Reframing Autonomy: A Pragmatic Approach to Democratic Education
This thesis is composed of an introduction paper and a journal paper submitted for peerreviewed publication. Together, they aim to clarify and reconstruct the role of autonomy in democratic education by offering a coherent, skills-based alternative to dominant liberal and communitarian accounts. Although the main ideas are consistent across the two texts, each serves a distinct purpose. The introduction situates the article within a broader philosophical and educational context, elaborating on points only briefly addressed in the article itself. The article, in turn, refines the argument and presents it in a concise form suitable for scholarly publication.
The introduction paper lays the conceptual and methodological groundwork. It identifies a recurring problem in democratic theory and educational policy: autonomy is both normatively important and politically divisive. In liberal theory, it is treated as a foundational right; in communitarian thought, as a threat to social cohesion. The introduction argues that this polarization, while intellectually rich, creates practical deadlock when translated into educational aims. Drawing on political philosophy and curriculum research—particularly studies of the Norwegian LK20 curriculum—the introduction maps the terrain of the debate and shows how abstract disagreements filter down into institutional ambiguity and curricular fragmentation. Methodologically, the paper relies on reflective equilibrium, moving between normative theory and practical constraint, with particular attention to the work of Amy Gutmann, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Christman, and Harry Brighouse.
The article, Reframing Autonomy: A Pragmatic Approach to Democratic Education, presents the core argument: that autonomy, rather than being treated as a moral absolute, should be reframed as pragmatic and fostered through teachable skills essential for democratic life. The argument unfolds in three stages. First, it surveys the philosophical fault lines of citizenship education, emphasizing the unresolved tension between individual agency and collective responsibility. Second, it proposes a pragmatic conception of autonomy grounded in the skills necessary for democratic participation—critical reflection, informed judgment, and reasoned disagreement—without relying on liberal metaphysical commitments. Third, it addresses three major objections: that democracy does not require autonomy, that a weak version is too insubstantial to matter, and that autonomy cannot be cultivated in schools. The article responds to each by showing that even a limited, skills-based conception of autonomy is a necessary condition for deliberative legitimacy and institutional adaptability.
Taken together, the two texts offer a unified contribution: they move the debate about autonomy in education beyond entrenched ideological commitments and toward a model that is both normatively modest and practically viable. In doing so, the thesis neither abandons the ideal of autonomy nor accepts its strongest, most controversial forms. Instead, it reframes autonomy as a functional requirement of democratic education—one that can be cultivated without imposing a comprehensive doctrine, and that remains essential if democracy is to sustain itself through its institutions and its citizens.
The article is submitted for publication in Theory and Research in Education, a journal wellsuited to the paper’s theoretical orientation and its contribution to normative questions in educational research.
The introduction paper lays the conceptual and methodological groundwork. It identifies a recurring problem in democratic theory and educational policy: autonomy is both normatively important and politically divisive. In liberal theory, it is treated as a foundational right; in communitarian thought, as a threat to social cohesion. The introduction argues that this polarization, while intellectually rich, creates practical deadlock when translated into educational aims. Drawing on political philosophy and curriculum research—particularly studies of the Norwegian LK20 curriculum—the introduction maps the terrain of the debate and shows how abstract disagreements filter down into institutional ambiguity and curricular fragmentation. Methodologically, the paper relies on reflective equilibrium, moving between normative theory and practical constraint, with particular attention to the work of Amy Gutmann, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Christman, and Harry Brighouse.
The article, Reframing Autonomy: A Pragmatic Approach to Democratic Education, presents the core argument: that autonomy, rather than being treated as a moral absolute, should be reframed as pragmatic and fostered through teachable skills essential for democratic life. The argument unfolds in three stages. First, it surveys the philosophical fault lines of citizenship education, emphasizing the unresolved tension between individual agency and collective responsibility. Second, it proposes a pragmatic conception of autonomy grounded in the skills necessary for democratic participation—critical reflection, informed judgment, and reasoned disagreement—without relying on liberal metaphysical commitments. Third, it addresses three major objections: that democracy does not require autonomy, that a weak version is too insubstantial to matter, and that autonomy cannot be cultivated in schools. The article responds to each by showing that even a limited, skills-based conception of autonomy is a necessary condition for deliberative legitimacy and institutional adaptability.
Taken together, the two texts offer a unified contribution: they move the debate about autonomy in education beyond entrenched ideological commitments and toward a model that is both normatively modest and practically viable. In doing so, the thesis neither abandons the ideal of autonomy nor accepts its strongest, most controversial forms. Instead, it reframes autonomy as a functional requirement of democratic education—one that can be cultivated without imposing a comprehensive doctrine, and that remains essential if democracy is to sustain itself through its institutions and its citizens.
The article is submitted for publication in Theory and Research in Education, a journal wellsuited to the paper’s theoretical orientation and its contribution to normative questions in educational research.
Publisert i 2025
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