Rethinking political participation: A pedagogical approach for citizenship education

Abstract

A significant body of literature on citizenship education and youth participation has progressively replaced political participation with other categories such as citizenship participation, community involvement or civic engagement. The demotion of political participation is also characteristic of different programmes of citizenship education embracing the same dominant categories. The article argues that this tendency reveals a depoliticised approach to citizenship education, which emphasises an apolitical view on adolescents’ participation and, consequently, a conception of students as depoliticised subjects. The depoliticisation of citizenship education risks theoretical transparency in regard to the kind of participation it aims to promote and, therefore, jeopardises citizenship education’s pedagogical efficacy. Drawing on political theory and philosophy, political science and sociological theory, the article analyses the scope and potential of the notion of political participation in order to develop an approach that is inclusive of adolescents, based on the development of their own politicity and especially thought for being enacted in the school as a central component of citizenship education.