Scientific network to determine the relationship between democracy education and citizenship education

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Alexander Wohnig
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education ; Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism ; Political Science
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449465138

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The network started from the observation that different professions and 'subjects' that work with terms and concepts of political education and democracy education are not in (continuous) exchange and are largely unaware of the work of 'the other' professions. This becomes even more obvious in times when democracy education and civic education are publicly called upon to solve social and political crises, as it remains unclear what characterizes the concepts called upon in terms of theory and content. The intensive exchange in the project revealed that the various fields and professions each operate with their own terms, definitions and concepts of political education and democracy education. The network, which was made up of people from different professions and subjects (social pedagogy, didactics of social sciences, educational sciences, political theory), took this as an opportunity to work transdisciplinarily on conceptual understandings (of education, democracy, politics, ...) on which democracy education and political education are based, on the relationship between democracy education and political education with a particular focus on (social) space and on the differences and similarities between democracy education and political education. In contrast to previous practice, the understanding of terms was conducted in an interdisciplinary and cross-professional manner. In doing so, a critical view was taken that also took into account the impossibilities and obstacles to democracy education and/or civic education. By developing an ideal-typical distinction between democracy education and civic education with the help of categories, the network also proposes an analytical element of differentiation. The differentiation work was not only carried out with regard to theoretical definitions, but also with regard to educational institutions. Up to now, the discourse has mostly focused on works that describe (or proclaim) democracy education or political education in an institution. The network has dealt intensively with empirical cases of democracy education and civic education and asked how processes of democracy education and civic education empirically manifest themselves in individual educational institutions, but also how they are prevented there in each case. It became clear that there is a difference between norm and reality, between self-narrative and empirical observation. Some network members intend to investigate this difference even more empirically after the network has ended. In the course of the network's cooperation, it has become increasingly clear that the central category for differentiating concepts and interpretations of democracy education and civic education is the social space in which democracy education and civic education are located and/or targeted in theory and practice (in the network, for example: School, open child and youth work, extracurricular youth education, clubs, associations, youth detention). Not new in this context, but surprising in its impact, was the intensity and extent to which the term and concept of democracy education was and is appropriated and reinterpreted by professions. Some of the network's work therefore also aimed to apply the analytical differentiation element to specific educational spaces, such as schools or extracurricular youth education centers.

Publications

• Sportvereine als Orte von politischer Bildung und Demokratiebildung. Forum Kinder- und Jugendsport, 2(1), 6-14.
  Ahlrichs, Rolf & Fritz, Fabian
  
• Demokratiebildung als Querschnittsaufgabe. In: Beutel, Wolfgang/Gloe, Markus/ Himmelmann, Gerhard/Lange, Dirk/Reinhardt, Volker/Seifert, Anne (Hrsg.): Handbuch Demokratiepädagogik. Frankfurt am Main, S. 62-71
  Kenner, Steve & Lange, Dirk
  
• Demokratiebildung in Österreich. In: Beutel, Wolfgang/Gloe, Markus/Himmelmann, Gerhard/Lange, Dirk/Reinhardt, Volker/Seifert, Anne (Hrsg.): Handbuch Demokratiepädagogik. Frankfurt am Main, S. 293-301
  Möller, Lara & Lange, Dirk
  
• Demokratiebildung und/oder politische Bildung: Plädoyer für eine differenzfokussierte Perspektive. In: inter- und transdisziplinäre Bildung 2/2022: Sonderheft Bildung und Demokratisierung, S. 77-81
  Wohnig, Alexander
  
• Demokratie und Politische Bildung in der Jugendverbandsarbeit. In: Achour, Sabine/Gil, Thomas (Hrsg.): Vom Klassenrat zum zivilen Ungehorsam. Partizipation in der Demokratie und der Auftrag der politischen Bildung. Frankfurt am Main, S. 145-155
  Bracker, Rosa & Riekmann, Wibke
  
• Entgrenzungen im Diskurs um Demokratiebildung und politische Bildung. Der pädagogische Blick, 257-268.
  Wohnig, Alexander & Sämann, Jana
  
• Demokratiebildung und/oder politische Bildung: Differenzierungsversuche am Beispiel der außerschulischen politischen Jugendbildungsstätte. In: Fritz, Fabian/Schmidt, Birger/Zwecker, Markus (Hrsg.): Wie gelingt partizipative politische Bildung für Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene im Fußball? Weinheim/Basel, S. 28-43
  Wohnig, Alexander
  
• Spannungsverhältnis von Schule und Demokratiebildung. In: Achour, Sabine/Pech, Detlef/Eberhard, Philip/Jordan, Anne/Sieberkrob, Matthias/Zelck, Johanna (Hrsg.): Demokratiebildung und Fachdidaktik. Frankfurt am Main, S. 65-75
  Coelen, Thomas & Wohnig, Alexander
  
• Politische Bildung in der Sozialen Arbeit.
  Görtler, Michael & Schäfer, Stefan (Eds.)