Civil society, democracy and education

Abstract

This special issue of Education, Citizenship and Social Justice is based on the 2008 Annual Conference, ‘Civil Society, Democracy and Education’ of the International Centre for Education for Democratic Citizenship (ICEDC), a joint international centre between Birkbeck and the Institute of Education, both University of London. The conference brought together national and international researchers, policymakers and practitioners to debate the contested meanings of civil society, democratic engagement and social justice both in the public and political sphere and as they relate to education and citizenship education. There is growing recognition of the role of civil society as both a normative ideal and also a site of democratic and broadly political engagement for social justice. Across the world, civil society organizations play an important role in raising awareness of issues and in campaigning for equity and greater democratic participation. Within the formal education sector, citizenship education often depends on the inputs of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for materials, personnel and curriculum development. A wide range of papers were presented at the conference, from across the academic disciplines of politics, sociology and education, including both theoretical and empirical considerations of the issues under question. Papers also included case studies of policies and practices in schools and communities, as well as analyses and interrogation of projects and initiatives at local, regional, national, international and European levels. The papers selected to provide articles for this special issue include keynotes given by Professor Michael Apple, Professor Madeleine Arnot, Professor Mayo and Professor John Annette. In addition, two additional papers (Pykett, Shukla) were selected on merit and which complement the themes addressed by the keynote papers.