We are currently witnessing increasing social polarisation, coarsening of communication and the suppression of fact-based discourse as a result of populist and social models that lean towards authoritarianism. At the same time there is growing political distancing within societies. In light of these developments, political decision makers, educators and experts in the field are calling for the role of democracy education within the education system to be re-evaluated. But what is democracy education? What should pupils be learning in order to grow into democratic citizens?
The curricula analysis carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute aimed to take stock of existing core curricula for selected subjects teaching in general education primary and secondary schools in Lower Saxony and to compare them with national and international education policy guidelines and regulations. The study examined how democracy education is defined in the education policy objectives contained in the Lower Saxony education act and in the basic decrees and core curricula. It also analysed education concepts for democracy education, global citizenship education, education for sustainable peace and peace education and explored how each is differentiated in core curricula and decrees at the level of knowledge, reflection and implementation.
