Political Liberalism and Citizenship Education

Abstract

John Rawls claims that the kind of citizenship education required by political liberalism demands 'far less' than that required by comprehensive liberalism. Many educational and political theorists who have explored the implications of political liberalism for education policy have disputed Rawls's claim. Writing from a comprehensive liberal perspective, Amy Gutmann contends that the justificatory differences between political and comprehensive liberalism generally have no practical significance for citizenship education. Political liberals such as Stephen Macedo and Victoria Costa maintain that political liberalism requires a form of citizenship education that is far more demanding than that suggested by Rawls. Gordon Davis and Blain Neufeld, in contrast, defend Rawls's position. These different views have implications for the content of mandatory citizenship education, understanding of the 'common school ideal,' and the scope for educational choice within the framework of political liberalism. However, the differences between Gutmann, Macedo, and Costa, on the one hand, and Davis and Neufeld, on the other, might be attributable, at least in part, to their different foci. Gutmann, Macedo, and Costa focus on non-ideal theory, specifically the contemporary American context, whereas Davis and Neufeld begin, as does Rawls, within ideal theory, and consider non-ideal circumstances from that perspective.

Non-Domination and Political Liberal Citizenship Education

“…34 Such an education would be part of "developing the political virtues" within future citizens (Rawls 2005, 200). 35 This example is discussed in Davis and Neufeld 2007;and Neufeld 2013. It realizes (at least) two of the six pedagogic practices-"Deliberations of current, controversial issues," and "Simulations of adult civic roles"-identifi ed by Levine and Kawashima-Ginsberg (2017, 4) as proven to be eff ective with respect to civic learning.…”

Autonomy Education Beyond Borders

“…Now, one could challenge the paper's ambition to address a gap in the literature by suggesting that the issue of whether autonomy could and should be an educational aim in the international context is analogous to the issue of whether it could and should be an educational aim in multicultural nation-states. The latter issue has been extensively addressed by political and educational philosophers (Costa, 2011;Feinberg, 1980;Galston, 1995;Gutmann, 1995;Macedo, 2003;MacMullen, 2007;Mookherjee, 2008;Neufeld, 2013;Rawls, 1993: 199;Schouten, 2018;Swaine, 2010;Warnick, 2012). If indeed both problems are analogous, an additional investigation of the desirability of autonomy as a global educational aim seems unnecessary (or at least the only task this paper would have to fulfil is to show that the same normative issues are at stake).…”

Political Liberalism, Autonomy, and Education

“…Some political liberals defend Rawls's claim that an education for political autonomy differs from, and is generally less demanding than, one for comprehensive autonomy (Davis and Neufeld 2007;De Wijze 1999;Ebels-Duggan 2013;Neufeld 2013). This position, though, has been challenged by a number of theorists who have written on this topic.…”

“…Nonetheless, they maintain that the kinds of spill-over effects described by Gutmann and Macedo do not demonstrate that teaching political autonomy and teaching ethical autonomy are indistinguishable in practice. Davis and Neufeld hold that convergence in educational practice is nether conceptually nor practically inevitable-there exists a 'gap,' in both theory and practice, between teaching students the political ideas necessary for free and equal citizenship, and teaching students a form of comprehensive autonomy (Davis and Neufeld 2007: 60, n.41;Neufeld 2013). Classes that aim to teach students how to be politically autonomous, roughly, teach them about their rights and liberties as citizens, the political virtues, and how to participate in the political decision-making processes of their society.…”