Towards a post-democratic era? Moral education against new forms of authoritarianism

ABSTRACT

Educating in a convulsed political context demands a detailed analysis of the new circumstances of our times, especially the current democracy crisis. According to the latest reports issued by international evaluation organisations, one of the greatest challenges for democratic citizenship is the emergence and rise of authoritarianism within the framework of the so-called post-democracy, and also in the manifestations known as illiberal democracy. Moral and civic education has to respond to this challenge. With this in mind, we propose revitalising a participative and deliberative democracy model, rethinking the basic values in citizens' education, redefining the relation between what is public and what is private, and empowering sensitivity and free creation in the new maker culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic education
• democracy
• populism
• ethical values
• media education
• maker culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vicent Gozálvez

Dr. Vicent Gozálvez is a professor in the Department of Theory of Education at the University of Valencia. He is a specialist in research and teaching in the fields of Philosophy of Education, Citizenship Education, Intercultural Pedagogy and Media Education. He is the author of Inteligencia moral (Moral Intelligence, 2000, Desclée de Brouwer) and Ciudadanía mediática. Una mirada educativa (Media Citizenship. An educational view, 2012, Dykinson). He is co-author of the paper Antonio Bernal, Vicent Gozálvez & Marta Burguet (2019) Ethical reconstruction of citizenship: A proposal between the intimate self and the public sphere, Journal of Moral Education, 48:4, 483–498.

Maria Rosa Buxarrais

Dra. Maria Rosa Buxarrais is Professor in the Department of Theory and History of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Barcelona. She is Principal Researcher of the GREM research group (Grup de Recerca en Educació Moral). Her research and teaching career has focused on moral education, citizenship education, values education and child and youth participation, among others. She is currently director of the Institute for Professional Development (IDP-ICE) at the University of Barcelona. http://mariarosabuxarrais.com

Cruz Pérez

Dr. Cruz Pérez is Professor in the grade of Pedagogy at the University of Valencia. His research focuses on the learning of values, attitudes and norms in school and university contexts. In recent years, he has participated in a research group on Learning-Service (ApS), which includes six Spanish Universities. He currently co-directs a Research group on the Learning to Learn competence at the university, in which three Spanish universities participate.