2.3 Teaching through democracy and human rights – democratic culture in school

There can be no democracy without committed democrats.

Each generation receives its democratic heritage, and will hopefully understand and appreciate it, and learn how to make active use of it. It is the task of EDC/HRE, and education as a whole, to support and encourage the young generation to become active and committed democrats.

The cultural traditions that are favourable for democracy develop slowly, as the historical experience in many countries has shown. Nation-building projects in post-civil war societies face their most serious obstacles in the absence of a democratic cultural tradition. A blueprint of a democratic insti­tution can be imported, as it were, but the cultural roots of democracy cannot – they must literally stem from the society’s cultural heritage.

Political culture can therefore be conceived in constructivist categories. It is acquired through processes of learning and socialisation. Therefore it makes a difference whether schools are governed democratically or autocratically, as the students may be expected to learn how to live in, or under, the form of government they experience in early life.

School as a micro-society can support its students to acquire and appreciate key elements of a democratic and human rights culture, including the following:

• The students are able to know and express their interests and views with confidence and self-esteem.
• The students treat each other with mutual respect, including listening and empathy, that is, the willingness and ability to switch perspectives.
• The students are able to settle conflict through non-violent means, that is, negotiation and compromise.
• The students appreciate the function of institutional frameworks that protect and limit their individual rights of liberty. They add the “soft”, informal element of political culture to the “hard”, formal element of rules.
• The students appreciate politics as a practical effort aiming to solve problems that require attention and a decision.
• The students participate in the process of electing representatives and in formal decision-making processes.
• The students engage in non-prescribed ways to influence decision making, such as through awareness raising, activism, lobbying and by handling problems on their own.
• The students take responsibility for their decisions and choices, considering their impact both for themselves and for others.
• The students are aware that if they do not participate in decisions that affect them, others will make them, and the outcome may be unfavourable for them.

Political culture is strongly linked to the attitudes and values that young citizens acquire through processes of socialisation, including their school experience. There are other agents that also strongly influence the socialisation process of young people, particularly the family, peers and the media. On the other hand, the school community offers children and adolescents the earliest opportunities to experience interaction in society and in public; we may therefore assume that school has a decisive influence on how the democratic heritage is passed on to the young generation. Through their learning and experience in the school setting, young people can develop the habits and skills for lifelong engagement with democratic process and human rights values, both through formal decision-making processes as well as through everyday interactions.