Educating for Democratic Participation in Contested Democracies

• In Event: Papers From Members of the International Academy of Education

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the emphases of education for democratic engagement and identify how those emphases align with new challenges for democratic participation resulting from the rise of authoritarian populism and new forms of bigotry and intolerance. The paper will discuss in particular the challenges resulting from the normalization of ideas and practices antithetical to universal human rights and to basic equality, and from the use of social media and misinformation to create in-groups committed to those anti-democratic ideas. The paper will focus on new areas of emphasis necessary for education for democratization to address these challenges. It draws on existing evidence about the implementation of ambitious curriculum and teacher professional development to examine the areas that need to be addressed to make education for democratic participation relevant to the challenges of the present.

Author

• Fernando M. Reimers, Harvard University
  Presenting Author