Civic Education, Teaching Quality and Students’ Willingness to Participate in Political and Civic Life: Political Interest and Knowledge as Mediators

Abstract

Civic education is generally assumed to play a key role in youth’s political sophistication. It aims to equip young people with the necessary competencies and skills to effectively participate in political and civic life. However, few studies have examined the relative importance of different facets of teaching quality within civic education as well as mediating factors for fostering active citizens. The present study seeks to fill this gap by investigating how different facets of teaching quality are associated with adolescents’ willingness to participate in political and civic life and how this relationship is mediated by political knowledge and interest. The study uses original data from N = 250 students (n = 152 7th graders: Mage = 12.54, SD = 0.91, range = 11–14, 45% female; n = 98 10th graders: Mage = 16.12, SD = 0.97, range = 15–18, 35% female). The findings show that not all teaching quality facets are equally important. While perceived cognitive activation and open classroom climate were positively associated with students’ willingness to participate, a statistically significant association with discussions of current political events in the classroom was not found. In addition, the relationship between perceived cognitive activation and willingness to participate is fully mediated by students’ political knowledge and interest. This study illustrates the relative importance of different teaching quality facets in civic education and calls for continued efforts to better understand teaching quality in civic education.

Feeling Politics at High School: Antecedents and Effects of Emotions in Civic Education

“…Besides individual dispositions (e.g., general political interest gained from political socialization at home), contextual characteristics of the class could be important distal antecedents of emotions to consider. Prior studies have, for example, investigated relations between teaching methods used in civic education (e.g., group work; Dassonneville et al, 2012; Neundorf et al, 2016) or experienced teaching quality (e.g., cognitive activation; Alscher et al, 2022; or open classroom climate; Manganelli et al, 2015; Sohl & Arensmeier, 2015) and civic learning. A more open classroom climate during discussions of political and social issues relates positively to students' citizenship self‐efficacy (i.e., higher control appraisals; Manganelli et al, 2015).…”

The Political Reputation of Students in Upper Secondary School: Consequences for Their Collective Political Activities Four Years Later

“…Through the provision of civic education, schools may have substantial effects on young people's political socialization (Alscher et al, 2022; Torney‐Purta et al, 2001), but discussions of the role of schools in political socialization should benefit from a perspective that also considers the group dynamics in class. In most school classes, there are some students who, in their classmates' opinions, are politically knowledgeable and verbal.…”

Juventud universitaria e interés por la política

“…La educación cívica puede definirse como el conjunto de prácticas educativas que conducen al aprendizaje del ejercicio de la ciudadanía en un sistema social y político determinado (Álvarez-Sotomayor y Martínez-Cousinou, 2021). La educación cívica en la escuela tiene como objetivo dotar a los estudiantes con el conocimiento, las competencias y las habilidades necesarias para participar efectivamente en la vida política y cívica (Alscher et al, 2022). Incrementar el conocimiento político y estimular el interés de los estudiantes son objetivos esenciales inmediatos de la educación cívica y ambos son cruciales a la hora de determinar la participación a través del voto (Gil de Zúñiga y Diehl, 2019).…”

“…Asimismo, existe evidencia empírica que concluye que el desarrollo de un clima abierto en el aula afecta positivamente a dimensiones tan diversas como la confianza política, el compromiso político e incluso al nivel de conocimientos sobre política (Neundorf y Smets, 2017). Un reciente estudio sugiere que el conocimiento político y el interés de los jóvenes actúan de elementos mediadores en la relación entre la educación cívica de calidad y la predisposición de estos a participar en política (Alscher et al, 2022).…”