Democracy and citizenship: how the pandemic has changed the educational approach of adults

Our reflection is based on evidence that came to light during the Covid-19 pandemic and that has, therefore, affected the most important educational contexts such as family and school. Talking today about an educational emergency means focusing attention on a series of urgent issues that relate almost exclusively to the socio-psycho-pedagogical sphere. How we respond and the actions we take now will have a profound impact on the society of the future, including the future of education. It will determine whether we continue on our current course, leading, as it would appear, to increasingly brutal, authoritarian and inequitable forms of capitalism, or whether we recognize the profound dysfunction at the heart of our socio-economic arrangements and try to create something better. To do so, we must be sure to act based on values and principles that can enable us not only to build back better but to build back fairer and in a more inclusive, democratic and sustainable way. Education, of course, has a critical role in all of this, as it helps to mould these formative values while at the same time being moulded by them, bringing the person in its entirety back to the center of the educational discourse (Stanistreet, Elfert, Atchoarena, 2021, p. 629).