlations 

between the classroom democratic indicators and 
learning outcomes as defined in this study. 

Table 1 shows some preliminary partial inter-re-
lationships among learning outcomes and classroom 
democratic indicators.  First observation on Table 1 is 
that there is a high positive correlation between the 
cognitive educational outputs. The correlation coef-
ficient between math skills and reading test scores is 
0.845 indicating that pupils who read well report high 
performance in mathematics as well. Second interesting 
observation is that correlation between non-cognitive 
outcomes is moderate and positive. For instance, the

correlation coefficient between self-esteem and socia-
bility is 0.59, indicating that that children who have 
high self-esteem are much likely to be sociable. Third 
observation of interest is that the correlation between 
the cognitive and the non-cognitive indicators are pos-
itive but much lower. For example, correlation coeffi-
cient between self-esteem and reading is 0.201, while it 
is 0.155 with math. The correlations among the indica-
tors of classroom democracy are very low.

Estimation Results
In this section the regression results of classroom 

democratic practices on learning outcomes are pre-
sented. For convenience, the results for cognitive skills 
are presented first. Table 2 (see next page) displays the 
estimation results for cognitive skills. 

The results on Table 2 show high positive and sig-
nificant correlations between both test scores at the 1% 
level. This result suggests that a child who does well in 
reading generally will also achieve well in math, and 
vice versa. The other two endogenous variables; self-es-
teem and sociability also show significant positive, but 
much lower correlations with math and reading skills. 

As concerns the indicators of classroom democracy, 
the correlations are positive and insignificant, except 
for child discipline. The results are interpreted in terms 
of standard deviations (SDs). The indicator of group 
work correlates positively with cognitive skills. This 
means that a one unit increase in the indicator of group 
work improves math and reading scores by .073 SDs 
and .065 SDs respectively, but the effects are insignif-
icant. The results indicate that when children’s rights 
increase by one unit, math and reading test scores rise 
insignificantly by .068 and .052 SDs respectively. The 
indicator of child discipline associates positively and 
significantly with cognitive skills (.052 SDs for math 
and .083 SDs for reading). The indicator of cultural 
identity indicates that when it increases by one unit, 
math scores improve by .061 SDs; while reading scores 
increase by .071 SDs. 

Of the control variables, the following are positive 
and significant at least at the 5% level: household size, 
teacher experience, teacher’s training, community in-
volvement in school management, classroom pedagogic 
resources, and school infrastructure. The models pre-
dict that higher test scores are associated with students 
who are male, though this finding is insignificant.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

5Baltagi's (2008) ec2sls can be obtained by specifying the ec2sls 
option, after xtivreg in Stata.

6The PASEC survey provides several types of sampling weights, 
notably child, teacher, or school weights depending on the level of 
analysis. Since unit of analysis in this study is the child, I use child 
sampling weights.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  52 

Teacher absenteeism has negative significant effects on 
academic achievements. 

The diagnostics statistics on Table 2 show that the vari-
ables specified in the models accounted for approximately 
27.4% of the total variance of the math scores, and 37.1% of 
reading test scores, respectively. The between variations

(R-sq=56.8% for math; 59.3% for reading) accounted 
more than the within variations (R-sq=22.1% for math; 
32.7% for reading) in explaining the overall variances 
of the models, respectively. The F-values are statis-
tically significant at the 1% level. This indicates that 
the regression models fit the data structure. In other 
words, the estimates of each model taken together are 
significant. Table 3 displays the estimation results for 
non-cognitive skills. 

The results on Table 3 show a moderately positive 
and significant association between self-esteem and 
sociability. Specifically, a unit increase in self-esteem 
improves sociability by .051 SDs. This suggests that a 
child’s feeling of self-esteem is affected by their inter-
est in other children and the reactions they receive in 
return. The other two endogenous variables; math and 
reading show much lower positive and significant cor-
relations with self-esteem and sociability skills. 

