This paper examines the notion of tolerance in education. In general, tolerance is perceived as a means to resist hostility, raise awareness of cultural differences, mitigate violence, and maintain liberal and democratic values. In education, there are various initiatives, such as the International Day for Tolerance (UNESCO in Declaration of…

Societies concerned with preventing acts of violent extremism often target the ideas that are thought to motivate such acts. The state's use of educational institutions is one mechanism by which those ideas are subjected to challenge. Teaching liberal democratic values to students is one method. Here, David Stevens argues that this model is…

This article examines the antecedents of the 'British Values' (democracy, rule of law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and the rights of all men and women to live free from persecution) which it is incumbent upon British schools to teach. But it also seeks to move the debate forward by pointing to the 'British Virtues' without which it…

This paper presents the emergent paradigm of the "commons" as an alternative value and action system in the field of education, and it critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and its potential contribution to democratic transformation. The paper delves into an independent pedagogical community,…

The focus within the European tradition of democratic education has increasingly been on personal traits or character traits, values, and skills, rather than on broad structural features or systemic issues. This is reflected in a recent publication by the Council of Europe titled "Competences for Democratic Culture: Living Together as Equals…

This focus issue of CEPS Journal raises two topics usually treated separately, Religious Education and the use of religious symbols in public schools. Both involve the challenge of applying liberal democratic principles of secularism and pluralism in a school setting and refract policies on religion under conditions of globalisation, modernisation…

The article by Matthias Busch and Nancy Morys "'Mobilising for the Values of the Republic'--France's Education Policy Response to the 'Fragmented Society': A Commented Press Review" is dedicated to the recent debates on moral education in France. The debates have centred on the proposed reforms, called "the great mobilisation of…

The notion of educational gaps often portrays students of color as lower performing (or with less resources) than their White counterparts. The most prevalent gap narratives in civic education are the civic opportunity gap, where students of color in low-income areas tend to receive less quality civic education than White, wealthier students; and…

While the original objective of environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) acquired an awareness of the natural world and its current plight, animal welfare (AW), animal rights (AR), and deep ecology (DE) have often been absent within EE and ESD. AW and AR focus their attention on individual animals, while the DE…

This paper examines how Irish elite schools negotiate change and maintain their legitimacy in times of economic turmoil and rising social inequality. The paper argues that they have not bowed before the demands of democratisation or economic globalisation. Instead they continue to maintain a high level of social closure and control diversity…

The day-to-day appraisal of the state of the nation is understandably dominated by the stories in the headlines. In "Coming Apart" (Murray, 2012), the author attempted to step back from today's headlines and take a longer view of where the nation is heading. Murray's conclusion was that we face a much more ominous long-term problem than…

This article reflects on different conceptions of educational philosophy, their strengths and weaknesses. Against the backdrop of major alternatives, and the received view, delineated by RS Peters, John White's recent radically practical conception is critically assessed. Notwithstanding a pluralist answer to the question "What is, can…

From a political viewpoint, education in a modern society can be said to have two functions. On the one hand, it takes care of the social reproduction; on the other, it represents society's capacity for self-reflection and conscious (political) change. Therefore, when the members of a society deliberate on educational aims and their justification,…

In Norway, 9 out of 10 children between the ages of one and five participate in an educational formation programme which, despite around half of the kindergartens being privately owned, is regulated by a common law and relatively detailed regulations describing what the content of kindergartens should be. Norwegian kindergartens therefore…

A key contributor to the 1948 New Education Fellowship "The Teacher and World Peace" submission to UNESCO, Alex Bloom is one of the most remarkable pioneers of radical democratic education of the twentieth century. In many important respects, Bloom's internationally renowned work from 1945-55 at St George-in-the-East Secondary Modern…