Reconciliation in democracies under stress: a need for new civic education approaches?

Abstract

Democracies around the world face strong intra-societal polarisations. Narratives are dividing the population into friends and enemies and impede a constructive democratic process. With this panel, we raise the question whether difficult democratic transitions (e.g. after elections) can and must be accompanied by specific approaches to citizenship education. Namely, we intend to initiate a discussion whether it is appropriate to apply elements of education for peace and reconciliation, usually designed for post-conflict countries (Bekerman/Zembylas 2012; Rubagiza/Umutoni/Kaleeba 2016; Charalambous/Zembylas/ Charalambous 2020), to Western democracies and how this can be done. Therefore, we are looking for contributions which 1 report experiences from post-conflict societies conceptually and empirically (also comparatively); 2 present conceptual approaches to the question of polarization and civic education and democratic “healing” and resilience; 3 address the potential of civic education for democratic reconciliation in societies torn apart by extreme tendencies of division and autocratization; 4 theoretically consider how approaches of peace and reconciliation education can be translated to Western contexts. References Bekerman, Zvi / Zembylas, Michalinos (2012): Teaching Contested Narratives. Identity, Memory and Reconciliation in Peace Education and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Charalambous, Constadina / Zembylas, Michalinos / Charalambous, Panayiota (2020): Reconciliation pedagogies and critical ambivalence in teacher professional development: insights from a case study in Cyprus, in: Journal of Peace Education 17,1: 1-26, DOI: 10.1080/17400201.2020.1754774. Rubagiza, Jolly / Umutoni, Jane / Kaleeba, Ali (2016): Teachers as Agents of Change: Promoting Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion in Schools in Rwanda, in: Education as Change 20(3), 202-224, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1947-9417/2016/1533.

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