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34 - The COVID-19 Pandemic and Democratic Education

from Part Four - Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2023

By
Johannes Giesinger
Edited by
Julian Culp ,
Johannes Drerup  and
Douglas Yacek
Julian Culp
Affiliation:
The American University of Paris, France
Johannes Drerup
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Douglas Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
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Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to far-reaching challenges in the field of (democratic) education. This chapter focuses on two aspects. First, as a measure to contain the spread of the coronavirus, schools in many countries were closed for extended periods of time. In this chapter, school closures are discussed as an issue of educational justice, with particular attention to the problem of an education for democratic participation. Second, the pandemic has raised questions of democratic legitimacy: The political measures taken to combat the virus were seen as illegitimate by parts of the population. In this context, there is disagreement about the basic facts regarding the virus and the response to it. The chapter discusses how teachers should deal with this kind of disagreement, in the classroom.

Keywords

COVID-19democracylegitimacyeducational justicedemocratic educationepistemic trustepistemic responsibility
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Democratic Education , pp. 594 - 606
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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