Democratic Citizenship Research Articles

Implementing Democratic Learning Through Independent Learning

This article explores the application of a democratic learning approach through the concept of Freedom of Learning in the context of education. Through literature analysis and empirical studies, this article presents strategies and practices that support the development of student-centered learning, strengthen their active participation in the learning process, and encourage learning independence. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the concept of Freedom of Learning in the context of democratic education as well as the challenges and opportunities in applying it at various levels of education. The implications of this approach on improving the quality of learning and developing students' skills and attitudes were also discussed. In conclusion, this article emphasizes the importance of the Merdeka Learning approach in building an inclusive, participatory, and oriented learning environment that is oriented towards developing students' capacity as democratic citizens.

The Biopolitical Kindergarten: A Critical Qualitative Examination of the Intersection Between Policymakers’ Neoliberal Reforms and Children’s Figuring of Themselves as Learners

This critical qualitative policy research study examines the intersection between policymakers’ neoliberal kindergarten reforms and children figuring themselves as learners within a publicly funded schooling community. Engaging in this examination of the biopolitical kindergarten space, which is shaped by standardized teaching and learning experience designed to prepare kindergarteners for the high-stakes reforms that await them in later grades, creates the opportunity to consider whether school spaces are designed to prepare the next generation of democratic citizens. It also provides insight as to how critical qualitative policy researchers can investigate as well as propose tangible policy responses through their work that seek to change the current era of policymakers schooling children through their neoliberal reforms.

Motivation and personality: A comparative study of social media use and misinformation in the United States and China

AbstractObjectiveScholarship has now recognized the potentially detrimental effects of social media on political knowledge, but the question as to whether political knowledge and susceptibility to misinformation are related remains open. Furthermore, there are not many cross‐national comparison studies. This study compares the general and differential factors of the mechanisms of misinformation formation in social media between China and the United States from the perspectives of media factors and psychological factors.MethodsUsing the 2020 Netizen Social Awareness Survey, we analyze the relationships between social media, personality traits, cognitive closure, and misinformation in China and the United States.ResultsThe study shows that social media such as Microblog and Twitter do not mislead news consumers. Personality traits and motivational factors have a significant impact on people's misinformation. Authoritarian personality is a general psychological factor affecting public misinformation. Moreover, under different media systems in China and the United States, the impact of social media on misinformation varies with the degree of cognitive closure.ConclusionIt is evident that in the era of social media, cultivating rational and knowledgeable democratic citizens cannot focus solely on the role of the media. It must also consider the cultural and psychological characteristics of the national population.

Educational Studies in Wartime: How War and Dictatorship influenced the Educational Theory of Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1875–1951)

Between the two World Wars, the Amsterdam physicist Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1 875–1951) became one of the founders of Dutch academic pedagogy. In the theory developed by Kohnstamm in the 1920s, the war played a significant role in the background. Kohnstamm’s philosophy of personalism was intended as a defense against fascist tendencies towards Gleichschaltung and dictatorship. With his educational ideas, Kohnstamm wanted to strenghten democratic citizenship and the emancipation of the lower classes. In the 1930s, Kohnstamm entered into a debate with National Socialism and emerged as a principled proponent of democracy and democratic education. As a German and Jew of origin, who later became Dutch and Christian, the rise of National Socialism strongly influenced Kohnstamm and it caused that he only finished three of the seven planned volumes of his magnum opus. In this paper, in which Kohnstamm’s resistance against war and dictatorship is further elaborated, the Dutch scholar is presented as a case of educational studies in wartime.

Seeking The Middle Ground in Precarious Democracy: Interfaith Engagement in Contemporary Indonesian and Turkish Societies Within The Context of Declaration of Human Fraternity

As the two most populous Muslim nations carrying the status of precarious democracy, Indonesia and Turkey are still trying to be committed to their credentials as nations that hold dear their multireligious community. While Indonesia follows the value of Pancasila to keep interfaith and intercultural solidarity, Turkey still considers the value of secularism as a core concept to equally treat diverse religious and cultural communities of Turkey. Interestingly, while interfaith engagement in the context of Indonesia is much stronger and visible, discussions about interfaith engagements in Turkey have been refrained due to several reasons. This paper will explore the dynamics of interfaith engagements in Indonesia and Turkey, especially between Muslims and Christians (particularly in the case of Catholics) after the Declaration of Human Fraternity between the Vatican and al-Azhar through the theory of interfaith engagement and the theory of democratic citizenship.

