From Teaching Citizenship to Learning Democracy

Abstract

Over the past decades there has been a world-wide resurgence of interest in questions about education and democratic citizenship, both from the side of educators and educationalists and from the side of policy makers and politicians (for an overview see, for example, Osler & Starkey, 2006). In new and emerging democracies the focus has been on how education can contribute to the formation of democratic citizens and the promotion of a democratic culture, while in established democracies the focus has been on how to nurture and maintain interest in and engagement with democratic processes and practices. At stake in these discussions are not only technical questions about the proper shape and form of education for democratic citizenship but also more philosophical questions about the nature of democracy and the possible configurations of citizenship within democratic societies. In discussions about the state of democracy two trends can be discerned (see McLaughlin, 2000). On the one hand there are worries about the level of political participation and political understanding, while on the other there are wider concerns about social cohesion and integration.