Reflections on contemporary challenges and possibilities for democracy and education

Abstract

is the author and editor of 45 books and his writings have been translated into 25 languages. His forthcoming book is called Critical Theory: Rituals, Pedagogies and Resistance (Brill). Stewart Riddle is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland. His research examines the democratisation of schooling systems, increasing access and equity in education and how schooling can respond to critical social issues in complex contemporary times.

University and challenge of citizenship education. Professors’ conceptions in training

“…In this sense, and linked to the conceptions of the university, the faculty alluded to external contextual obstacles such as the curriculum itself, job instability or the lack of interdisciplinary networks. The university as an institution has a key and relevant role in the commitment and social responsability to change (Larrán-Jorge and Andrades-Peña, 2017; Estelles and Fischman, 2020) to favor a democratic citizen space, in which the establishment of networks that address common problems or the training of university teachers as critical intellectuals are promoted (Apple et al, 2022). In this sense, the university as an institution also has a responsibility in the policies it develops and must promote and build a sense of social responsibility through the training of its students, the research it carries out, the management it implements and the citizenship and civic values it promotes (Larrán-Jorge and Andrades-Peña, 2017).…”

“…According to Escámez-Sánchez and Peris-Cancio (2021) the priority mission of universities cannot be economic growth as an end, as it has serious consequences for our own social sustainability. As stated by Apple et al (2022) the substitution of academic values by corporate values makes the university move in an irrational logic whereby training young people to address social injustices or constituting a critical mass of teachers as public intellectuals at the service of social needs disappears. Consequently, the predominant pattern of social relationship within and outside the institution itself is characterized by competitiveness and individualism (Giroux, 2015).…”

When the Truth Doesn’t Seem to Matter: The Affordances of Disciplinary Argument in the Era of Post-truth

“…It should be noted, however, that people’s understanding of democratic education depends on the meanings they impute to the concepts of democracy and education and the connections they make between them. According to Apple et al (2022, p. 2), these understandings are “mediated by what we value and what have learnt (and been taught) to value and desire, be they public or private goods, institutions and experiences.” This theme is echoed by Sant (2019), who argues that the concept of democratic education is a “floating signifier” to which different political discourses invest their own meaning. Her analysis of the democratic education literature identified eight different discourses, each of which could be distinguished by their aspirations for democracy, their political motivations, and their normative aims.…”

A Comparison between Deep Patterns of Education within Reformative Views in Contemporary Romania with Respect to Critical Thinking and Philosophical Competencies

“…Other important arguments have been sustained in this book: this culture of measuring relies solely on technical validity while letting aside normative validity, the focus put on an instrumental values such as effectiveness, the societal lack of attention to the fundamentally philosophical question about what constitutes good education, the commonsensical view about what is important in education which mainly reproduce economical inequalities, the problematic replacing in the last years of the fundamental concept of education with the concept of learning and so on. On the other hand, it is important to ask ourselves if entrepreneurial models are benefic for democracy and democratic values understood as core values of our societies (Apple et al, 2022). In the same book (Biesta, 2010, p. 14 ), Biesta shows that, in modern times, education has fulfilled three main functions: a) preparing the student for labour market, getting him qualifications that will make him apt for earning his leaving and being useful to the society as a whole, a function that is called qualification; b) socializing the student, making him assimilate the values of societies and the norms of behaviour that are agreed inside society, a function that is called socialization; c) individuation (helping the student become a subject with interiority, an ability for introspection and a depth of consciousness, understood as a virtual place of deliberation and understanding critically in the same time personal behaviour, values and decisions and the values of the society as a whole, a function called subjectification.…”