Forming Autonomous Citizens – The Role of Education

Forming intellectually autonomous and active citizens is a major goal of education. Several areas of autonomy can be identified in education, such as school autonomy, curriculum autonomy, educators' autonomy, and the formation of autonomous citizens. The development of intellectual autonomy is realized, first and foremost, through the content of social studies and political literacy within an educational context of democratic principles of operation. The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of intellectual autonomy and the parameters by means of which intellectual autonomy is fostered through formal education. This paper involves a theoretical meta-analysis of the subject. It is concluded that school constitutes a primary context for developing political literacy, which achieves its goal by being able to shape intellectually autonomous and active citizens who can understand the significance of collective social action and gain self-fulfillment.