This paper aims to examine teaching the values required for democratic citizenship while avoiding indoctrination by analyzing the case of “The reference framework of competence for democratic culture". The background of this paper is the long debate about how to teach democratic values democratically in the social studies educational field. This is related to the issue of value neutrality and independence. As a result of the analysis, the Council of Europe attempted to realize value education that avoids unconscious indoctrination by making learners explicitly aware of values and then critically examining them. This approach has the potential to become a powerful alternative approach in Japanese social studies education.