Homo sovieticus and the Neoliberal Legacy of Polish Dissent

Democratic backsliding in eastern Europe has been often cast in terms of the uncivility of local political culture inherited from the past. For the postwar period, the figure of homo sovieticus has embodied that inheritance, and its continued allure owes a lot to its dissident pedigree. This essay presents an intellectual history of the uses of that theme across the 1989 divide and questions its relevance today. The preoccupation with homo sovieticus signaled a neoliberal turn in addressing the dilemmas of democratic transition from Communism, which I analyze in reference to A. O. Hirschman’s typology of reactionary rhetoric. While Solidarity in 1980–1981 championed a vision of democratic citizenship in which social, political, and civil rights were mutually supportive and indivisible, after martial law these different rights came to be seen as conflicting and incompatible, and the theme of homo sovieticus proliferated as the indexical figure of that conflict. This new standpoint, which supported the neoliberal transition from Communism, brought about a critical reassessment of Solidarity’s legacy and a new understanding of the role of the dissident vanguard in the transition process, which I call pre-emptive Thermidorianism. It provided the glue that held together the liberal center, made up of self-professed neoliberals as well as the ex-revisionist Left, whose acquiescence to the neoliberal turn was instrumental. Pre-emptive Thermidorianism was disastrous both for the liberal center and for post-1989 political culture more broadly, and that is why homo sovieticus stands today as the self-defeating intellectual legacy of Polish dissent.

Direction and Tasks of Unification Education Through Democratic Citizenship Education, Multicultural Education and Peace Education

Direction and Tasks of Unification Education Through Democratic Citizenship Education, Multicultural Education and Peace Education

Democratic Citizenship Education Implications of Aristotle’s ‘Oolitical friendship’ in a Multicultural Society

Democratic Citizenship Education Implications of Aristotle’s ‘Oolitical friendship’ in a Multicultural Society

Citizen Democracy Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

Citizen Democracy Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

Whitman's Democratic Citizen

In 1858 a series of essays titled Manly Health and Training made their appearance in the New York Atlas, written by Walt Whitman under the penname of Mose Velsor. The professed goal was to discuss suggestions and ideas to improve the general physical condition of its readers. Whitman regarded this as a necessary condition to match America’s democratic character. Indeed, from reading his guide we can see how for him the health of the body politic is dependent on the health and physical vigour of its citizens. In typical Whitman fashion, the essays address a multitude of topics other than the usual issues expected of a fitness manual. Besides the customary issues of diet and exercise, he also talks politics, morality, the weather, longevity, Greek athleticism, hygiene habits. This article will focus on Whitman’s thoughts about the physical standards he believed the American people ought to meet to sustain American democracy, link this with Whitman’s view of Ulysses Grant as an example of the ‘ideal’ American citizen and also venture why he was so understanding towards the latter during his troubled presidency.

A Conceptual Framework of the Factor Influencing Democratic Citizenship in Civic Education

A Conceptual Framework of the Factor Influencing Democratic Citizenship in Civic Education

Legacy media outlets also stand in dock over Gaza: How RNZ, ABC and other Western media failed to challenge Israeli war narratives

As Israel faces charges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention, for many people Western media institutions also stand in the dock. Critics have pointed to a media failure to effectively challenge a narrative that framed Israel’s actions in terms of an erroneous claim to Israeli ‘self-defence’, a de facto diplomatic cover for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and probable acts of genocide. In the Pacific, news leaders at Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), by alleged omission, story framing, inaccuracies, passive editorial stances, including a refusal to adjudicate contentious claims when the evidence was available, fall into the category. Such failures call into question claims of due impartiality, a fundamental tenet media outlets use to anchor their credibility as trusted sources of news. Failure to adequately create awareness of Israeli crimes also raises questions over whether state-funded public broadcasters are fulfilling the informational needs of democratic citizenship and serving the public interest, or whether they are serving the interests of a Western power elite.

How Can the Inclusive School Leader Promote a Democratic Society? The Case of Greek Schools

School is a key factor in promoting democratic citizenship to all children, who are the future citizens of society. This article focuses on the role of the inclusive school leader and the good practices followed to promote equality and democracy for all children in the school. Six primary school principals from Greece, specifically from schools in Athens and Thessaloniki, participated in the research. The results of the survey showed that good practices adopted by inclusive school leaders promote equality and democracy among all children through actions implemented in cooperation with the local community. The article concludes with a discussion, with limitations and suggestions for strengthening the democratic culture of all children in order to promote social inclusion.

Generative AI and the Future of Democratic Citizenship

Generative AI technologies have the potential to be socially and politically transformative. In this paper, we focus on exploring the potential impacts that Generative AI could have on the functioning of our democracies and the nature of citizenship. We do so by drawing on accounts of deliberative democracy and the deliberative virtues associated with it, as well as the reciprocal impacts that social media and Generative AI will have on each other and the broader information landscape. Drawing on this background theory, we outline some of the key positive and negative impacts that Generative AI is likely to have on democratic citizenship. The political significance of these impacts suggests the need for further regulation.

