The Expression of Civic Republicanism in Civic Education

Abstract

In the foregoing chapters the ideas and principles which form the substantive nature of civic republicanism have been explored. I have suggested that running through these republican commitments, at times explicitly and at others implicitly, is an interest in and an attachment to civic education. The type of political engagement within public life that is central to republican models of freedom requires cultivation and habituation. Such cultivation and habituation requires formation through education, starting at a young age. For this reason, it is not too strong to suggest that without civic education, civic republican projects are seriously undermined. The purpose of this chapter is to draw out and analyse the central issues for civic education which result from recent republican work. It is suggested that the differences and tensions within contemporary republican discourse prompt significant questions for the aims, purposes and curricular approaches of civic education. It takes as its framework the four broad republican commitments which have provided the structure for the analysis so far, namely civic obligations, the common good, civic virtue and deliberation in public life. The analysis provided in this chapter is premised on my views, stated previously, that curriculum models of civic education derive from certain sets of beliefs (for this reason no curriculum can be considered a neutral document) and that whilst connections have been made between civic republican models of citizenship and civic education there is great benefit in exploring the substantive nature of the former in order to better understand the latter.