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Does civic education for young people increase political participation? A systematic review
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This paper uses established systematic and transparent methods to review the evidence for the effect of civic education on young people’s normative political participation. Extensive electronic searches were undertaken of social science and education databases. The searches yielded 6890 titles; both authors independently screened titles and abstracts to apply predefined inclusion criteria. Nine studies were included in the review. Given the heterogeneity of these studies, statistical pooling was not possible and a narrative analysis has been performed. The results indicate little evidence for civic education having a discernible or direct effect on voting or voter registration/enrolment. Some support was found for civic education increasing activities of political expression (e.g. signing a petition). The implications for policy and future research are discussed.
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... Research (see Manning & Edwards, 2014;Reichert & Print, 2018) shows that schooling contributes to a small share in the individuals' willingness to participate in social and political action. Schooling tends to contribute to the individuals' willingness to actively participate in society and politics by providing them with formal civics learning within their curriculum (Reichert & Print, 2018). ...
... Consequently, this study looked at the science syllabi of all four subjects taught at secondary level, the teaching methods that teachers opt for, and the challenges teachers face when teaching for scientific citizenship. Manning & Edwards (2014) and Reichert & Print (2018) show that schooling contributes to a small share in the individuals' ability and willingness to participate in social and political action. Results obtained are similar to an extent that the subject content and assessment practices present in each science syllabus focus mainly on increasing the students' level of awareness. ...
... However, it fails to equip them with the skills needed to act on that awareness and challenge those who try to push an agenda that might be of a detriment to themselves or society in general. Similar to what is suggested in the literature (see Manning & Edwards, 2014;Reichert & Print, 2018), it can be concluded that school science ...
In Malta young people can exert their right to vote in the local council, National, and
European elections at the age of 16. This decision raised the question of whether young
individuals are prepared to make an informed decision on issues that have an impact on
individual lives and society (ToM, 2017). Most of the issues that are highly debateable in
society are scientific in nature. This study addresses whether, upon completing compulsory education, young people can deal with Socio-Scientific Issues and Science in
Society. This study probed whether the science syllabi are providing students with the
scientific foundations needed to actively deal with controversial science-based issues in
society (Ratcliffe, 2003). A mixed methodology was used consisting of: a closed-ended
questionnaire distributed among sixth form students; interviews with Education Officers;
focus group interviews with science teachers; and review of the secondary level science
syllabi. The results indicate that on completing compulsory education, young individuals
are not ready to actively deal with socio-scientific issues and science in society as soon as they leave secondary school even though they feel and believe that they are. The content of the science syllabi refers mainly to awareness and do not delve significantly into civic scientific literacy, active participation, and socio-political participation, but these are left to the teachers’ discretion whether to include them or not.
... Recent reviews of the non-experimental literature come to different conclusions. Manning and Edwards (2014) find few connections between civic education and voter participation, but Campbell (2019) is more sanguine. In both cases, the authors acknowledge that there is little rigorously identified evidence on civic skills, making it difficult to draw a final conclusion. ...
... Gains in scores on civics-related AP tests actually favor boys, rather than girls, which runs counter to the pattern in voting, and is likely due to boys having a very low counterfactual rate of scoring at least a 3 on one of these APs in the first place. The lack of a parallel between voting gains and enrollment and scores in civics-oriented APs lines up with the past literature that shows few links between formal civics curricula and civic participation (Manning and Edwards, 2014;Weinschenk and Dawes, 2021). ...
... Only a handful of systematic reviews have been created on the topic of electoral geography, and the topic has usually been connected with other topics such as political brands (Nielsen 2017), disability (Virendrakumar et al. 2018), or education (Manning and Edwards 2014). A systematic review therefore is necessary in order to discover and make systematic the knowledge about the geography of electoral results in Czechia and Slovakia since 1989. ...
This article reviews the field of electoral geography in Czechia and Slovakia. It systematically analyses selected publications to identify the most and least frequently researched topics, theories, and methods. Most of the analyzed studies strived to determine the factors underlying the uneven geographical distribution of election results. Issues of turnout and geographical representation were the least common. The cleavage theory was the most frequently applied theoretical approach, although most studies did not apply any theory. Only one study used the qualitative methodology, whereas the rest relied on quantitative methods. Most often, analyses were performed at the scale of districts and municipalities. The article identifies possible directions for future research in the electoral geography of Czechia and Slovakia.
... Yet, this country is bedevilled with the youth disengagement from voting and electoral obligations expected of the citizens (Print, 2007). This perceived participation conundrum was called 'civics deficit' by Manning and Edwards (2014). Political education in Australia is offered in the form of 'Civics and Citizenship Education-(CCE)'. ...
