EARLI Conference 2009 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2019
Education is commonly considered to be a transformational practice that contributes both to forging the personality of individuals and to promoting social entanglements. For this reason, education always has a normative character that rests on a particular concept of what humanity and society should be. However, educational policies and practices are frequently unaware of these theoretical presuppositions, and for this reason, they frequently appear to act in a naïve and superficial manner. This is particularly the case for citizenship education, which, if superficially implemented, risks being distorted into a form of civic education that reproduces established norms and social relations, without promoting any meaningful social change. Thus, the first part of this article aims to deepen the notion of citizenship, in particular by studying what the concept of ‘consensus’ means, conceiving of it not as a synonym of social resignation, but rather as a collective conspiracy towards a common political project. Accordingly, the article defines the basic characteristics that education should always possess to effectively promote a democratic and participative citizenship education. In particular, it identifies five constitutive contrasts in relation to the ways in which information is transmitted, reasoned, emotionally perceived, and then discussed and countered both by individuals and society. The article therefore presents an overall theory of education, seen as a momentous practice of dialogue and common action that opens the way for a democracy in progress.
Education for democracy and democratic citizenship
Routledge eBooks, 2023
Educating democratic citizens who are committed to the values and principles of democracy and who are actively willing to develop democracy is at the core of crosscurricular teaching and closely related to another central theme of this book: Bildung. As pointed out in Chapter 3, "progressivist, democratic, and nonaffirmative approaches" can also highlight particular aspects of Bildung. A democratic approach emphasizes Bildung's social aspect, and in democratic societies, social aspects are strongly connected to democratic life, its principles, and its values. Cross-and transcurricular teaching is the basis for a successful education within and for a democracy. Content related to democracy needs to be studied in different school subjects, but democracy is more than knowledge. Fostering democratic values, attitudes toward democracy, and democratic skills requires teaching that is persistent, regular, and both cross-and transcurricular. This is at the center of this chapter, where we reflect on the idea of education for democracy in the context of crosscurricular, especially transcurricular teaching. Teachers are crucial to implementing education for democracy and democratic citizenship in classrooms and schools. Traditionally, schools have been institutions that follow the contemporary and permanent structures and activities of democracy rather than radically challenging and renewing themselves and society. Politicians define the basic guidelines for the development of schools, which does not mean that schools and teachers do not have power concerning their profession and work. The autonomy and pedagogical freedom of teachers and schools vary between societies. Thus, teachers' possibilities for acting as proactive developers of democracy instead of being merely reactive also vary. In principle, the teacher's role, according to typical school curricula in democratic societies, is to be an active educator for students' democratic participation. However, active social participation and interest in, for example, politics among young people is lower than expected (Edling & Mooney Simmie, 2020; Männistö, 2020; Raiker et al., 2020). Additionally, in the present state of research on democracy and education, there are many studies describing
Overtones in Contemporary Educational Theory and Practice: Education for Democratic Citizenship
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015
Democracy is strong when citizens are well informed and participate responsibly to public life, and vice versa, democracy is fragile when citizens are poorly informed and they show indifferent to public life. The tasks that undertake such education are very complex and converging towards the formation of a citizen informed about political institutions, values and democratic norms, about changes and social alternatives, sensitive to his community and global issues, active and responsible; a citizen who thinks and acts in a democratic spirit, able to defend themselves against abuse and attacks on their rights.
Learning to live democracy: Education for Democratic Citizenship
Debating Europe, 2011
This article appears as a look at the work undertaken by the Group, in Portugal, which holds the "Project Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights (EDC /HD) of the Council of Europe". Education is widely recognized as a pillar of Citizenship. It is mainly through education that we form consciences, build personalities and prepare citizens. The Project-ECD DH, Council of Europe's horizon is to prepare young adults and its member countries to be active citizens, informed and responsible, able to contribute in a constructive and healthy way for a free, fair and democratic society.
Education and the ethics of democratic citizenship
2000
In this essay, I situate public education within a vision of its special role in enabling critical citizenship within a participatory, pluralistic democracy. I provide a framework for analyzing the current predominant practices of public education, and assess the degree to which they support individual self-development toward that democratic vision. Finally, I suggest that the ethics of democratic citizenship can
Handbook of Research on Education for Participative Citizenship and Global Prosperity, 2019
The purpose of this chapter is to investigate salient approaches to citizenship and civic-normative education in liberal democratic life. The chapter argues that core technocratic assumptions about clarity, linearity, and predictability feeding into civic-educational deployment and change warrant critical attention. The chapter aims to shed new light on states' instinct to regard themselves and their value sets as seamless conceptual wholes. A range of ramifications of this typical approach are interrogated, in principle as well as in relation to Swedish civic-educational matrices. The chapter refines a heuristic model for unpacking citizenship and civic-normative education thinking in liberal democracy originally presented in an earlier work by the author. It is concluded that even as the enormous policy efforts that go into organizing and revamping public civic-normative education in response to new societal challenges have little chance of meeting governments' intentions;...