Citizenship education is an important part of current debates about future education. In contrast, educational philosopher Gert Biesta calls for a shift “from teaching citizenship to learning democracy”. This study wants to contribute to this shift. A Delphi-method is applied on a Dutch case study, presenting a way to collect and analyze data from experts that can be applied in different political, cultural and geographical contexts. The Delphi panel consists of experts from three categories of expertise in the field of democracy and Dutch education. A thematic analysis of the data collected through two succeeding rounds showed four emerging themes when turning the scope from citizenship to democracy: the distribution of responsibility of teachers and school leaders, the questions revolving around the freedom of education secured by the Dutch constitution, the nature of citizenship education, and most importantly, the school as a playground to practice democracy. This final theme was singled out by the experts as a higher purpose of democracy in education. This study argues that the concept of the school as a playground to practice democracy should be the focus to make the shift from teaching citizenship to learning democracy.

Research shows that teachers and educators struggle to act when conflict appears in the classroom. This article argues that (political) conflict should not be avoided or eradicated. Teachers should enable conflict and attend to their pupils in the process, in order to enable further understanding of each other and their differences, as part of living together in a plural and diverse society. Scholars and educators often take a deliberative approach to citizen education by focusing on problem solving and consensus seeking. This article explores how conflict can be educational if we accept that antagonisms are inherent parts of human relations. The aim of this paper is not to propose moral boundaries to conflicts. Instead, it wants to contribute to a shift from teaching citizenship as conflict-free space towards learning democracy, in which educational conflict, or friction, is seen as an important part of the political education of pupils. This paper uses democratic theory, narrative theory, and the cultural-historical theory of play as described by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, to construct analytical tools to further understand conflict in the classroom.

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Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. H.R.B.M. Kummeling, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 8 juli 2022 des ochtends te 10.