The aim of the paper and its basic theoretical framework: The aim of a forthcoming paper is to further develop the idea of deliberative communication (Englund 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016) as crucial for creating a democratic society and educated citizens. In earlier works on deliberation the starting point has been Dewey’s thesis from his Democracy and Education that ideal education is characterized by mutual and free communication in the sense of open communication within and between groups. Add to that Habermas validity claims and his placing of communication and deliberation in a wider context.So, the basic theoretical framework used is ideas from classic and modern pragmatism (John Dewey 1916/1980, 1927/1984, Jürgen Habermas 1981/1987, 1983/1992, 1985/1990).
Expected analyses and conclusions: An important source of inspiration for further elaboration is the Deweyan tradition within educational research stressing the moral dimension of teaching and the ethical nature of teachers’ professional responsibility for creating educated citizens living educationally. The Dewey-inspired David Hansen (2001) is a central figure also representing ‘the educated human being’ placed in contexts all the way from the specific classroom (Hansen 1992) to cosmopolitanism (Hansen 2011). While we in the Deweyan tradition are referring to a mass education system we also find it important to relate the question of the educated citizen to the (primarily English) analytical philosophy of education represented by Richard Peters (1973), who does not make an explicit use of deliberation, but in his work deals with the conversation processes leading to what he call ‘an educated man’. What is also important to note in this context of the educated citizen is to refer to the theory of citizenship rights (Marshall 1919/1964) developed in UK and with some links both to the analytical philosophy of education mentioned and to Habermas (1992/1996). Finally two important approaches for analyzing education are 1) first to see education in a tension between the public or the private good and 2) second the concept of underlying rationality of curriculum by evaluating how individuals/ citizens from different social groups over time are related to different societal institutions of education with different implications of being educated citizens.