As regards the indicators of classroom democracy, 
the associations are positive and insignificant, except 
for child discipline. The indicator of group work is 
shown to associate positively and insignificantly with 
self-esteem (0.011 SDs) and sociability (.057 SDs). 
As concerns the indicator of children’s rights, Table 
3 shows that a one unit increase in children’s rights 
improves self-esteem and sociability insignificantly by 
.013 and .035 SDs respectively. The indicator of child 
discipline associates positively and significantly with 
non-cognitive skills (.022 SDs for self-esteem and .024 
SDs for sociability). Table 3 also indicates that when 
indicator of cultural identity increases by one unit, 
self-esteem improves by .026 SDs; while sociability 
ameliorates by .006 SDs, though these improvements 
are insignificant.

As concerns the other exogenous correlates, the 
following relate positively and significantly with the 
non-cognitive outcomes: household size, socio-eco-
nomic status, teacher experience-squared, community 
involvement in school management, and classroom 
pedagogic resources. The models predict school infra-
structure, teacher’s professional training, and experi-
ence associate positively though insignificantly with 
non-cognitive skill. As expected, teacher absenteeism 
has negative, though insignificant effect on non-cogni-
tive achievements. Precisely, a unit increase in teacher 
absenteeism causes self-esteem to change by -.004 SDs, 
while sociability changes by -.022 SDs.

The diagnostics tests on Table 3 show that the 
variables specified in the models accounted for approx-
imately 29.1% of the total variance for self-esteem, and

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  53

Discussion
The estimation results of this study show positive 

and significant inter-relationships between the learning 
outcomes of math, reading, self-esteem and sociability. 
In an attempt to explain these positive correlations, 
I draw from the theory of self-determination (Deci, 
Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). According to this 
theory intrinsically motivated individuals will engage in 
actions or behaviours because they enjoy doing them. 
In this case the individual has an internal motivation 
and feels fully engaged to undertake the action. This 
contrasts with externally motivated behaviours that 
individuals may initiate because they expect a reward 
or want to avoid a punishment. Thus, it is expected 
that pupils who are intrinsically motivated (have high 
self-esteem and sociability) exhibit higher conceptual 
understanding (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). 
Such children are more confident in their capacities 
and therefore have greater interest for learning. These 
results corroborate the study by Noftle & Robins (2007) 
who found positive association between the person-
ality dimensions of students and their math GPA and 
verbal test scores. Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham 
(2003) have also reported positive significant correla-
tion between personality traits and student academic 
performance.

The estimation results of this study portray positive 
correlations between all the indicators of classroom 
democracy and learning outcomes in the context of 
Francophone African countries. However, only the 
association between child discipline and the learning 
outcomes is significant, the correlations of the other 
indicators of classroom democracy with educational 
achievements are insignificant. The positive associa-
tion between indicator of group work and educational 
outcomes means that when pupils are given the oppor-
tunity to work in small groups, they are more likely to 
have higher test scores. The positive association be-
tween indicator of group work and learning outcomes 
corroborates findings from some earlier studies such as 
Feinberg & Toress (2001) and Lipton & Oakes (2003) 
who found that when pupils participate actively in class 
and work as teams, their educational achievements are 
much higher. Unfortunately, our positive correlation is 
insignificant. In the survey about 63.2% of the teachers 
reported not organising pupils to work in groups. Fur-
thermore, about 67.3% of the teachers lacked the tech-
niques to do so (see Table S1 in the Appendix). Children 
in the African family setting share responsibilities in 
carrying out household chores such as cooking, taking

29.9% of sociability, respectively. The between 
variations (R-sq=47.3% for self-esteem; 47.5% for 
sociability) accounted more than the within variations 
(R-sq=26.7% for self-esteem; 27.0% for sociability) in 
explaining the overall variances of the models, respec-
tively. The F-statistics indicate that the regression mod-
els fit the data structure. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  54

care of babies, fetching firewood and water, and run-
ning errands for the elderly. Thus at an early age Afri-
can children are exposed to a ‘team-spirit way’ of living 
which unfortunately is disrupted in the classroom when 
the teacher fails to organise them to work in groups. 
Children will learn better in a classroom atmosphere, 
where children work in smaller groups, feel safe to 
express their feelings and open discussions are encour-
aged. Therefore, there is need in African countries to 
move away from the traditional mode of teaching and 
learning where children listen and teachers speak and 
dictate notes. 

