Två forskare vid Helsingfors universitet, universitetslektor Pia Mikander samt fil.dr. Henri Satokangas, har publicerat studien ”Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education”.
Som teoretisk grund använder Mikander och Satokangas de konstruktioner angående demokrati som framförs i verket ”Hatade demokrati: De inkluderande rörelsernas ideologi och historia” (Henrik Arnstad, 2018). Mikander och Satokangas skriver:
A key idea is the need to consider democracy as more than a form of government: as a political ideology with the inclusion of more and more people with their different experiences and perspectives into the core of decision-making (see Arnstad 2018). As Young (2000) points out, we cannot call decision-making democratic unless those affected by decisions have been included in the process.
Arnstad’s (2018) idea that democracy has pluralism or an ever-increasing inclusion of voices from the margins as its goal is pedagogically visible through its opposite. While the traditional concept standing in opposition to democracy is that of dictatorship, Arnstad contrasts democracy with fascism, since fascist ideology is necessarily anti-pluralist, aiming continuously to narrow the influence of different voices in decision-making processes.
Arnstad’s point becomes relevant as we move forward towards the educational implications of placing pluralism at the core of democracy.
Studien ”Addressing Democracy and Its Threats in Education” är publicerad i den vetenskapliga tidskriften Studies in Philosophy and Education (Volume 43, 2024) sid. 555–571.