Cultivating Political Morality for Deliberative Citizens — Rawls and Callan Revisited

In this article, I will argue that the implementation of deliberative democracy needs to be supplemented by a specific political morality in order to cultivate free and equal citizens in exercising public reason for achieving a cooperative and inclusive liberal society. This cultivation of personality is literally an educational project with a robust ethical ambition, and hence, it reminds us the orthodox liberal problem concerning the relation between the state and its citizenship education. Following Callan’s reformulation of the political conception of the person, I will argue that Rawls’s political liberalism can accommodate the ethical demand of deliberative citizenship education. Liberal civic education should legitimately specify its own ethical endowments for active citizenship and need not shy away from making proposals on the cultivation of liberal character that might result in influencing individual’s conception of the good. Rawls’s theory thus redefines the state neutrality problem on education and paves the way for a framework of deliberative citizenship education.     

Recognition,inclusion and democracy: learning from action research with young people

ABSTRACT

This paper draws upon learning from three action research projects conducted as part of a Europe-wide project exploring young people’s social and political participation. Challenging dominant discourses about what ‘counts’ as participation and what does not, the paper explores how, through the action research projects, young people engaged in knowledge democracy in ‘new democratic arenas’. Building upon experiential knowing and creating knowledge and learning through practice, the young people explored their own democratic knowledge production, communication and engagement within a context of shifting discourses of participation, democratic engagement and active citizenship. The increasing preference of young people for more informal forms of participation as lived practice reflects a shift to young people constructing their own modes of participation and ‘remaking democracy’ in their own vision and according to their own needs. By working outside of the confines of normative assumptions of democratic practice and participation, young people exercised their own ‘political’ agency in response to their own priorities, interests and concerns and, in doing so, illustrated that new forms, understandings and practices of knowledge democracy can emerge that reflect the promise of inclusive democratic societies more meaningfully.     

Australian schools as deliberative spaces: framing the goal of active and informed citizenship

Educating for active and informed citizenship represents a core goal of Australian education and schooling. Owing to a range of factors – including the contested conceptual nature of citizenship and democracy – there is reason to question the extent to which this goal is being translated into practice. Similarly, while the Australian Curriculum requires students to engage with others in talk, this is framed rather broadly. Recognizing the value of greater conceptual precision about citizenship, democracy and discursive interactions, this article explores the value of deliberative democracy as a frame for active and informed citizenship. In doing so it argues that viewing schools as deliberative spaces which do/could engage in deliberative pedagogies provides a useful and focused basis for conceiving how young Australians do and can engage in, and learn, the capacities necessary for democratic citizenship.     

协商民主对村民自治制度政治合法性的提升

中国村民自治制度过于倚重表决民主,使得它在收获一定政治合法性的同时,逐渐暴露出合法性建设不足的制度困境.发展协商民主可以把民主的公正性与效率性、民主的充分性与权威性、尊重多数与保护少数等有机地结合起来;消除臣民意识,复兴公民精神;强化公共决策的合理性,提升村民自治制度的政治合法性.     

What future teachers believe about democracy and why it is important

This paper analyses pre-service education student perceptions and perspectives related to education for democracy in Australia. Using a critical pedagogical framework datum from an online survey, it presents both quantitative and qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy. It begins by outlining the concepts of thick and thin democracy and why this is important in relation to contemporary debates about the state of civics and citizenship education, and then explains the conceptual framework of critical pedagogy and methodology. The datum analysed is discussed in relation to neoliberalism and indicates that the pre-service teachers in this study view democracy in a narrow or thin way that may impact on their classroom practice where they would be teaching about but not for democracy. A more critical and thicker understanding of democracy is suggested as essential if we desire our students to become active and transformative citizens.     

CITIZENSHIP: THE POLITICAL AND THE DEMOCRATIC

ABSTRACT:  Citizenship as a compulsory subject was added to the National Curriculum in England in 2002 following the 1998 report, 'Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools'. It was little noticed at the time that the report stressed active citizenship much more strongly than democracy. The underlying presupposition was what historians call 'civic republicanism', the tradition from the Greeks and the Romans of good government as political government, that is, citizens reaching acceptable compromises of group interests and values by public debate. This is contrasted to modern liberalism. To stress 'democracy' unduly in citizenship education can lead to definitional dogmatics about multiple meanings of the term, even to disillusionment. Democracy is a necessary element in good government but not a sufficient one, unless subjective opinion is enshrined over knowledge through education. The practices of free politics are both historically and logically prior to democracy.     