The estimation results indicate positive but insignif-
icant correlations between indicator of children’s rights 
and learning outcomes.  As a follow up of the 1989 UN 
Convention on children’s right, a special session was 
held on 22 May 2002 on children during which coun-
tries committed to invest in children and adopt policies 
in the best interest of the child. Francophone African 
countries have several developmental challenges such 
as low incomes, inadequate access to portable water 
and sanitation, food insecurity and hunger, and wide-
spread disease that threaten children’s livelihoods 
(Watkins, 2016). Given these challenges it is no surprise 
that 57.5% of the pupils in the survey reported feeling 
hungry in class, more than 77- 83% reported having 
one health impairment or another and 73.6% did not 
attain nursery school. A further 36% of the children 
have never slept under a mosquito net (see Table S2). 
These are basic rights of the child. The inability of the 
children’s families to respect these rights may account 
for the insignificant nature of the results. It would be a 
miracle to expect children to achieve significantly when 
such basic rights are not respected. In tandem with 
African culture children in poorer families may be re-
quired to carry out petty commercial activities, or join 
their parents in farming so as to help the family survive. 
In western culture this may be considered child labour 
or child abuse, but in the African context this is not only 
a livelihood survival strategy but is often considered a 
normal activity in line with the household chores distri-
bution plan of the family. Thus, I may further argue that 
differences of this nature in the conceptualisation of 
children’s rights may also account for the insignificance 
of the estimation result.

The indicator of child discipline associates positive-
ly and significantly with learning outcomes. This result 
is in line with expectations and agrees with Bodovski, 
Nahum-Shani, & Walsh (2013), which showed that 
higher math scores were registered among US students

in a disciplinary school environment. Further, Ning, 
Van-Damme, Yang, & Gielen, (2013) also obtain a posi-
tive and significant correlation between child discipline 
and reading achievements. Furthermore, Pasternak 
(2013) and Zhao & Kuo (2015) have reported posi-
tive and significant relationships between children’s 
self-discipline and non-cognitive achievements. Some 
unique features of the African traditional society may 
account for the significance of the child discipline 
indicator in this study. The extended family system is 
a powerful tool in parenting and helps to develop a 
sense of social responsibility, cooperation, and respect 
for elders in the child’s early years (Nsamenang, 2008). 
Another feature in the African traditional society aspect 
is the telling of folktales.  This is another form of par-
enting which inculcates good morals and discipline 
in children (Degbey, 2012). Given these indigenous 
cultural values, the African child at an early age is more 
likely to be disciplined and by extension more likely to 
respect classroom rules and regulations.

The indicator of cultural identity indicates a pos-
itive but insignificant association with learning out-
comes. This finding slightly differs from results of 
earlier studies, like Okonji (1971); Bodrova & Leong 
(2007); Marfo & Biersteker (2011) which find that 
cultural values have positive and significant effects on 
children’s academic performance. A close look at the 
items in the 2014 PASEC survey from which the indi-
cator of cultural identity is constructed may provide 
some explanation for the insignificance of estimation 
result. Only about 18.9% of the teachers expressed 
themselves in the native language of the pupils where 
the school is located; 70.7% of the teachers did not 
allow pupils to speak, and sing in class in their native 
language and worst still only 8.6% of the pupils speak 
exclusively the mother tongue at home (see Table S4). 
These attitudes are not of a nature to facilitate learning 
and ameliorate academic achievements in the African 
context. Mucherah & Mbogori (2019) argue that Afri-
can children will learn better if the native language and 
French/English are used simultaneously as languages 
of instructions in school. This will facilitate the use of 
local examples to introduce the alphabet and counting 
of objects. Unfortunately, Francophone African scholars 
are still caught in the empty pride of using examples 
from Paris, France, during lessons in class. African 
children may not quickly figure out such examples in 
their local context. Some parents are also still entangled 
in the web of colonisation, and feel more westernised if 
their children speak only French/English. African

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  55

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

educationists have to encourage a shift away from these 
colonial mental enslavement and practices.

