How Should We Educate Students Whose Cultures Frown upon Rational Disputation? Cultural Difference and the Role of Reason in Multicultural Democratic Education

How should public education in democratic states deal with cultural differences among citizens?

This question gains point and practical relevance from the increasingly diverse cultural constituencies that collectively constitute the citizenry of contemporary democratic states. However, to shed light on it, it is helpful to step back and consider the question fi rst without reference to culture. So: What should public education in democratic states be like (irrespective of the cultural make-up of its citizens)? At what should it aim?