Told differently

Christian Heuer is Professor of History Didactics at the University of Graz. Photo: Uni Graz/Tzivanopoulos

Can democracy be learned at school? History didact Christian Heuer answers

Only 58 percent are of the opinion that democracy works "very well" or "rather well". This is the assessment of the Democracy Radar by Danube University Krems and the University of Graz. Can democracy be learned? At school? A challenging test question for Christian Heuer, Professor of History Didactics at the University of Graz.

"Democracy," Christian Heuer makes clear, "is always also a grand narrative, an affirmation about the self-image we draw of our modern society." Only part of it, though. "In Austrian textbooks, the subject is still reproduced as the educational project of a male, white elite of the Western world. As a success story from the point of view of the victors," describes the historian. Others remain mostly unheard. Hardly a word about or from migrants, workers or women.

>> read more in the magazine UNIZEIT (German only)

Andreas Schweiger

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