Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education: Exploring a Pluralist Perspective in Light of Finnish Social Studies Textbooks.
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| Title: | Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education: Exploring a Pluralist Perspective in Light of Finnish Social Studies Textbooks. |
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| Authors: | Mikander, Pia1 pia.mikander@helsinki.fi, Satokangas, Henri1 |
| Source: | Studies in Philosophy & Education. Oct2024, Vol. 43 Issue 5, p555-571. 17p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Social sciences education, *Textbooks, *Citizenship, Democracy, Social marginality |
| Abstract: | Democracy is increasingly being challenged, by disengagement and by anti-pluralist movements (Levitsky and Ziblatt in How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future, Viking, New York, 2018; Wikforss in Därför demokrati. Om kunskapen och folkstyret [Because of this, democracy. On knowledge and people's rule] Fri Tanke, 2021; Svolik et al. in J Democr 34(1):5–20, 2023). This article draws upon a theoretical discussion about democracy, pluralism, and threats to democracy. Departing from Dewey, Laclau, Mouffe, Young and Allen, we address democracy as an ideology that centers around pluralism, or an ever-increasing inclusion of voices from the margins as its goal. We argue that perceiving democracy pedagogically as a pluralistic ideology would support students' democratic citizenship and equip them for a world where threats to democracy are being reported. Employing a case study on Finnish social studies textbooks, we analyze how democracy as well as threats to democracy are discursively portrayed. Our study shows that the textbooks present democracy as predominantly institutional and static. We also find that while disengagement is portrayed as a problem for democracy, anti-pluralist movements are generally not referred to as a threat. Additionally, we examine a discourse in the textbooks that connects freedom of speech with democracy in a way that favors a multitude of opinions, even antidemocratic ones, over creating space for marginalized voices. Drawing on the theoretical discussion and the results of the analysis, we argue that a focus on pluralism as the core of democracy makes the opposition between restricting hate speech and advocating for democracy redundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Studies in Philosophy & Education is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 180303172 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education: Exploring a Pluralist Perspective in Light of Finnish Social Studies Textbooks. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mikander%2C+Pia%22">Mikander, Pia</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> pia.mikander@helsinki.fi</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Satokangas%2C+Henri%22">Satokangas, Henri</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Studies+in+Philosophy+%26+Education%22">Studies in Philosophy & Education</searchLink>. Oct2024, Vol. 43 Issue 5, p555-571. 17p. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+sciences+education%22">Social sciences education</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Textbooks%22">Textbooks</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Citizenship%22">Citizenship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Democracy%22">Democracy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+marginality%22">Social marginality</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Democracy is increasingly being challenged, by disengagement and by anti-pluralist movements (Levitsky and Ziblatt in How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future, Viking, New York, 2018; Wikforss in Därför demokrati. Om kunskapen och folkstyret [Because of this, democracy. On knowledge and people's rule] Fri Tanke, 2021; Svolik et al. in J Democr 34(1):5–20, 2023). This article draws upon a theoretical discussion about democracy, pluralism, and threats to democracy. Departing from Dewey, Laclau, Mouffe, Young and Allen, we address democracy as an ideology that centers around pluralism, or an ever-increasing inclusion of voices from the margins as its goal. We argue that perceiving democracy pedagogically as a pluralistic ideology would support students' democratic citizenship and equip them for a world where threats to democracy are being reported. Employing a case study on Finnish social studies textbooks, we analyze how democracy as well as threats to democracy are discursively portrayed. Our study shows that the textbooks present democracy as predominantly institutional and static. We also find that while disengagement is portrayed as a problem for democracy, anti-pluralist movements are generally not referred to as a threat. Additionally, we examine a discourse in the textbooks that connects freedom of speech with democracy in a way that favors a multitude of opinions, even antidemocratic ones, over creating space for marginalized voices. Drawing on the theoretical discussion and the results of the analysis, we argue that a focus on pluralism as the core of democracy makes the opposition between restricting hate speech and advocating for democracy redundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Studies in Philosophy & Education is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1007/s11217-024-09934-7 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 17 StartPage: 555 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Social sciences education Type: general – SubjectFull: Textbooks Type: general – SubjectFull: Citizenship Type: general – SubjectFull: Democracy Type: general – SubjectFull: Social marginality Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education: Exploring a Pluralist Perspective in Light of Finnish Social Studies Textbooks. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Mikander, Pia – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Satokangas, Henri IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 10 Text: Oct2024 Type: published Y: 2024 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 00393746 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 43 – Type: issue Value: 5 Titles: – TitleFull: Studies in Philosophy & Education Type: main |
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