Active Citizenship in Turkey

Argument-based teaching

“…It can be further said that due to the strong relationship with critical literacy, as explained above, argument-based teaching is a promotor of active and responsible citizenship, a key requirement for 21st century. In fact, recent studies confirm that active citizenship, understood as an institutionally driven process favouring top-down and bottom-up participatory approaches (Bee, 2017), relates to practices of deliberative argumentation, manifesting the capacity to deeply understand and engage with others' points of view, even when they are opposing to one's own, and to co-create an integrated approach to common thinking and action (Larrain et al, compatible (e.g., Rapanta, 2021;Walker & Sampson, 2013) and often depend on each other (Iordanou et al, 2019). This is particularly the case when argument-based practices are promoted by ordinary teachers and not by researchers: in everyday pedagogical practice, curricular and argument-related goals intermingle, mainly because teachers need to fulfil a concrete curriculum without many deviations for "just" focusing on critical literacy development (although the latter would be much welcome and necessary).…”

Are Citizens More Politically Engaged when Candidate Selection is Democratic? Analysis of Seven Parliamentary Election Cycles in Israel (1996–2015)

“…We reconsider the classic, but previously often rejected hypothesis that intra-party inclusive selection processes would lead to higher levels of participation among citizens. In a second step, we concentrate on political engagement—in this contribution measured as talking about politics with friends and family, following the political news by reading newspapers, and watching election campaign ads—which is considered by many as a necessary precondition for political effectiveness and participation (Galston 2001) and a strong predictor for citizens’ future participation levels (Bee 2017). Indeed with regards to electoral participation, forms of cognitive political engagement such as being motivated to spend attention on political and campaign events are often mentioned as a predisposition to turn out and vote (e.g., Blais and Daoust 2020).…”