C. Naval

Education for Democratic Citizenship in the New Europe: context and reform

been the recognition that people need to be educated about the importance of democracy and democratic citizenship. Young people in school have been particularly identified as in need of such education. It would, however, be a mistake for governments to create some new, perhaps reactionary, approach to education for democracy. The last decade of the 20th century saw a remarkable growth of interest in a new approach to this type of education. While this phenomenon was generally worldwide, it was more clearly evident in the newer democracies of Europe and the established Western democracies. This interest took many forms, including programme reviews, research projects, policy initiatives and the development of major curriculum resources and initiatives for schools in order to meet the need for a new, more effective educational approach to democratic citizenship. In a large measure, these developments reflected the changing political circumstances entailed by the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall proved to be both a significant catalyst and a symbolic factor in the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe. The USSR soon imploded and former Soviet republics began searching for ways to become viable democracies. Other former Communist countries scrambled to assume the trappings of Western democracy with the hope for associated economic growth. Meanwhile, most Western countries faced growing concern about the condition

Los museos como espacios sociales de educación

In our knowledge society, life-long learning is seen as one of the conditions for development. In this context museums stand out as social environments for learning and knowledge (Luka, 1973; Marcus et al., 2012). Museums have gained considerable cultural value since the fi nal quarter of the 20th century (Maure, 1996; Yanes, 2011), the starting-point for new museum studies. This is when the role of museums which are open to society becomes noticeable by combining learning and entertainment. This work considers the contribution of museums to the promotion of the social dimension of education, taking museums as an element for cohesion and social participation.