On children's right to pluralism in education

The starting points of this paper imply a use from one article (Englund 2010) published within the project (Education as a citizenship right – parents’ rights, children’s rights or …..) in which the parental right to educational authority is questioned. Using deliberative democracy as an ideal I am putting the question if it is possible to create a deliberative democracy without future citizens growing into a pluralist, deliberative culture developing deliberative capabilities, with schools serving as crucial intermediate institutions. It is within common schools that encounters between different cultures, different value orientations etc. can take place and classrooms as weak publics can be created. However, this kind of development seems less plausible with the renaissance of what can be called liberal patriarchalism now legitimizing the growing use of parental right to educational authority[1], at the same time neglecting children’s right to a pluralist education. In my paper I will try to analyze the components of this dilemma by relating it to an ongoing discussion on citizenship education questioning in what perspective this citizenship education shall be seen, in a perspective of societal reproduction of from a perspective of each child’s rights to a pluralist education.[2]Depending on in what perspective this question is seen we find different outcomes. [1]The liberal, private-law paradigm privileges individual freedom, e.g. parental right to educational authority and civil rights at the same time subordinating political and social citizenship rights (Marshall 1949/1964, Habermas 1996). Among philosophers of education, William Galston (1991, 2002, 2005) is an outspoken proponent to parental right to educational authority. [2]William Galston (1991) poses two dilemmas about parental rights and education. The first of these arises from conflict between the proper ends of civic education in a liberal society and the values that some parents will want to honor in the way they rear their children; the second arises from conflict between how basic interests of the child are understood by the wider society and the dissident views of some parents (cf. Callan 2006) Education as a citizenship right - parental rights, children's right or ...