Learning to participate: Experiencing democracy at school through the community of inquiry

Abstract

Schools are extraordinary laboratories of citizenship where students can learn to take a position, express their opinions and play an active role in the life of the community to which they belong with an openness to global challenges. Moreover, the need for a fair and quality education for all, enabling children to become people capable of acting in today’s complex and global reality, is expressed in numerous national, European and international documents. Therefore, it is necessary to ask ourselves which teaching practices can be used to foster a habitus oriented towards the exercise of citizenship rights in terms of participation in the social, political, cultural and economic life of one’s own living environment. Teaching through a community of inquiry inspired by Matthew Lipman and Ann M. Sharp’s Philosophy for Children could be the operational response to the urgent need to educate future citizens who are aware and able of taking part in public life in the name of democracy.

Keywords

• Active citizenship
• Community of inquiry
• Equity
• Quality
• Democracy