非国家形态民主:当代中国民主建设的突破口

"非国家形态民主",是指村民自治、职代会、社团民主管理等不体现国家权力关系的各种民主形式.与"国家形态民主"相比,它具有非国家性、直接性、内生性、自治性等特点.由于特殊的历史和现实条件,非国家形态的民主先于国家形态的民主在中国得到了较大的发展.对这一发展固然要给予高度的评价,但必须恰如其分.非国家形态民主是当代中国社会主义民主政治建设的突破口.     

‘It is like putting fire in the children’s hands’: a comparative case study of pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and beliefs about education for democracy in an established and emerging post-conflict democracy

This report documents and compares two cases of pre-service elementary teachers’ beliefs about democracy and education for democracy in the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina along with contextual factors influencing the similarities and differences among these beliefs. Findings suggest that US pre-service elementary teachers have a self-proclaimed lack of knowledge about democracy and primarily view citizenship education as a means to teach children how to get along. Conversely, Bosnian pre-service teachers hold more nuanced views of democracy and education for democracy, formed while their country transitioned from socialism towards democracy following a devastating civil war. Consequently, they focus on teaching children the skills and dispositions necessary for successful democratic citizenship to preserve their country. These divergent understandings of democracy within the two cases may hold potential benefits to teachers in both emergent and established democracies. Implications of these and other findings are discussed, as well as potential future research.     

The role of Representative Councils for Learners in South African schools: Maximal or minimal participation?

Abstract

In 1999 the South African Department of Education issued guides for the Representative Councils for Learners established in terms of the South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act 84 of 1996). This article examines the usefulness of these guides in promoting democracy and education for citizenship in South African schools. The guides are located in the context of theories of participatory democracy, representation, and education for citizenship, and of the democratic strengths of the People's Education Movement of the 1980s. In this context, it is argued that the main tendency of the guides is to undermine democratic participation, and that their favoured conception of education for citizenship is minimalist. The article emphasises the need for a more maximalist approach to citizenship education, and for more scope for participatory democracy in schools.     

Dutch adolescents’ narratives about democracy: ‘I know what democracy means,but not what it means to me’

In the last decade, educational scholars have studied various aspects of adolescents’ citizenship narratives. This paper reports on a qualitative study into the narratives about democracy of 27 adolescents from an urban area in the Netherlands. The aim of the study was to gain an insight into the type of democratic engagement that Dutch adolescents develop. Fourteen vocational and 13 pre-university students were selected. Each student was interviewed twice. Narrative thematic data analysis revealed that only five students had developed a strong conception of democracy. Our findings suggest that few students had spent time developing and challenging their narratives about democracy, and that few students have developed a greater sense of democratic engagement. Our paper concludes with several suggestions for furthering the study and practice of democratic citizenship education.     

Curriculum capacity and citizenship education: a comparative analysis of four democracies

Governments, international organizations and academics have, in recent decades, expressed a sense of crisis in the practice of democracy based largely upon increasing levels of disengagement by citizens from even the most basic elements of civic life. One response has been to devise civics and citizenship education curricula for schools with the concomitant expectations of enhanced civic practice. Our examination of citizenship education programs has revealed considerable variation from country to country in the degree of success achieved in the design, development and implementation of programs. This paper examines recent developments in citizenship education in four leading Western democracies – Australia, Canada, England and the USA; each one with its own particular successes and shortcomings. It identifies several factors associated with the successful building of curriculum capacity for citizenship education and argues that these are fundamental for countries wishing to move beyond rhetoric and toward substance in citizenship education.     

超越古典共和主义与自由主义——协商性民主与合法性重建

20世纪晚期复兴的协商性民主理论（Deliberative Democracy），重新强调了古典共和主义中公民的政治义务伦理，同时巧妙地避开了大众直接选举的鸟托邦色彩，把自己建立在近代以来的宪政法治体制中，实现了民主理论新的超越，也为转型时期中国社会的政治合法性重建提供了有益的思路。     

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN DEMOCRACY

ABSTRACT:  Citizenship education in established democracies is challenged by declining youth participation in democracy. Youth disenchantment and disengagement in democracy is primarily evident in formal political behaviour, especially through voting, declining membership of political parties, assisting at elections, contacting politicians, and the like. If citizenship education is to play a major role in addressing these concerns it will need to review the impact it is making on young people in schools.
  This paper reviews a major national project on youth participation in democracy in Australia set in the context of a national citizenship education programme. The Youth Electoral Study found that citizenship education in Australian schools has at best been marginally successful and substantially more is required to raise levels of democratic engagement. The paper explores many opportunities available to education systems and schools to address these issues through reconceptualising aspects of the formal and the informal curriculum.     

