Teaching against Threats to Democracy: Inclusive Pedagogies in Democratic Education

Abstract

The idea that schools in democratic nations should teach toward the continuation of democracy, at a minimum, and ideally toward its positive transformation, is not new or novel. But while it receives a lot of rhetorical support, evidence suggests that many people do not really believe that this is a task for schools to take up with respect to their children, especially relative to other roles such as credentialing for further education and workplace preparation. Peter Levine, the executive director of the preeminent civic learning and engagement research center in the United States, argues that markets “pose special problems for civic education. The civic development of young people will be undervalued in any market system, unless we take deliberate and rather forceful efforts to change that pattern” (Levine, 2005). There is evidence to support his claim. When asked to rate whether preparing young people for democratic participation was a very important goal of schooling, just over 50 percent of adults in the United States agreed, while other goals, such as workplace preparation (which 64 percent rated as very important) and basic academic knowledge in reading, math, and science (80 percent agreed) received much more support (Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools and Alliance for Representative Democracy, 2004).