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In this article, we explore teachers’ ideas about teaching for democratic citizenship. In short, we want to understand “what kind of citizen” teachers aim to educate. We ground our study in three ideal types that represent different ways of understanding what education for democratic citizenship education revolves around: politically informed citizenship (politisk informert medborgerskap), rational autonomous citizenship (rasjonelt autonomt medborgerskap), and socially intelligent citizenship (sosialt intelligent medborgerskap). A first finding is that teacher emphasize that students should acquire knowledge that they can make use of as democratic citizens. Teachers are preoccupied with making students politically informed. A second finding is, however, that teachers understand democratic citizenship education as something more than just knowledge acquisition. One purpose that holds high priority with the teachers is that students should learn how to think critically; to become rationally autonomous. The pedagogical implication of this view is that students should acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes that helps realize this ambition. This interpretation of what democratic citizenship is moves beyond being able to make an informed choice between different alternatives or representatives. In the last part of the article education for democratic citizenship is discussed in light of the third category; the socially intelligent citizen. We find that while teachers put much emphasis on knowledge and critical thinking, there is little emphasis on participation in democratic practices. We thus conclude that teachers talk about schooling as a tool for democracy much more than they talk about democracy as an ideal or model for schooling.

In this article, we examine how social studies teachers’ say they interpret and use different parts of the curriculum in order to teach for democracy. The empirical material of the study is based on a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with teachers in secondary school in Norway. We present three main find-ings. A first finding is that most social studies teachers plan their instruction based on the subject-specific competence aims. For most teachers, the general part of the curriculum, where democratic education is highlighted, does not constitute an articulated part of instruction. Some teachers feel, however, that they still work in accord with this part of the curriculum, but in a way better described as tacit. A second finding is that teachers agree that the subject-specific competence aims are comprehensive and that many teachers agree they are too comprehensive. A third finding is that the teachers disagree about whether conditions for democratic citizenship education are adequate or not. We suggest two inter-related reasons for this disa-greement. One reason is somewhat different interpretations of and emphasis put on the mandate to teach for democracy by different teachers. A second reason is differences in pedagogy and school culture.

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