试论社区"海选"对政治民主的体现

“海选”虽为农民群众的创造但并非只适用于农村、乡镇一级群众性自治组织和基层政权机关,城市社区“海选”高潮迭起并引发全国范围内的城市社区选举的革新。社区“海选”是社会主义政治民主的重要体现和新发展,本文认为社区“海选”主要体现了政治民主的重要特征、社会主义政治民主的发展和社会主义政治民主的社会作用等内容,并指出社区“海选”体现出的社会主义政治民主,对于增进社会主义政治文明建设有着重要的现实意义。     

Can Education for Democratic Citizenship Rest on Socialist Foundations?

The paper examines two recent arguments, by Keith Graham and Richard Norman, to the effect that a liberal individualist foundation is insufficient for a socialist conception of democracy and needs to be replaced or supplemented by collectivist notions [I]. It concludes that these arguments are unsound and that a defensible education for democratic citizenship on socialist lines should be based on liberal values, not least that of personal autonomy. At the same time it concedes to collectivism that socialist democracy needs to operate within a social framework, but sees national communities rather than social classes or smaller-scale groupings as the most promising candidates for this.     

从成本考量的视角看人类对民主政体的理性选择

民主政体作为人类政治文明的发展形态已有数千年的存在历史。人类之所以在当今普遍选择民主政体作为最基本的现实政治运作模式,也是基于成本考量的理性选择。民主政体相对于其他政体而言,具有比较优势。民主政体相对于其他政体而言,不仅能够有效降低调和政治冲突和维持政治及社会稳定的政治成本,而且能够有效降低公共决策的外部成本,更能够有效降低政治统治的风险成本和政治发展的机会成本。理性考察和分析民主政体的成本问题,不仅有利于加深对民主的理论认识,而且更有利于增强如何将社会主义民主做真做实的现实思考。     

Community Participation and Curriculum Decisions

This paper will focus on Young's theories of heterogeneity, as they have developed from the essays in Throwing Like a Girl (1990) to those in Inclusion and Democracy (2000). Reading her theories of heterogeneity together with recent developments in political theory which seek to reclaim the agonistic and frictional aspects of polity and political democracy, the paper will argue that attempts to promote ‘citizenship education’ are less pressing than attempts to develop and promote political education.     

Education for democratic citizenship in Malawian secondary schools: balancing student voice and adult privilege

In countries that embraced democracy after the fall of communism, education became a particular focus for policy change, particularly within their citizenship programmes. Schools that had been used to inculcate obedience to and unfailing support for authoritarian regimes were now being required to adopt citizenship programmes incorporating democratic values. This paper reports a study in Malawi that explored the school as a location where democratic citizenship is practiced. Using a multiple case study approach in three different kinds of secondary schools to explore students’ participation in school affairs, the study found that different forms of participation were being encouraged, with each school apparently socialising students to distinctive kinds of citizenship roles. The paper highlights a conflict between democratic values and traditional roles of schools leading to new and hybrid school cultures. Providing scope for student voice to be heard can lead to tensions and paradoxical practices.     

Education,democracy and social change: Venezuela’s education missions in theory and practice

The ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ in Venezuela is conceptualised as a pedagogical project that aims to develop ‘twenty-first century Socialism’ through state-grassroots collaboration in the reorganisation of political space in order to develop participatory, democratic institutions and processes. The cornerstones of this project to deepen and expand democracy in and through education are the adult Education Missions, set up in parallel to existing educational structures, and with an explicit focus on socio-political education and community projects aimed at promoting a new hegemony based on active grassroots citizenship. While the struggle to extend democracy in and through education is not unique to Venezuela, the conceptualisation of democracy as protagonist and participatory, and the explicit links made between education and democratic social change within the broader framework of twenty-first century socialism, makes Venezuela a dynamic site to revisit and reinvigorate classical debates as to the role of education in promoting democratic social change. Based on 15 months of empirical research, this paper examines the extent to which adult education in Venezuela is contributing to the development of a counter-hegemonic movement to build socialism for the twenty-first century.     

政治文明的理论价值和实践意义

政治明的提出，使我们对于中国特色社会主义民主政治建设的规律性认识达到一个新的高度，有利于我们从整体上推进社会主义民主建设；有利于我们大胆学习借鉴人类社会政治明的有益成果，赋予民主政治建设以不断发展演进的内涵；有利于我们把握民主政治建设的重点，促进我国民主政治建设走向制度化、规范化和程序化。