Educating for Democracy

Suggests reforms educating citizens, the most important office in a democracy.

Walter Feinberg (Author)

9781009219273, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 April 2023

178 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'At the heart of this new book is the familiar claim that, when democracy is threatened, 'an educated citizenry is the first and perhaps only line of defense'. Drawing on a lifetime of philosophical scholarship, personal experience, and curricular and pedagogical engagement, Walter Feinberg provides a passionate, original, and deeply reflective account of democratic education's cardinal role. Herein, one of our most eminent philosophers of education outlines a democratic path forward through the dizzying array of existential threats currently facing contemporary democratic societies. One of the book's most valuable features is a series of chapters detailing how the school might – and surely must – reinvigorate its role as a vehicle of citizen formation 'across the curriculum'. It should be essential reading for students, teachers, parents, policy makers, and all concerned citizens.' Kevin McDonough, McGill University, Canada

In our world of unceasing turmoil, an educated citizenry is the first and strongest line of defence for democratic renewal. Educating for Democracy shows how students can prepare for the responsibilities of 'the most important office in a democracy' – that of a citizen. Education can provide students with the dispositions and skills needed to exercise their role judiciously and responsibly, as a patriot who cares about democracy and as a custodian who cares for democracy. These two aspects of caring call for curriculum-wide reform. The outcome of this reform is a patriot who serves as custodian of democratic culture, where commitment and competence, heart and mind, love and intellect, are brought together for the sake of democratic renewal. While nations, as both instruments and proximal objects of care, have an important role to play in this renewal, the ultimate aim is the care and cultivation of a democratic culture.

Introduction
1. Citizen: the most important office in a democracy
2. Educating for the office of citizen
3. Reflection as an educational aim of the new patriot
4. The humanities: habits of commitment and self reflection
5. The humanities: interpretation, judgement, and the evolution of national narratives
6. STEM and the democratic aims of mathematics education
7. STEM and the democratic aims of science education
8. The expressive curriculum
9. Democratic education and moral growth.

Subject Areas: Educational psychology [JNC]