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).
