Core values for democratic citizenship education in liberal democratic states

Abstract

Objectives: The overall aim of this thesis was to identify the core values of liberal democratic states that could serve as a basis for the provision of Citizenship Education. The first objective was to define liberal democratic states. The second objective was to understand what is meant by Citizenship Education in such states, to analyse its justification and legitimacy. Finally, the third and major objective was to provide an overview of the common core of values on which liberal democratic states, and consequently Citizenship Education are instituted. Chapter one provides an introduction. Chapter two clarifies what is understood by the term "liberal democratic state" and chapter three describes the citizenship education provision that ought to be found in such states taking into consideration the many trends in liberal political philosophy. In chapter four, the study focuses in detail on the values that ought to be taught through Citizenship Education for the construction of a conception of citizenship as a political identity that could be shared by all citizens despite their diverse conceptions of the good life. It is being suggested that the core values that underpin Citizenship Education in liberal democratic states should be: freedom, rights, responsibility, democracy, tolerance for diversity, individual autonomy, law-abidingness, political equality, respect for other and an effort to be impartial. The suggested values are open to interpretation and meant to be generic enough to fit all trends of liberalism and be considered as the least common factor that belongs to all liberal democratic states. The values being proposed are meant to help the democratic process through which liberal democratic states interpret their own core values. It is acknowledged that the public values proposed in this study might conflict with personal values of some citizens and that this must be accepted with regret due to the fact that the state would simply not be able to hold together without a common core of public values. The proposed values should be of interest to policymakers responsible for civic education programmes, curriculum developers, school administrators, institutions responsible of teacher training, teachers, representatives of organisations concerned with values education, students and scholars who have an interest in the values taught in liberal democratic states.