In person icon Citizenship Education and the Contemporary Challenges to Democracy

Abstract

The panel addresses the contemporary tensions in Western democracies and the possibilities for citizenship education to address these challenges. Challenges such as political polarization, radicalization, populism, mediatization, technocratization, securitization, digitalization, disenchantment, illiberalism, crises, conflict, and the need for sustainability in development make it difficult to develop a constructive yet autonomous and critical citizen agency; however, this is what democracy needs. We will discuss the opportunities to strengthen contemporary responsible democratic citizenship through civics and citizenship education both in terms of the competences developed, interactive methods and practical community and political linkages. This includes conceptual and practical perspectives, including innovative ideas, techniques, initiatives or interventions supporting responsible democratic citizenship through education for democracy. The discussion is informed by but not limited to the intermediate outcomes of the two years of the Horizon Europe Democrat project that aims to strengthen liberal democracy in the European Union by supporting its embedding and sustainability through participatory redesign and implementation of innovative and context-sensitive education for responsible democratic citizenship curricula and learning methods. The results of both conceptual and empirical work and the experiences of practical educational interventions will be discussed.

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