Abstract
This paper examines perspectives and perceptions of democracy of pre- and in-service teachers as well as teacher-education academics in Australia in order to develop a robust and critical democratic education. Using data from an on-line survey the paper presents the quantitative analyses, and the qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy, citizenship and the role of education in the promotion and development of an active and thick democracy the paper critiques the neo-liberal (thin) democratic discourse of contemporary Australian academic research that suggests that the Civics and Citizenship Education project only requires some augmentation highlighting issues like sustainability and globalization while ignoring social justice issues. It begins by outlining the concepts of thick and thin democracy, and revisits the state of civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Australia. It is argued that while the pre-service teachers in this study may have a more critical and thicker understanding of democracy that is mirrored in the views of their teacher-education professors, the practicing teachers, on the other hand, have largely adopted the mainstream neo-liberal discourse, presenting a tendency to view democracy in a very narrow or thin way that may impact on their classroom practice. The paper concludes with recommendations related to what a thick democracy might actually look like in school education.
Highlights
While there have been important studies of how school students understand democracy and democratic participation 1 there has been no such study of teachers and teacher educators
There was unanimity among all three groups of respondents about the understanding that democracy was about personal freedom of opinion and free and fair elections where governments are chosen by the majority of people
A limited number (25%) of responses indicated an understanding that democracy was about recognition of difference and social justice highlighting concepts such as “recognition of universal human rights and laws against discrimination”
Summary
While there have been important studies of how school students understand democracy and democratic participation 1 there has been no such study of teachers and teacher educators. This paper analyzes how Australian educators perceive, experience and understand democracy, especially related to education and suggests how educators might contribute to the development of a more robust, thicker educational experience for their students?. This paper is informed by the need to critically understand the perspectives and experiences of educators in relation to democracy in education [2,3]. Project (GDDRP) 2, which currently has some 70 scholars in over 20 countries examining perspectives and perceptions of democracy among pre- and in-service teachers, teacher education academics, and educators, in general. It uses a collaboratively developed and locally contextualised on-line survey tool to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from diverse groups of educators 3.
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