Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The notion of democracy occupies a privileged place in our society. Educators and policymakers are increasingly pursuing a broad variety of programs that aim to promote democracy through civic education, service learning, and other pedagogies. The nature of their underlying beliefs, however, differ. For some, a commitment to democracy is associated with liberal notions of freedom, while for others democracy is primarily about equality of opportunity. For some, civil society is the key, while others place their hope for social change in healthy free markets. For some, good citizens in a democracy volunteer, while for others they take active parts in political processes by voting, forming committees, or protesting. ?Educating the ?Good? Citizen" calls attention to this spectrum of ideas about what good citizenship is and what good citizens do. We underscore the political implications of education for democracy and suggest that the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship embedded in many current efforts at teaching for democracy reflects not arbitrary choices but rather political choices with political consequences.
In this article, we detail three conceptions of the ?good? citizen: personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented. These emerged from our analysis of both democratic theory and our two year study of educational programs that aim to promote democracy. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from two of the programs we studied, we argue that these three conceptions embody significantly different beliefs regarding the capacities and commitments citizens need in order for democracy to flourish; and they carry significantly different implications for pedagogy, curriculum, evaluation, and educational policy. We conclude that politics and the interests of varied groups are often deeply embedded in the ways we conceptualize, implement, and study efforts to educate for democracy.