Educating the good citizen

Educating the “Good” Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals

by: Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa and Joseph Kahne, Mills College

At the level of rhetoric, most educators, policymakers, and citizens agree that developing students' capacities and commitments for effective and democratic citizenship is important. When we get specific about what democracy requires and about what kind of school curricula will best promote it, however, much of that consensus falls away. For some, a commitment to democracy is a promise to protect liberal notions of freedom, while for others democracy is primarily about equality or equality of opportunity. For some, civil society is the key, while for others, free markets are the great hope for a democratic society. For some, good citizens in a democracy volunteer, while for others they take active parts in political processes by voting, protesting, and working on political campaigns.

It is not surprising, then, that the growing number of educational programs that seek for further democracy by nurturing “good” citizens embody a similarly broad variety of goals and practices. Educating the “Good” Citizen to call attention to the spectrum of ideas about what good citizenship is and what good citizens do that are embodied by democratic education programs nationwide. The subtitle Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals to reflect our belief that the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship embedded in many current efforts at teaching for democracy reflects neither arbitrary choices nor pedagogical limitations but rather political choices with political consequences.

Consider, for example, the following perspectives. In 1985, Bill Bennett, then secretary of education under Ronald Reagen, wrote: “ A democracy depends on schools that help to foster a kind of character which respects the law and ... respects the value of the individual” (1985).