Conceptions of citizenship education are always constituted by ideals about how a community ought to be. In pluralist democracies, the politics of citizenship education are thus bound to be controversial (Biesta, 2011; Gutmann, 1999). Yet, recent (European) citizenship education research and policy has shifted the focus from definitions, their contentiousness, historical contingency, and inherent normativity, to questions of governance and didactical implementation (Gunter, 2015; Plank & Boyd, 1994). Citizenship education is largely portrayed as an authoritative instrument meant to convey universal and seemingly uncontroversial values such as “freedom, equality, tolerance and non-discrimination” (European Commission, 2017, p. 17).

By adopting an explicitly historical and political focus, this panel aims to (re-)expose the normativity ingrained in citizenship education. The panel will present and discuss selected findings from our working group’s years of work on heterodox understandings of citizenship education in Europe. It will do this by leveraging a carefully selected sample of historical case studies of political and educational actors ranging from Catholic organisations to secular movements to educators, which ask: what aspects of dominant understandings of community and citizenry did these actors contest and what counter-ideals did they propose? Which conceptions of citizenship education complemented these ideas and how did these actors seek to introduce them into the educational debate and implement them in practice?

The panel relies on this common set of questions to investigate the relationship between education and political ideals. The contributions focus on specific actors, whose activities span the 1920s to the present, and the European continent from Spain to the Hungary, and from the UK to Italy. The discussion will highlight comparative insights and their implication for European citizenship education, its theory, politics, and history.

The panel promises significant empirical and theoretical contributions. Empirically, by focusing on the educational views and strategies of thus-far overlooked movements, it contributes towards a history of 20^th century European citizenship education from the bottom up. It fosters an approach to citizenship studies that is aware of frictions and controversies, and which integrates potential contributions of actors that act outside state and supra-national institutions. From a theoretical perspective, the Special Issues will refine our understanding of contingency of, and politics behind, understandings of citizenship education, including those dominating the current debate – thus shedding light on the relationship between educational and political views more generally.

Biesta, G. (2011). The Ignorant Citizen: Mouffe, Rancière, and the Subject of Democratic Education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 30(2), 141–153. European Commission (2017). Citizenship education at school in Europe – 2017. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Gunter, H. M. (2015). The politics of education policy in England. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19(11), 1206–1212. Gutmann, A. (1999). Democratic Education. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Plank, D. N., & Boyd, W. L. (1994). Antipolitics, education, and institutional choice: the flight from democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 31(2), 263–281.