Content and Process in Education for Democracy

Overview & Synopsis

We live in a global era of transcendent democracy. According to recent surveys by Freedom House, most peoples of the world favor democracy over other types of government. A global revival of education for democratic citizenship accompanies the worldwide resurgence of democracy. Diverse peoples in various parts of the world commonly understand that if there would be "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," then there must be education of the people in the principles, practices, and commitments of democracy. This article focuses on two related questions: (1) What are the characteristics of a good education for democracy? and (2) Why should this kind of civic education be at the core of the curriculum in schools? The author describes a four-component conceptualization of civic education that conjoins core content with processes of learning to enable the development of the intellectual and social capital required for competent and responsible citizenship in a democracy. (Contains 2 tables and 26 endnotes.)