The Unproductiveness of Political Conflict in Education : A Nussbaumian Alternative to Agonistic Citizenship Education

In many contemporary democracies, political conflict and polarisation have become defining features of the political culture. Similarly, drawing especially from Chantal Mouffe's agonistic pluralism and her more recent left populism, many philosophers of education have argued that political conflict and the attendant political emotions should be given a legitimate place in citizenship education. In this article, we challenge the agonistic model of citizenship education and the central role that political conflict plays in it. We argue that citizenship education that focusses on conflictual identity formations risks creating antagonism rather than dissolving it, this having problematic repercussions for the democratic culture in a broader sense. Deriving from Martha Nussbaum's understanding of democratic politics and her view of the role of emotions in political mobilisation, we suggest that citizenship education should take part in shaping the way students come to understand the nature of the political: as a collective striving towards shared goals, supported by constructive political emotions, rather than a conflictual relation between 'us' and 'them'. Finally, we discuss the educational potential associated withFridays for FutureandBlack Lives Mattermovements with the intention of demonstrating the significance of Nussbaum's thinking in relation to today's burning political issues.Peer reviewe