E-grāmata: Educating for Democracy in England and Finland: Principles and culture

With the growth of Islamic State, the annexation of Ukraine by Russia and the growth of right-wing political parties like UKIP in UK and the True Finns in Finland, discussions on the nature of democracy and democratic citizenship have never been more important. Exploring the relationship between democratic values, classroom practices and neo-liberalist ideology in England and in Finland, the contributors to this book argue that it is the role of governments and the education systems they support to create teachers and students who can voice critically appraised judgements to guide their citizenship.

With chapters co-written by English and Finnish authors, Educating for Democracyanalyses the history and current state of education systems in England, Finland and other European countries to establish whether they are effective in creating democratically-minded citizens. Recent years have seen decreasing control of educator professionalism as governments are becoming more concerned about economic growth, and in some cases, survival. The contributors to this volume question whether educators are becoming less effective as a result, exploring the idea that democracy is a dying concept, and asking whether educators are now simply creating cogs for the neo-liberalistic/capitalist machine.

This book will be essential reading for academics and researchers in the fields of teacher education, education studies and comparative education. It will also be of great interest to those concerned with issues surrounding citizenship, democracy and the role of the government in education.