Mikko Valtonen

Radical Democratic Education: a Study on Wise Education Mikko Valtonen

The relationship between democracy and education is always one of the core questions when it comes to the existence, continuity, and development of a democratic society. In the spirit of the original sense of philosophy, this is, the loving of wisdom, Mikko Valtonen pursues in this book a perspective of a wise educator and asks through insightful philosophical analysis what could be the nature of the most wise and best education imaginable. The book consists of seven key dimensions of radical democratic education which include 1) democracy as a radical and progressive form of living, 2) liberating and therapeutic view on education, 3) melioristic worldview, 4) the ideal of self-critical reason, 5) hope as a fundamental attitude in education, 6) the ideal of peace and non-violence, and 7) synthesis of theory and practice. In the spirit of radical democracy theory, Valtonen defends the extension and radical deepening of democracy in all educational practices and understands democracy broadly as an active, communal, and value-based form of living deeply defining our whole human existence instead of being a mere quality of a political system.