Conclusion and Policy Implications
Conclusion

This study attempts to shed light on the effects of 
classroom democratic practices on cognitive (math and 
reading) and non-cognitive (self-esteem and sociabili-
ty) learning outcomes using cross-sectional data from 
Francophone African countries. To capture the in-
ter-relationships inherent in the education production 
process, a simultaneous equation modeling approach is 
proposed. In order to estimate the model parameters, 
an error component- two stage least squares-instru-
mental variable method is used to properly account for 
the multilevel nature of the data structure. The results 
confirm the endogenous nature of the learning out-
come variables; specifically, they indicate positive and 
significant correlations among the learning outcomes. 
As regards classroom democratic practices, the results 
indicate positive and insignificant associations with 
the dimensions of group work, children’s rights, and 
cultural identity. Only the indicator of child discipline 
has positive and significant effect on learning outcome 
skills in this study. The exogenous or control variables 
included in the model have significant expected signs, 
notably family size, socio-economic status, teacher 
experience, community involvement, and classroom 
pedagogic resources.

Policy Implications
From the findings of this study, it stands out that 

teachers and parents are some of the most important 
stakeholders in the process of having children inter-
nalize democracy in the classroom. In this regard, the 
following policy recommendations are made:
Teachers should initiate and encourage children to 
work in small groups in the classroom. Teachers should 
develop the habit to invite pupils to always see them-
selves as capable and valuable. This action will bring 
out the positive traits and potentials that the children 
have and help to build their self-esteem which is a 
strong internal motivation to educational achievement. 
Education stakeholders should take measures to pre-
serve and promote indigenous cultural values because 
they tend to facilitate learning achievements. Education 
policy makers should devote more resources to revise 
the curriculum of professional colleges in order to train 
teachers to: i) develop skills of assigning and supervi-
sion of pupils in team work; ii) be culturally responsive 
in their teaching practices and accommodate pupils 
who speak their native language, or display their cul-
tural identity in class. Therefore, the teacher would be 
acting like a classroom democratic model. Education-
ists should develop parenting programmes to sensitise 
parents to speak their native languages with children at 
home, and how to better prepare children for schooling 
as regards nutrition, health, and other nurturing issues. 
The findings also showed that there are variations in 
achievements within schools and between schools. The 
implication of this result is that educationists must 
design multiple teaching strategies. A blind spot in the 
education system is an attempt to treat all children the 
same. This certainly is for reasons of equity and fair-
ness, but in reality, children are all different given that 
they come from diverse backgrounds.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  56

References

Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruik-
shank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & 
Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, 
teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxon-
omy of Educational Objectives. New York: Pearson, 
Allyn and Bacon.

Baltagi, B. H. (2008). Econometric analysis of panel data. 
(4th Ed.). New York: Wiley.

Baltagi, B. H. (2011). Simultaneous equations model. 
(5th Ed.). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

Baltagi, B. H., & Chang, Y. J. (2000). Simultaneous equa-
tions with incomplete panels. Econometric Theory, 
16(2), 269-279.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning Theory. New York: 
General Learning Press.

Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Teaching for 
meaningful learning: A review of research on inqui-
ry-based and cooperative learning. Stanford, CA: 
Stanford University.

Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, 
K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better 
performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or 
healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Pub-
lic Interest, 4(1), 1-44.

Bodovski, K., Nahum-Shani, I. & Walsh, R. (2013). 
School disciplinary climate and students’ early 
mathematics learning: Another search for contex-
tual effects? American Journal of Education, 119(2), 
209-234. 

