Routledge Teacher Education and the Development of Democratic Citizenship in Europe

This book uses international collaboration between nine European countries to explore how teacher education systems across Europe perceive and act upon devolving democracy and democratic citizenship. Understanding these countries’ cultural approaches to individual and national priorities in education is essential in perceiving similarities and differences in the meaning of ‘democracy’. The book offers debate on the prospects for teacher education and the development of democratic citizenship in Europe based on historical, political, economic and cultural contexts and the Council of Europe’s (CoE) competences for democratic citizenship. With critical analysis and evaluation around the common theme of teacher education and its role in developing democratic citizenship, the book provides awareness and understanding of how teacher education responds to the Council of Europe’s (CoE) conceptual model of competences for democratic culture. 20 competences categorized as Values, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge and Critical Understanding are defined so they can be taught to enable learners to practice them in their daily lives as democratic citizens. This book will be of key interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education, educational policy and politics, and citizenship education. About the Author Andrea Raiker is an independent consultant and researcher in higher education in the UK and internationally. Matti Rautiainen is senior lecturer in pedagogy of history and social sciences at the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä. His research interests are educating for democracy and teacher education. Blerim Saqipi is an assistant professor at the University of Prishtina teaching courses on education policy, teacher development and research methods. His research interest is focused on understanding development of teacher professionalism as it relates to social and educational context.