Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy

by Eamonn Callan

What is the role of political education in liberal democracies? This question, which is at the heart of recent debates in the US over federal funding of private schools, forms the core of this book. The problem of political education is to ensure the constitutive ideals of liberal democracy while remaining open to a diversity of conduct and beliefs that may threaten those ideals. In Creating Citizens , Eamonn Callan, one of the world's foremost philosophers of education, identifies both the principal ends of civic education and the rights that limit their political pursuit. This timely new study sheds light on some of our most divisive educational controversies, such as state sponsorship and regulation of denominational schooling, as well as the role of non-denominational schools in the moral and political development of children.

Genres: Philosophy, Education

262 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 1997

Reviews

[Jennifer]

Wonderfully written, sophisticated, and compelling account of citizenship education. Not sure that at the end it avoids the pitfalls of other citizenship accounts, but it makes a strong case.

[Kmharris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deep analysis of pertinent arguments and critiques. However, it is written in such an inaccessible manner that is on par with the writings of John Dewey.