How children participate in democracy has shifted toward more communicative, networked, and creative models than before. In political science and political theory, however, surprisingly little is understood about what if anything children can contribute to democracy and how they would do so. Traditionally, children have been considered as mere…

North Macedonia has been struggling to establish a participatory democracy since its transition as a Yugoslav successor state. During the 34 years since, widespread corruption and limited rights and freedoms have harmed citizenship and education. This study proposes the theoretical framework of critical transdisciplinarity, a politically engaged…

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in daily life--from employment and education to healthcare and public services--AI literacy is emerging as both a civic competency and a human right. Yet second language learners, particularly from immigrant and marginalized communities, are often excluded from systems not designed for linguistic…

Following on from the reflections on 'social action' [Pedler 2020, "On Social Action." "Action Learning: Research and Practice" 17 (1): 1-9., and Pedler 2021, "Action Learning for Social Action Taking Part in Social Change." Abingdon: Routledge], this paper examines how an 'action learning ethos' can provide guidance…

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…

This paper is about how a rights perspective, both children's and others' rights, can be used to make sense of schooling which is more inclusive of children and young people with special educational needs/disabilities (SEN/D). It is based on a project that used deliberative democratic approaches, in the form of a Citizens' Panel, to address the…

Measurement of formal education success excludes arts education and focuses instead on reading, mathematics and science. In a world filled with differences between people, geography, backgrounds, customs, religions and sense of self, the only subject that approaches this knowledge is social studies. This discipline is not tested in the Programme…

This article examines the role of 'think-tanks' and other policy forums in post-devolution Scotland, with particular reference to their ideas on education. A brief account of the Scottish educational policy community in the pre-devolution period is given, noting important differences from what was happening in England. Devolution promised…

Over the past decade, Illinois has emerged as a national exemplar of how state policy can drive systemic change in civics education. The Illinois Civic Mission Coalition, a pan-ideological alliance of educators, policymakers, and civic organizations, has shaped the state's civics education vision. The coalition built a scalable infrastructure of…

Democracies expect citizens to engage actively in public life by making decisions about political issues that are frequently ambiguous, with strong moral and emotional implications, and often subject to misinformation and manipulation. Strong critical thinking (CT) appears therefore as a crucial component of a reflective democratic citizenship.…

This study analyses how "active democratic participation" is conceptualised by sixteen teacher educators from eight institutions of higher education across four Nordic countries and how these conceptualisations are translated into their own teaching. Teacher educators' strong adherence to a liberal discourse on democratic education may…

Sweden is a country with a long history of peace and liberal democracy. In the post war period, history education has been given a core position as a moulder of democratic citizens in Sweden. Since the 1990s, historical consciousness intertwined with democratic values has been used as a scientific grid for shaping citizens, not just in history…

This qualitative study explored how 28 early adolescents described their capacity for civic engagement as they participated in a civic education camp in the United States and engaged in action civics inquiry projects about local issues. Focus group interviews revealed that these youth recognized the capacity of people their age to raise awareness…

Following the 2002 work of economist Henry Levin, who laid out a framework for evaluating school vouchers, we provide an updated framework involving four major goals: equity, efficiency, accountability and democratic goals. We review what is known from recent research around these four major areas under today's voucher programs. We raise questions…