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ABSTRACT
In this article, I will explore and discuss the Danish school systems as contexts for democracy and togetherness. The article assumes that democracy presupposes togetherness, but also that togetherness is an ambiguous concept that favours certain forms of social cohesion and excludes others. I suggest that the Danish school, with its strong tradition of citizenship education, is able to identify and characterize important challenges related to citizenship education and togetherness as motivators for democracy. The thesis of this article is that the Danish educational system is based on, and promotes, a strong, ‘educationalized’ version of democratic togetherness. This article is based on descriptive statistical analysis of two quantitative studies covering the period from 2009 to 2015: 1) The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, and 2) The National Student Well-being Surveys (2015) that focus on the national level, and provide more details regarding the views of Danish students.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The unified school comprises primary and lower education, which covers a 10-year period of compulsory education, including one year of preschool. Denmark is unique in having a dual school system: 1) the public school (folkeskolen) and 2) private schools and the so-called free schools (friskoler). Both are funded by the state. About 81 percent of pupils attend folkeskoler, and 16 percent attend private schools and friskoler.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jonas Lieberkind
Jonas Lieberkindis associate professor of educational sociology at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. His research is based on both theoretical and empirical studies of society, politics, and citizenship education. In particular, he has focused on current tendencies among young people, their attitudes towards society, and research questions concerning students’ political socialization. Furthermore, he is at part of the Danish research team that conducts the International Civic and Citizen Education Study (IEA).