Globally, there is a downward trend in youths’ political interest and participation in the learning of political education in their school curricula as a measure to combat the apparent dangers posed by the declining young citizens’ participation in the political processes.This study therefore investigated political education as a determinant of university students’ political participation in the Province of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study employed a mixed methods design. Using the probability sampling technique, a sample of 375 participants was randomly selected from one university in the Eastern Cape Province while semi-structured interviews were conducted among five (5) purposively selected members of the same university’s Student Representative Council (SRC) executive committee. Simple descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentages were used to summarize all categories of variables; while Pearson correlation statistics, Chi-square and Ordinary least square regression were used to examine the relationship between dependent and independent variables at a 95percent confidence interval. Alpha values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Thematic content analysis was performed on the qualitative data. The quantitative analysis revealed that students’ level of political awareness was high; 98.1percent of them were aware of their rights to vote and be voted for. Students’ political judgment was positively correlated with participation in campus (r =0.182) and national politics (r = 0.030) respectively. Most of the students agreed to take part in the 2018 SRC (78.8percent) and 2019 national elections (77.9percent) respectively. Political interest was significantly correlated with participation in campus (r = 0.375) and national politics (r =0. 404). The findings from the multivariate analysis showed that political interest (<0.001), parents’ political involvement (<0.001) and year of study (<0.001) were the significant determinants of students’ participation in politics. The qualitative findings also showed that there was a positive relationship between political education and students’ participation in politics. Since political interest and family are element and agent of political education respectively, it is concluded that political education is to a large extent a determinant of university students’ political participation. It is recommended that the universities, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and other stakeholders should do a thorough review of the university education curricula and programmes to ensure that political education is adequately accommodated and taken care of in a way that would increase students’ interest, awareness and participation in politics. When this is amply done, students’ cognitive skills and capacities would be enhanced to increase their participation in the political processes in South Africa.
... This is especially true for the path model, which partly relies on mere correlational observations. Third, the observed effects were rather small, similar to others studies which look at the effects of civic educational initiatives (see Manning & Edwards, 2014). This might be due to the fact that our project was comparably short and there is reason to believe that longer projects might produce larger effects (Nicosia et al., 2014). ...
Citizen science research has been rapidly expanding in the past years and has become a popular approach in youth education. We investigated key drivers of youth participation in a citizen social science school project and the effects of participation on scientific and topic-related (i.e., political) interest and efficacy. Findings suggest that females, more politically and scientifically interested and more scientifically efficacious adolescents were more motivated to learn from the project. Science efficacy was also positively related to external reward motivation (i.e., winning an award). Both learning and external reward motivation increased the likelihood of participation. Pre- and post-measurement further indicated that participation in the project slightly increased science interest, but not science efficacy. However, it did increase both political interest and efficacy. Furthermore, our data revealed a decrease in science efficacy and interest in those who did not participate in the project, indicating an increasing gap in adolescents’ scientific involvement.
... Students on the liberal arts curriculum track must take more than twice as many social studies and civics courses as students on the natural sciences curriculum track. The former group may therefore have more opportunities to increase their knowledge about government and society (e.g., governmental systems, principles of democracy, civic life, national identity, diversity, etc.) and discuss civic and political issues in classes (Manning & Edwards, 2014). "Liberal arts education may mold students toward broad concerns for the community and civic life which may be precursors to the development of PSM and an interest in public service" (Bright, 2016, p. 287). ...
The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the extent to which social institutions play a role in the development of public service motivation (PSM). This study investigates institutional factors affecting first-year undergraduate students’ PSM, focusing on family, religion, and high school education in Korea. It uses two-wave survey data collected from first-year undergraduate students at a public university in Korea (n = 202). The test results show that parental teaching and participation in extracurricular activities (creative experiential learning activities) are positively associated with overall PSM and most of its individual dimensions, and religion is positively associated with the dimension of commitment to public values. This study provides support for the process theory holding that PSM is influenced by social institutions throughout an individual’s childhood and adolescence. The implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.
