Page 230 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 3-4: Convention on the Rights of the Child: Educational Opportunities and Social Justice, eds. Zdenko Kodelja and Urška Štremfel
P. 230
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 3–4
37). This trend is seen increasingly today in various societal government
intrusions in the era of the ‘new normal’. Even though the book Teaching
Democracy was published over a decade ago and should be read with its
critical theory glasses on, it seems that in the current world its message
that transformative citizenship education is needed is more relevant than
ever. The latest trends in capitalism (neo-liberalism and hyper-globalisa-
tion) and dominant characteristics of societies across the world (rise of
populist movements, racism, migrations and increasing human rights
breaches) continue to transform our lives and societies that suit the im-
age of the market (Heggart et al., 2018). We are facing a pandemic that is
heavily tied to globalisation, consumerism and ecology. This is shown, for
example, in the use of face masks that on one side are becoming a fash-
ion trend and ways of promoting businesses and popular culture perso-
nas and, on the other, a tool of politics for controlling people around the
world. The pandemic is a product of the global movement of people and
goods, especially unsustainable tourism, overcrowding, transport, unnec-
essary business and scientific meetings and so on (Adam, 2020b). The de-
scription given by the book’s authors applies today more than ever: “These
are extremely tenuous times for modern democratic states and for de-
mocracy more generally as the international community has drifted dan-
gerously towards a monolithic vision of the socially possible” (Hyslop-
Margison and Thayer, 2009, p. xvi).
Today, children are bombarded with ideological messages designed
to persuade them that appearance, wealth and conspicuous consumption
influence self-worth and social status. Schools have a big role to play in
teaching citizenship to our children, but what exactly do they teach? Do
they aim to create critical citizens or simply loyal followers who will vote
every 4 years and remain passive political participants? It seems the lat-
ter prevails since the dominant educational agenda is oriented to teaching
children to fit with a predetermined ‘social reality’ that excludes students
as future citizens from meaningful political participation. ‘To obey and
fit the model’ is taught as the best strategy. The book Teaching Democracy
aims to challenge such school curricula and proposes a model of citizen-
ship education that borrows heavily from critical theory insights. It in-
tends to both inform and empower future citizens to participate actively
in social design and reconstruction (Hyslop-Margison and Thayer, 2009,
p. xvii). More concretely, the book has two main aims. First, it wishes to
articulate the threat to democracy by the current citizenship education
approaches which promote passivity, compliance and protect the status
quo. Second, it wishes to provide a way out of this anti-democratic trap
and change those critiques into concrete political actions by providing (in
228
37). This trend is seen increasingly today in various societal government
intrusions in the era of the ‘new normal’. Even though the book Teaching
Democracy was published over a decade ago and should be read with its
critical theory glasses on, it seems that in the current world its message
that transformative citizenship education is needed is more relevant than
ever. The latest trends in capitalism (neo-liberalism and hyper-globalisa-
tion) and dominant characteristics of societies across the world (rise of
populist movements, racism, migrations and increasing human rights
breaches) continue to transform our lives and societies that suit the im-
age of the market (Heggart et al., 2018). We are facing a pandemic that is
heavily tied to globalisation, consumerism and ecology. This is shown, for
example, in the use of face masks that on one side are becoming a fash-
ion trend and ways of promoting businesses and popular culture perso-
nas and, on the other, a tool of politics for controlling people around the
world. The pandemic is a product of the global movement of people and
goods, especially unsustainable tourism, overcrowding, transport, unnec-
essary business and scientific meetings and so on (Adam, 2020b). The de-
scription given by the book’s authors applies today more than ever: “These
are extremely tenuous times for modern democratic states and for de-
mocracy more generally as the international community has drifted dan-
gerously towards a monolithic vision of the socially possible” (Hyslop-
Margison and Thayer, 2009, p. xvi).
Today, children are bombarded with ideological messages designed
to persuade them that appearance, wealth and conspicuous consumption
influence self-worth and social status. Schools have a big role to play in
teaching citizenship to our children, but what exactly do they teach? Do
they aim to create critical citizens or simply loyal followers who will vote
every 4 years and remain passive political participants? It seems the lat-
ter prevails since the dominant educational agenda is oriented to teaching
children to fit with a predetermined ‘social reality’ that excludes students
as future citizens from meaningful political participation. ‘To obey and
fit the model’ is taught as the best strategy. The book Teaching Democracy
aims to challenge such school curricula and proposes a model of citizen-
ship education that borrows heavily from critical theory insights. It in-
tends to both inform and empower future citizens to participate actively
in social design and reconstruction (Hyslop-Margison and Thayer, 2009,
p. xvii). More concretely, the book has two main aims. First, it wishes to
articulate the threat to democracy by the current citizenship education
approaches which promote passivity, compliance and protect the status
quo. Second, it wishes to provide a way out of this anti-democratic trap
and change those critiques into concrete political actions by providing (in
228
