Cultivating responsibility and humanity in public schools through democratic citizenship education

ABSTRACT

After more than a decade of democratic citizenship education in public schools in South Africa, the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) has still not produced sufficiently plausible ways for how democracy and citizenship ought to be taught in classrooms. I argue that the recent ‘practical guide’ on how to cultivate ‘responsibility and humanity’ in public schools is, firstly, an acknowledgement that democratic citizenship education has not as yet been adequately realised in schools; secondly, that the ‘practical guide’ itself does not adequately address the conceptual slippages regarding democratic citizenship education since the release of the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy, and thirdly, that an amended version of responsibility and humanity is required in order to enhance their cultivation in public schools. The thrust of this article involves a conceptual analysis of democratic citizenship education, how the concept has theoretically unfolded in policy texts, and how the concept can contribute to building and enhancing responsibility and humanity in public schools.

Keywords:

• Democratic citizenship
• education
• responsibility
• humanity