ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 we offer a reclassification of educational approaches to teaching democracy centred on the distinction between education for democracy and democratic education. We argue that education can promote democratic practice itself through a conception of democratic education as communication and deliberation, rather than education for democracy which is merely preparation for students to function effectively as future citizens. Whereas education for democracy fails to involve children and adolescents in a continuing process of education aimed at self-actualisation and the creation of a learning society, thereby serving political agendas rather than democracy itself, democratic education places priority on the development of social and intellectual capacities and dispositions for active and informed citizenship, insofar as it recognises democracy as an educational process and not something to educate toward. We place emphasis on Dewey’s notion of reconstruction and the primacy of education as communication and deliberation as the basis for reconceptualising citizenship as a learning process. We conclude that this can be strengthened further by integrating educational philosophy through classroom communities of inquiry.
