The intersections between education and democracy have been known, at least since Dewey, not only because education is the anticipation of life (in a democracy), but also because education is - as Dewey himself (1916) emphasized - life itself. This presentation uses my own experience of 'growing up during a revolution' as a starting point for reflecting on the relationship between school, politics and democracy. I will illustrate this reflection with examples from the research we have conducted with children, young people and their teachers on the place of politics and political education in schools.

While the revolution of April 25, 1974 resulted in an upsurge of democratic living, both inside and outside schools, educational policies maintained considerable ambivalence about the place of political education. This ambivalence, visible to this day, is deeply anchored in a vision of children and young people as 'citizens-in-the-making', for whom politics (or life, for that matter) is too complex to understand - a vision that captures their existence as political beings and denies their presence in 'our (common) world'.

Decades of research support the idea that power imbalances and inequalities mark the daily existence of children and young people at school. Politics is present in school life, whether it is acknowledged or denied - school education is an unavoidable political experience. Schools are places where we learn about justice, injustice, submission, defiance, confrontation, dialogue, taking the floor, looking the other way, being soft and being hard. This centrality may help explain why school still stands out in the voices of young people as their place of choice for political education, a place of trust in an increasingly polarized and contested world.

As far as I can see, the contemporary risks to democracy demand a return to educational theory and research. Educational theory and research can support an education that fosters, for all children and young people, the complexity of cognitive processes, the recognition and acceptance of emotions and the ability to interact and dialogue with other people who are inevitably different. As I believe (firmly) that there is still a revolution to be made and that hope is a powerful political emotion, I will reflect on the 'what ifs' of this return.

Mats Granlund is licensed psychologist, PhD and full professor of psychology and disability research at Jönköping University Sweden. He is also adjunct professor at University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Norwegian Technological and Natural Science University, Norway. In the last twenty years Granlund’s research as focused on how participation in everyday life can be understood and enhanced for children with disabilities or long term health conditions with a focus on family and school environments

Prof. Dr. Michel Vandenbroeck

Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy

Ghent University