Political legitimacy in Rawls’ early and late political liberalism – Two diverging interpretations

This article assesses Frank I. Michelman’s constitution-centered and proceduralist interpretation of Rawls’ conception of political legitimacy and argues that it merits attention because it highlights the institutional aspects of Rawls’ understanding of political legitimacy for constitutional democracies. However, the article also questions Michelman’s interpretation of Rawls’ ‘liberal principle of legitimacy’ (LPL) and the later ‘idea of political legitimacy based on the criterion of reciprocity’ (ILBR). As Michelman rightly points out, for the exercise of political power to be legitimate in a constitutional democracy, it must be in accordance with a constitution that is itself legitimate or reasonably acceptable to free and equal citizens. Yet, the article argues that Rawls’ two legitimacy formulations are attempts to make an additional point: Namely that when democratic citizens exercise political power in ‘the fundamental political issues’, or in issues that shape the basic justice of society or the essentials of the constitution itself, they must respect the ideal of public reason – or ensure themselves and other citizens that their exercise of political power is in accordance with the underlying basic political-moral ideas of persons and society that make the constitution itself acceptable to them. The LPL and the ILBR are conceptions of political legitimacy, not in the sense of setting up a criterion for when a specific law is legitimate, but in the sense of outlining civic or “office-specific” constraints that citizens and public officials must put on their reasoning and exercise of political power in the fundamental political issues for the practice of a constitutional democracy to be legitimate, or well-ordered, reasonably just, and stable for the right reasons – in the long run. The article also discusses why Rawls saw the need to reformulate the LPL, and how the later ILBR assigns a new significance to citizens’ actual use of public reason and their intersubjective deliberation.

Higher education and democratic citizenship:

Higher education and democratic citizenship:

Toward a Pedagogy of Critical and Social Imagination: The Arts in Adult Education

We present an argument for a higher priority for art in the educational system and “make a case” for the arts—to provide a rationale for its priority in adult education. This is the plan: to provide this rationale; to present practical guidelines for the processes of engaging in art that may be transformative and critical for individuals and for society; and to illustrate the powerful potential of art as a way of teaching for democratic citizenship. We move toward a Pedagogy of Social Imagination in Art and Adult Education by recounting a real-life empirical study of creating opportunities for transformative learning through engagements with art. John Dewey and Maxine Greene assist in outlining a rationale for exploring arts in adult education.

2022 개정 통합사회 교육과정 및 문항 분석을 통한 역사 영역 적용 검토와 개선 방안

Objectives The purpose of this study is to review the current application of the history domain to the integrated society subject and prepare a plan to apply the history domain practically under an integrated perspective in the process of questioning the integrated society SAT after 2028. Methods To this end, the content system and achievement standards of the 2022 revised integrated society cur-riculum and the items of the 2023 National Federation Academic Assessment Integrated Society Evaluation were analyzed. Results The content system and achievement standards of the integrated social curriculum reflected a large part of the historical domain, but they were not actually reflected in the questions of the National Union's academic evaluation. Conclusions In order to apply the historical domain to the integrated society SAT questions, it is necessary to find ways to analyze achievement standards and extract evaluation content elements, develop appropriate question types, and ultimately seek ways to apply the contents of democratic citizenship, controversy, and ecological envi-ronmental history, which are actively discussed in the current history department, from the perspective of history.

‘Stick to the status quo’? A conjoint experiment with German adolescents on democratic designs

AbstractWhile representing the next generation of democratic citizens, research on process preferences of adolescents is in its infancy. To analyse what institutional designs adolescents favour, we conducted a conjoint experiment with a unique, representative sample of 1,970 German pupils between the age of 14–17. We find that adolescents in general are ‘status quo’– democrats, preferring a parliament (representing the central institution of the existing representative system) to alternative institutions, namely citizen forums and an assertive leader. However, support for the status quo comes with several qualifications, namely expert input, slow and considerate political processes and a final referendum. Furthermore, we find differences between subgroups, whereby dissatisfied adolescents are more open to citizen forums and an assertive leader than satisfied adolescents. By contrast, more sophisticated adolescents have stronger preferences for the parliament as the main institution. Overall, our results suggest that a major overhaul of the democratic infrastructure does not seem to be a priority for the next generation of citizens, although there is some desire for innovation, namely the ‘blending’ of representative institutions with more citizen participation.

Supporting Preservice Teachers’ Civic Competence as a Strategy for Internationalisation in the Digital Era

Higher education institutions worldwide show an interest in enhancing their internationalisation initiatives by integrating innovative teaching approaches into formal curricula. A main concern is to ensure that preservice teachers enter future classrooms with a high level of civic competence. The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges and opportunities confronted within a professional development programme designed to promote preservice teachers’ competencies for democratic culture. The professional development programme was a three-year Erasmus+ KA2 programme involving the development of teacher training modules inspired by and aimed at developing competencies from the Reference Framework of Competencies for Democratic Culture. Its objective was to integrate digital resources within practicum-based learning modules based on democratic citizenship values. Following the implementation of the programme, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) was conducted to gather data on the programme’s potential to support preservice teachers’ civic competencies. The SWOT analysis was completed by ten teacher educators from five different university departments located in two metropolitan cities in central and northern Greece. Thematic analyses were used at a case and group level. The results showed that the online affordances of the programme, combined with each department’s practicum-based learning modules, could effectively support the development of preservice teachers’ civic competencies, provided that resources were adapted with a human-centred sensitivity to the specificities of each context. In alignment with worldwide teacher education trends, we advocate for the implementation of similar programmes in the future as a ‘participatory internationalisation at home’ strategy for supporting teacher online collaboration and peer learning.