Democratic Education in the Mode of Populism

Abstract

This paper seeks to bring John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy of democratic education and the public into dialogue with Ernesto Laclau's theory of populism. Recognizing populism as an integral aspect of democracy, rather than as its antithesis, the purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical account of populism as being of educational relevance in two respects. First, it argues that the populist logic specifies a set of formal elements by which democratic education could operate as a collective enterprise. Second, it asserts that the notion of populism supplements any congenial understanding of democratic education by bringing political demands, conflicts and affects to the fore. Finally, the paper discusses the risks and possibilities inherent in visualizing populism as an educational modus.

The Educational Implications of Populism, Emotions and Digital Hate Speech: A Dialogue with Scholars from Canada, Chile, Spain, the UK, and the US

“…In particular, the interviewees were asked about: (a) the educational roots and consequences of the rise of authoritarian populism, (b) the role of school in the preeminence of feelings over reason in political judgments, and (c) the educational challenges of the new digital era with the recent rise of authoritarian populism. The first question posed to the scholars intended to fill a gap in the literature, as the few researchers that have reflected on the relationship between populism and formal education have departed instead from a left-wing view of populism [7,15,27]. The second question aimed to have the scholars reflect not only on the affective dimension of citizenship education, but also on the less-explored issue of the role of formal education, either active or passive [33], in the increasing omnipresence of emotions in the political arena.…”

“…Others have also studied the educational effects on authoritarian values [25] and political opinions [26]. However, populism, as a phenomenon, has not generated much concern among educational researchers [15,27]. A brief look at databases such as ERIC, Scopus, or Web of Science is enough to realize that very little work has been done in the intersectional fields of populism and education.…”

“…The few publications related to this topic that have recently appeared mostly agree that a critical analysis of populism can provide teachers and students with opportunities to enrich democratic education [17]. These recent works have been primarily focused on three different, but closely intertwined concerns: the implications of populism for democratic education [15,27,28] and the role played by emotions [17,29] and digital media [30] in the rise of authoritarian populism. In relation to the first matter, Sant et al [7] have reflected on the educational implications of populism understood in two different ways: (a) as an ideological narrative, drawing on Žižek's theoretical work; and (b) from the viewpoint of radical democracy, following Mouffe and Laclau's contributions.…”

“…According to Sant et al [7], for the first perspective, bringing populism into formal education means reproducing "the same ideological game that it claims to challenge" (p. 51), while for the second, it implies recognizing educational settings as political spaces. Departing from this last viewpoint, Mårdh and Tryggvason [27] consider that "a democratic education that stems from an associative and political understanding of democracy depends upon the notion of the people and cannot, subsequently, fully eliminate the elements of populism" (p. 10). For this reason, they suggest bringing the concept of populism into democratic education.…”

The affective atmospheres of democratic education: pedagogical and political implications for challenging right-wing populism

“…There is a growing concern that the rise of right-wing populism in recent years threatens liberal democracy (Galston, 2018;Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2012;Panizza, 2005). This concern is relevant to democratic education, as Mårdh and Tryggvason (2017) argue, because the notion of populism as a form of political articulation can enrich understandings of democratic education 'by bringing political demands, conflicts and affects to the fore' (p. 602, added emphasis). My point of departure in this paper, then, is the argument that it is important for democratic education to pay attention to the affective dimensions of politics-especially, right-wing populism-and its pedagogical implications.…”