Bodrova, E., & Leong, D.J. (2007). Tools of the mind: The 
Vygotskian approach to early childhood education. 
(2nd Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice 
Hall.

Borghans, L., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J. J., & Ter 
Weel, B. (2008). The economics and psychology 
of personality traits. Journal of Human Resources, 
43(4), 972-1059.

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., &  Furnham, A. (2003). Per-
sonality predicts academic performance: Evidence 
from two longitudinal university samples. Journal of 
Research in Personality, 37(4), 319-338.

Deci, E. L., Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., & Ryan, R. M. 
(1991). Motivation and education: The self-deter-
mination perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26, 
325-346.

Degbey, J. L. (2012). Africa family structure. Retrieved 
from http://www.jicef.or.jp/wahec/ful217.htm

Emler, N. (2001). Self esteem: The costs and causes of low 
self worth. York Publishing Services.

Fearnley-Sander, M., Moss, J., & Harbon, L. (2001). The 
civic school: Australian-Indonesian professional 
collaboration to model and audit the development of 
democratic primary classrooms and teacher lan-
guage using the Index for Inclusion. Paper presented 
at the Australian Association Research in Education 
(AARE) Conference, Sydney.

Feinberg, W., & Torres, C. A. (2001). Democracy and 
education: John Dewey and Paulo Freire. Education 
and Society, 59-70.

Fielding, A. (2010). Module 8: Multilevel modelling in 
practice: Research questions, data preparation and 
analysis. LEMMA VLE, University of Bristol, Centre 
for Multilevel Modelling.

Glewwe, P. (2002). Schools and skills in developing 
countries: Education policies and socioeconomic 
outcomes. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 
436-482.

Glewwe, P. & Jacoby, H. (1994). Student achievement 
and schooling choice in low-income countries: 
Evidence from Ghana. Journal of Human Resources, 
843-864.

Glewwe, P., & Kremer, M. (2006). Schools, teachers, and 
education outcomes in developing countries. Hand-
book of the Economics of Education, 2, 945-1017.

Greene, W. H. (2011). Econometric analysis. (7th Ed.) 
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Harter, S. (2012). The construction of the self. (2nd ed.). 
New York: Wiley.

Hsiao, C. (2003). Analysis of Panel Data (2 bs.). İngiltere:  
Cambridge University.

Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (1991). Principles of classroom 
management: A hierarchical approach. Prentice Hall.

Lipton, M., & Oakes, J. (2003). Teaching to change the 
world (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Maftoon, P., & Shakouri, N. (2012). The concept of 
power in teacher talk: A critical discourse analysis. 
World Applied Sciences Journal, 19(8), 1208-1215. 
doi: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2012.19.08.1894

Marfo, K., & Biersteker, L. (2011). Exploring culture, 
play and early childhood education practice in Afri-
can contexts. In S. Rogers (Ed.), Rethinking play and 
pedagogy in early childhood education (pp. 73–85). 
New York, NY: Routledge.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1003815
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1003815
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1003815


Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes 57

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Marfo, K., Pence, A. R., LeVine, R. A., & LeVine, S. (2011). 
Strengthening Africa’s contributions to child devel-
opment research: Introduction. Child Development 
Perspectives, 5(2), 104–111.

Mothata, W. & Squelch, J. (1997). Eight keys to effective 
school management in South Africa. Halfway House: 
Southern Book Publishers.

Mucherah, W. & Mbogori, T. (2019). Examining child de-
velopment from an African cultural context. Global 
Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1), 11-17. 
doi: 10.14434/gjte.v1i1.26140 

Nagaraju, C., Madhavaiah, G., & Peter, S. (2013). Teach-
er-centred learning and student-centred learning 
in English classroom: The teaching methods realiz-
ing the dreams of language learners. International 
Journal of Scientific Research and Reviews, 2(3), 
125-131.

Ning, B., Van -Damme, J., Yang , X., & Gielen, S. (2013). 
September). Does classroom disciplinary climate in 
a school matter everywhere? A cross-country com-
parative study. Paper presented at The 2013 Annual 
Meeting of the European Conference on Educational 
Research, Istanbul, Turkey.

