The work of Salzburg Global’s program on Civic and Civil Education–relevant to consolidated, consolidating, and backsliding democracies alike–emphasizes the vital role education can play in nurturing democracies worldwide. Democracy, as philosopher John Dewey noted, is more than a form of governance. In a robust form, it is “a mode of associated living,” a way of everyday life, allowing the harmonious development of the powers and capacities of all individuals in a society.
Democratic education should encompass knowledge about skills and attitudes shaped through different methods.
Education about democracy
Students should learn about the constitution, local and national governments, human rights, socio-political systems, topics related to national identity, and the behaviors and attitudes expected from informed and active citizens.
Education for democracy
Students should be able to contribute to a democratic, harmonious system in which diversity and social unity coexist, and through which they develop respect and tolerance for each other. For this, they should be taught specific skills such as media literacy, the ability to participate in dialogue, appropriately handle conflict, and think critically.
Education in a democratic way
Students should be provided with experiences where they can participate, develop their capacities, and create consensus to achieve a better life. Schools are where these skills should be experienced and developed by implementing democratic practices and relationships between teachers and students. In these environments, students and teachers can exercise autonomy and creativity, define objectives, develop judgments, evaluate desires, and consider the consequences of actions.
The Salzburg Statement for Civic and Civil Education
A
CRISIS IN DEMOCRACY: WE CAN CHANGE IT!
2024 is set to be the biggest election year in world history. Seventy countries comprising more than half the world’s population (over four billion people) are sending voters to polls in upcoming elections. At the same time, support for democratic institutions is declining and nationalism is on the rise globally.
Furthermore, social media-driven misinformation and political polarization coupled with powerful AI technologies threaten public discourse and healthy democratic dialogue. These challenges arise against a backdrop of critically important issues that require global attention.
EDUCATE
Perhaps the most important lever for change at our disposal is education. In ensuring successful democratic education, multiple actors must play complementary roles in a consistent and intentional manner.
In addition to formal educational institutions, community organizations, corporations, media and other public sector institutions can also play a role.
Implementation
Our ideas about democratic education need evidence-based ways of implementing them. Deliberation needs to turn into sustained action.
Our interventions need to be planned, repeated, consistent, and context sensitive. They will be more effective when they encompass many approaches to democratic education. With each of them we should consider:
• WHAT outcomes we want to see in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
• HOW we want to achieve them. For instance: formal or informal learning, inside or outside classrooms, through experiential learning, knowledge or student activities, etc.
• WHERE it should be taught - in school, in the media, at home, and in the community.
• WHO should teach it and be involved in the process and what they need. This includes teachers, specialists, democratic educators, youth workers and volunteers, parents, activists, community leaders, librarians, media, and many others.
• WHEN we plan for it to happen and how often.
We, the Fellows of Salzburg Global’s program on Civic and Civil Education: Identity, Belonging and Education in the 21st Century, urge all those who care about democracy to invest in education about and for democracy to improve citizens’ welfare, advance trust, and foster a more robust democratic society.
What The Future Might Look Like:
We developed three scenarios as working cases that can help us reimagine and develop tools for citizenship education in diverse and rapidly changing democratic circumstances.
Future 1 : An optimistic scenario where democratic societies will leverage technology and digital literacy to enhance transparency, accountability, mitigate corruption, and foster good governance. This will improve citizens’ welfare, advancing trust between the state and its people and improving society. Education spaces will employ multiple teaching approaches that shape students’ critical thinking, civic skills, and independence of thought to contribute to the common good.
Future 2 : A near-bleak scenario where undemocratic practices will likely flourish due to the rise of “strongmen”, sectionalism, increased polarization, and misinformation. Education spaces will likely suffer intense political influence with eroding academic freedom. This scenario compromises democratic education and practices because it restricts a free, independent, well-rounded education system.
Future 3: In 2035, democratic societies will successfully adapt to global challenges such as climate change, economic shifts, political crises, and health crises, while balancing rights and liberties through programmatic policies. Education spaces adapt to global challenges by promoting critical thinking, collaboration, and professional development through technology, assessments, global trends and pedagogical approaches.
Conclusions can be drawn from each of these futures to help educators deepen democratic practices. The different futures suggest that improving participatory culture in schools could foster democratic values among young people. Additionally, more controversial discussions led by professionals in and outside the educational system have to be implemented to increase critical thinking.
Being, Doing, and Thinking
Nurturing active and engaged citizens is embedded in the core aims of programs on democratic citizenship. This framework on three levels can be helpful in moving beyond the level of personal responsibility towards development of deeper and more critical engagement:
• Being: Taking personal responsibility for your own contribution as a citizen in the community, e.g., by volunteering at a soup kitchen, being a good neighbor, or paying taxes. This behavior is often rooted in the principles of honesty, responsibility, and respect for the law.
• Doing: Actively participating with others in civic structures and community organizations and taking a role in the leadership of community action, e.g., by organizing community service efforts. There is an understanding of how political structures work and strategies for collective action.
• Thinking: Analyzing the root causes of problems, deliberating and thinking critically about multiple perspectives, and understanding how change can happen, e.g., social movements, questioning and challenging political, economic, and social systems and structures that perpetuate established systems of injustice.
Three-Legged Stool of Curricula, Culture, and Community
This framework draws on work developed in schools and encourages active citizenship and the development of political knowledge through intentional objectives in curricula. It will also instill a culture of democracy among learners, families, school leaders, and staff and considers how citizenship is reflected in the larger community. Through intentional curricula objectives, individuals recognize themselves as citizens and attain the knowledge, skills, and concepts necessary to participate in their respective spaces (i.e., school, organization, club, municipality, country).
Citizens work for social and political change, hence recognizing themselves as citizens with the agency and ability to make change in the world. Participants consider their own beliefs and interests, how these may conflict with the beliefs and interests of others, and how potential conflicts may be resolved within a framework of democratic values. The ultimate aim is that these intentional objectives in the curricula will permeate the culture at every level of discourse and decisionmaking to effect change throughout the entire community.
CALL TO ACTION
How you can take action:
• Understand your local circumstances (school, country, etc.) to identify the possibilities for change.
• Lead conversations to identify root causes of the crisis of democracy in your context and seek solutions.
• Build coalitions to embed democratic processes and equip learners to be active members of their communities.
