USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
The Science of Liberty is Not So Simple': Teaching Democratic Thinking in Revolutionary France
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
ISSN
1944-1061
Abstract
This article examines education's place in the French Revolution of 1789 and, more specifically, how ideas about education shaped the pursuit of a democratic and participatory politics in revolutionary France. Highlighting three foci of revolutionary pedagogy - skills, habits, and dispositions - as well as the ways in which ideas about education underwrote the social, political, and cultural ambitions of the Revolution, it explores education's role in making democratic politics and a democratic society appear desirable, attainable, and sustainable. Analyzing these eighteenth century efforts to "teach democratic thinking," this article also aims to clarify what is at stake in contemporary discussions of democratic education, offers an historically-minded approach and a genealogy to current debates about the purposes and practices of education, and suggests criteria with which to consider pedagogical, institutional, technological, and social issues regarding education and its future.
Language
en_US
Publisher
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Recommended Citation
O' Connor, A. (2015). 'The Science of Liberty is Not So Simple': Teaching Democratic Thinking in Revolutionary France. Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement, 6(1), 136-160. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7253%2Fpartj.v6i1.1013
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement, 6(1), 136-160. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7253%2Fpartj.v6i1.1013