  Njong, A. M., & Ningaye, P. (2008). Characterizing 
weights in the measurement of multidimensional 
poverty: An application of data-driven approaches to 
Cameroonian data. OPHI Working Paper No. 21. 

Noftle, E. E., & Robins, R. W. (2007). Personality pre-
dictors of academic outcomes: Big five correlates 
of GPA and SAT scores. Journal of Personality and 
Social Psychology, 93(1), 116.

Nsamenang, A.B. (2008). Constructing cultural identity 
in families, In: Brooker, L. and Woodhead, M. (Eds.). 
Social inclusion and respect for diversity: Develop-
ing positive identities. Milton Keynes, Buckingham-
shire, UK: The Open University.

Okonji, M. O. (1971). The effects of familiarity on clas-
sification. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2, 
39–49.

Olsen, J. M., Breckler, S. J., & Wiggens, E. C. (2008). Social 
psychology alive. Toronto: Thomson Nelson.

PASEC (1998). L’enseignement primaire au Cameroun: 
investigations et diagnostics pour l’amélioration de 
la qualité du système éducatif. PASEC, CONFEMEN, 
Dakar. 

PASEC (2017). Manuel d’exploitation des données: Éval-
uation internationale PASEC2014. PASEC, CONFE-
MEN, Dakar.

Papadopoulos, K., Metsiou, K., & Agaliotis, I. (2011). 
Adaptive behaivor of children and adolescents with 
visual impairments. Research in Developmental Dis-
abilities, 32, 1086–1096. 

Pasternak, R. (2013). Discipline, learning skills and ac-
ademic achievement. Journal of Arts and Education, 
1(1), 1-11. 

Saigal, S., Lambert, M., Russ, C., & Hoult, L. (2002). 
Self-esteem of adolescents who were born prema-
turely. Pediatrics, 109, 429–433. 

Serpell, R., & Marfo, K. (2014). Some growth points in 
African child development research. in R. Serpell & 
K. Marfo (Eds.), Child development in Africa: Views 
from inside. New Directions for Child and Adolescent 
Development, 146, 97–112.

UN General Assembly. (1989). Convention on the Rights 
of the Child. United Nations, Treaty Series, 1577(3).

Wamalwa, F. M., & Burns, J. (2018). Teacher Human 
Capital, Teacher Effort and Student Achievements in 
Kenya (No. 722). 

Watkins, K. (2016). The State of the World’s Children 
2016: A Fair Chance for Every Child. New York: 
UNICEF.

Woolridge, J. M. (2009). Introductory cconometrics: A 
modern approach. (4. Ed). South-Western, Michigan 
State University, 378, 57.

Zhao, R., &  Kuo, Y. L. (2015). The role of self-discipline 
in predicting achievement for 10th graders. In-
ternational Journal of Intelligent Technologies and 
Applied Statistics, 8(1), 61-70. doi: 10.6148/IJI-
TAS.2015.0801.05

Aloysius Mom Njong (mom_aloys@yahoo.fr) is 
a Professor of Development Economics at the 
University of Bamenda, Cameroon.

Author

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/gjte/article/download/26140/32308/
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/gjte/article/download/26140/32308/
https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/428773
https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/428773
https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/428773
https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/428773
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d71f02f-9698-4453-8ffb-0b40361ac2fd/download_file?safe_filename=Characterizing%2Bweights%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bmeasurement%2Bof%2Bmultidimensional%2Bpoverty%2B21.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Working+paper
https://www.careperinatologia.it/lavori/L52.pdf
https://www.careperinatologia.it/lavori/L52.pdf
https://www.econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/working_paper_723.pdf
https://www.econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/working_paper_723.pdf
https://www.econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/working_paper_723.pdf


Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  58

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table S1n

Table S2n

Table S3n



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes 59

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table S4n

Table S5n

Table S6n




