A Civic Republican Theory of Civic Education?

Abstract

As the arguments in the previous chapter have suggested, there is a strong sense in which civic education curricular programmes and initiatives in a number of Western democratic nations are influenced by a civic republican agenda. Is it possible, therefore, to delineate and clearly elucidate a singular and unified civic republican theory for civic education? Given the complexity of contemporary civic republican standpoints, which can at best be simplified into two differing strands, I doubt that such a task is possible, beyond a set of broad commitments. There is great value, however, in educationalists familiarizing themselves with these civic republican commitments and, in addition, with the key debates around them, to think more clearly about the nature, goals and content of civic education programmes. To do this will not necessarily present clear and finite answers, but instead will provide a range of questions, issues and ideas which will provoke further deliberation. The first task of this concluding chapter is to summarize the main tenets of civic republican models of citizenship, each of which raise significant issues for how we approach the aims, purposes and content of civic education. The second task of this chapter is to consider, in brief terms, additional areas of civic republican thought which have so far not received detailed attention and which seem to me to have the potential to provide an even fuller and more rounded republican agenda for civic education.