In an era of democratic crises, democratic education in basic education is considered crucial. However, recent studies show that young people perceive their influence both at school and in society as limited, which decreases their civic activity later in life. The aim of this theoretical study is to reevaluate democratic education through feminist…

Purpose: This article explores the concept of agonistic pluralism, its role in education, and educators' pivotal position as gatekeepers of pluralism. It investigates why some educators embrace pluralism with broader boundaries while others impose stricter ones. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews with 13 educational experts…

At a time when extremist movements are gaining proportions on the world stage, it is relevant to reanalyse experiences that intended to establish democracy as a principle in school education. The School Republic was one of them, which was proposed by the Sampaio Dória Reform, in 1920, taking the New School as its context; the School Republic aimed…

This article focuses on analysing the relations between expressions of historical consciousness and democracy as featured in the 2020 Norwegian Curriculum for Social Studies. In compulsory school in Norway, History is no longer a subject with a specific syllabus. However, there is a fundamental historical perspective running through the…

Citizenship education (CE) in Turkey holds a pivotal role in shaping the civic consciousness of forthcoming generations. This study employs Q methodology to analyze the perspectives of teachers and parents regarding CE in Turkey, examining their viewpoints in the context of the political structure. The research reveals both consensus and…

Civics courses have a great significance -- they are supposed to train new cohorts of citizens to engage in multiple public roles in (democratic) society. How it is done depends on a multitude of factors, and teachers' performance and program contents are among the most important. In post-authoritarian order like Poland, civic contents of…

Purpose: This article explores methodologies used by educators in citizenship education, examining how they perceive their roles when balancing skills and values, and how they approach assessment. It also investigates how transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978; Taylor, 2009) is reflected in practice and how outcomes are assessed.…

The paper discusses the Finnish core curriculum (curriculum framework) for basic education, with focus on how lower secondary education in general, and history teaching specifically, is meant to develop the student's democratic citizenship. Developing the student's democratic citizenship is not an explicit aim of history teaching in the current…

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become a key topic in educational discourse, especially since its inclusion in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This scoping literature review analyses 43 articles published between 2012 and 2023 on school-age youth activism within GCE literature. Articles were sourced from the…

Purpose: Taking the form of a report, the presented text aims to map the curricular changes in civic education and social science learning in basic and upper secondary schools after 1989. It seeks to identify the key features of undergraduate teacher training at universities, with an emphasis on field-specific didactics, and to provide a brief…

The concept of historical and democratic consciousness in Turkiye is approached in a multi-layered manner. These layers consist of a structure in which many factors such as historical process, social structure, education system, political developments, and cultural factors play a role. History lessons and curriculum focus on how younger…

The rise of anti-immigration arguments within the European Union (EU) poses significant challenges to our democratic existence. As such, the promotion of critical thinking (CT) for the development of a multicultural citizenship education has been underlined. Recent research also shows a close connection between emotions and cognition with positive…

While the teaching of controversial issues has generally been supported by schools and education scholars, new laws and public outcry have impacted whether and how controversial issues are taught. Calls to ban or limit teaching of controversial issues have largely been spurred by conservative parents, policymakers, and political groups. Some…

Transversal skills describe a broad spectrum of skills that are considered to be essential for thriving in today's society and tackling the challenges of the twenty-first century. Therefore, a high demand is placed on educators to teach these skills to their students. Unfortunately, the conceptualization of transversal skills remains vague with…

Historically, education for active citizenship has not been a high priority in Finnish schools. In this discursive study of Finnish social studies textbooks for grades 4-6, we investigate how students are encouraged to practice active citizenship, where the focus of active citizenship lies, and how active citizenship is limited in antidemocratic…