Learning to Become a Responsible Citizen
Democracy has a very significant position in the Swedish school system. The democratic mission is in school documents described in both procedural and moral terms which implies that it is both something young people should learn about but also live according to in their every-day lives. The idea of a democratic spirit that is to permeate all action in school is strongly proclaimed in recent documents and is believed to take place through young people’s active responsibility for others. But how is this responsibility to be understood? The purpose of this paper is to investigate mainstream research conducted in Sweden about responsibility and democracy as a form of life by applying the idea of a permeating democracy as a starting-point for discussions. How do the research enable or/and restrict an active responsibility towards others and what kind of responsibility is favoured?