The Implications of Deliberative Democracy for the Politics of Education: Between Ethics and Politics
- Bibliographic Description: Vaidotas Valantiejus, „Svarstomosios demokratijos implikacijos švietimo politikai: tarp etikos ir politikos“, @eitis (lt), 2018, t. 1 166, ISSN 2424-421X.
- Previous Edition: Vaidotas Valantiejus, „Svarstomosios demokratijos implikacijos švietimo politikai: tarp etikos ir politikos“, Socialinis ugdymas, 2017, t. 45, nr. 1, p. 29–41, ISSN 1392-9569.
- Institutional Affiliation: Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto Socialinės edukacijos fakulteto Socialinio darbo ir sociologijos katedra.
Summary. The model of deliberative democracy and the theory of communicative action of Habermas offers a fresh look at interrelation between society and education. Although deliberative democracy encompasses the essential features of liberal democracy which is of modern value, at the same time it embraces fundamental change of understanding of liberal democracy and of attitude to education accordingly. First of all, deliberating process is valuable on its own, because mutual understanding in various social contexts can be achieved only by discussion, not by voting. Secondly, success of consensus might be of various reasons, because of pluralism of discourses. Thirdly, situation of ideal communication always indicates real local contexts. Thus situation of ideal communication is not just mental experiment but also has particular implications on educational theory. The idea of deliberative democracy can be described as education where different individual perspectives are forming continuous communication. So Habermas’ model is oriented to foster citizenship literacy and develop communicative competencies. Evolving open communication in particular could fortify institutions of deliberative democracy.
Keywords: deliberative democracy, education, communicative action, rationality, liberalism.