The panel will discuss new perspectives for strengthening the education for democracy. We examine both the conceptual and empirical aspects of education for democracy, with a special attention to responsible democratic citizenship and the possibilities to achieve change through educational interventions. Diverse related contributions are welcome.
Strengthening education for democracy has become an increasingly urgent need due to several recent and ongoing crises in Europe. Challenges such as mediatization, technocratization, disenchantment, radicalization, populism, securitization, digitalization, illiberalism and others (e.g. Hay 2007, Papadopoulos 2013, Guillaume, Huysmans 2013, Moffitt 2016, Bigo, Isin, Ruppert 2019, Keane 2020, Schäfer, Zürn 2021, Sajo, Uitz, Holmes 2021) put pressure on the democratic system and citizens. An autonomous, constructive and effective citizen agency is under threat as citizens increasingly turn to either extreme ideologies or feel alienated and withdraw from civic life. How to better use education in supporting responsible democratic citizenship is nowadays a very relevant question.
To address the crises various avenues are possible (e.g. Evans, Stoker 2022) but education is a key pathway (Toscano et al 2023, Mathews-Schultz, Sweet-Cushman, 2024) strengthening democracy by supporting its embedding and sustainability through participatory redesign and implementation of innovative and context-sensitive education for responsible democratic citizenship curricula and learning methods. Both content- and process- related aspects can support the development of citizens as reflexive, autonomous and constructive democratic agents and address the challenges outlined above. Contemporary digital tools for learning and participation are taken into account, as are aspects of democracy and responsible democratic citizenship that include the individual’s relation to the natural environment and sustainability in its interconnected environmental, social, economic and governance dimensions, as per the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.