Citizenship Education in the Postfactual Age: Vision and Lived Reality

Citizenship education is a crucial ingredient in the effort to reclaim liberal democracy in a digital age that is characterized by the twin challenge of mis-/disinformation and the resurgence of populism, both in Europe and elsewhere. The changing information environment has contributed profoundly to political polarization (both ideological and affective) as well as to an ongoing fragmentation of the public sphere, with all that this entails for the possibility of democratic deliberation and citizenship more broadly. Despite a growing acknowledgement of the need to step up efforts to adapt citizenship education to the challenges associated with the changing environment, there are several gaps that need to be filled urgently. On the one hand, more comparative research is needed on how well (or how poorly) different education systems tackle the changing information environment in terms of much-needed skills like media literacy, digital skills and critical thinking more broadly. On the other hand, more research is needed on the performance on citizenship eduaction in various countries from the perspective of the lived experience of teachers in this field. In order to understand the performace of citizenship education at the national (or subnational) level, we need to understand not only what goals are identified at the level of curricula and curriculum development, but also how well (or how poorly) teachers are prepared for their changing role in citizenship education and what challenges they experience in providing the skills identified in curricula. This paper makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to this debate. At the theoretical level, the paper spells out the potential role of citizenship education as a key ingredient in the fight against the current epistemic crisis of liberal democracy. Empirically, the paper presents the findings of a case study on citizenship education in the Southern German state of Bavaria, based on an analysis of policy documents as well as all relevant curricula from different school types in the Bavarian school system. Moreover, the paper presents the findings of original interviews with Bavarian teachers, school principals, representatives of teachers‘ associations, and civil servants in the field of citizenship education. These interviews were conducted as part of the ongoing Horizon Europe project Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in the Postfactual Age. Most importantly, the findings underscore that considerably more resources need to be provided to fulfill the very ambitious goals formulated in the relevant curricula, particularly as regards systematically providing teachers with the necessary skills and competences, but also as regards increasing the number of hours devoted to media literacy and digital skills.