ABSTRACT
To see what the future might hold for the concept of educating for democracy, it is clear from all the chapters that we must first consider the past, as it provides the principles and the platform on which developments are based. In Chapter 1 of this volume, we have acknowledged the struggles and hardships endured by men and women over the centuries to obtain universal suffrage, but have argued that democratic citizenship is more than a duty to vote on polling day. For us, the Socratic ontology that to be human involves constant engagement with deliberations on the constitution and achievement of the ‘good life’ still holds. Democratic practices are manifested through what Habermas terms communicative action in the public sphere, in other words, the sayings, doings and relatings of individuals in the social and cultural contexts. So as well as participating in politics, for example, through the ballot box, democracy is an essential part of human life and humanity and cannot be separated from everyday life. We have taken Dewey’s perspective that individuals have the propensity for critical evaluation and the capacity to act upon their judgements if empathetic environments are established for democratic life. Schools and systems under which they operate and the institutions that produce the teachers that work with them should be empathetic environments. As Dewey would agree, the fundamental work of schools is not just to impart and instill the knowledge and understanding required by society for economic growth and profit; it is also to develop communality and communal life, the stuff of democratic living.
