Educational policy and the promotion of democracy

As we have explored in the previous step, the promotion of democracy has for a long time been one of the tasks of schools within democratic systems. But this demand is now becoming increasingly urgent. In recent times, we have seen how democracy is in crisis: growing inequalities, a rise of xenophobic and racist attitudes, increasing examples of fake news and hate speech on social media, and high levels of frustration particularly among marginalised groups and young people. Indeed, across Europe and more widely, the globe, teachers in schools are expected to engage students as democratic citizens. The hope is that education for democracy will help to tackle radicalisation and combat support for totalitarian and discriminatory views.

In this video, you can listen to teachers from three different countries (England, Portugal and Spain) explaining how the educational policies that regulate their teaching practices relate to the promotion of democracy in schools.