Das Kapitel befasst sich mit den Effekten von Integrationskursen auf politische Einstellungen Geflüchteter in Deutschland. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Daten aus dem „Thüringen-Monitor Integration“ ausgewertet. Es zeigte sich, dass Geflüchtete, die an einem Integrationskurs teilgenommen hatten, ein stärkeres Vertrauen in politische Institutionen und deren Vertreter*innen sowie eine höhere Zustimmung zu demokratischen Prinzipien aufwiesen als Geflüchtete, die noch keinen Integrationskurs besucht hatten. Kein Unterschied zeigte sich in der Wirksamkeit von Integrationskursen auf die Befürwortung von Demokratie als Staatsidee und auf politisch-ideologische Einstellungen (Autoritarismus und soziale Dominanzorientierung). Wenn die Teilnahme an einem Integrationskurs bereits länger zurücklag (vor 2018), lehnten Geflüchtete Gewalt zu politischen Zwecken und unfreie mediale Berichterstattung stärker ab, sie zeigten geringere Werte in sozialer Dominanz, gaben aber auch ein geringeres Vertrauen in einige deutsche Institutionen an. Die Befunde belegten einerseits Vertrauenssteigerungen in und Wissenszuwächse über politische Institutionen bei Geflüchteten und andererseits eine positive Bindung an demokratische Werte durch eine Integrationskursteilnahme, was als Indikator für gelingende Integration Geflüchteter in die deutsche Gesellschaft begriffen werden kann.
This study examines differences based on school gender in the teaching of Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE), a mandatory subject in the Irish post-primary curriculum. These differences are considered in relation to Westheimer and Kahne’s three types of citizens – personally responsible, participatory and justice-oriented. The article presents the findings of a survey conducted with 223 CSPE teachers in single-sex female, single-sex male and co-educational schools. The data were analysed using statistical and thematic analysis. The findings suggest that CSPE teachers in single-sex female schools place greater value on the subject and are more likely to promote social responsibility and student voice, suggesting a greater emphasis on participatory and justice-oriented citizenship. Teachers in single-sex male schools are more likely to focus on politics and action aligning with participatory citizenship. In co-educational schools, teachers seemed to focus on personally responsible and participatory citizenship.
The main objective of this study is to evaluate Citizenship Education (CE) literature through systematic bibliometric analysis. The science mapping method was conducted to analyze data. Because CE is also studied with the names of social studies and civic education in the literature, articles related to these topics were included in the study. 4029 articles and proceeding papers that were obtained from the WoS database were analyzed. As a result of the study, it was revealed that number of publications has been dramatically increased in recent years. Moreover, Theory and Research in Social Education Journal was found as the most relevant source in terms of number of publications about CE. Furthermore, the study conducted by Westheimer and Kahne in 2004 was determined as the most influential source that has the most citations per year in the field. Finally, it was found that USA and UK are the most productive, most cited, and most collaborative countries in terms of scientific publications.
This article explores the recent concern over young people’s apathy and disengagement from politics. It critically addresses this, first, by examining and contesting some of the literature addressing this alleged apathy and dissociation, revealing a particular, narrow and regulatory model of politics and an accompanying liberal notion of self. In contrast, a relational model of self is posited as more sociologically robust and suited to contemporary social life. Second, the article describes a qualitative Australian study of young people aged 18–30 years, recruited from across the political spectrum. In contrast to the key liberal principles, participants highlight interconnectedness, permeable public/private divides and the important role of friends and family in fostering and sustaining their political engagements. It is argued that the relational interconnected model of self presented by the participants reflects the conditions of contemporary social life.
Young people populate a uniquely strategic position within society in general and particularly in party political debate about
the future development of citizenship and the national community. Political parties in the UK have however been historically
reluctant to engage with young people or represent their interests in the formulation of policies, instead prioritising older
voters. However, the political resonance of issues linked to youth citizenship and democratic engagement has risen recently
as political parties have sought to address steep declines in levels of civic and civil activism and the preparedness of young
people to vote in elections. This paper explores the emerging party politics associated with such shifts, assessing the extent
to which political parties have sought to reform how they engage with young people or reassert traditional modes of citizenship
and political participation.
How are students in Asia and the Pacific taught to be effective citizens? Following two
successful volumes previously published in this series, Citizenship Education in Asia and
the Pacific: Concepts and Issues and Citizenship Curriculum in Asia and the Pacific, this
volume focuses on citizenship pedagogies that are promoted by governments in the region,
advocated by scholars, and adapted in the schools and classrooms where citizenship
education takes place every day. Thirteen case studies from diverse societies in Asia and the Pacific highlight the ways in which teachers and students think about, experience or plan for citizenship teaching and learning. Different methods - vignettes, student surveys, case studies and literature reviews - are used to portray these experiences, from both macro- and micro-analytic perspectives.
Young people's declining electoral participation has been considered a problem in a range of democracies, including Australia. In this paper I examine youth electoral participation through the eyes and voices of young marginalised Australians. In the policy arena young people's electoral participation is usually considered a subject for education policy. Here I make the case for considering it as an issue for social policy, and as a welfare issue. In this context I examine the effects of neoliberalism and Australia's shrinking welfare state on young people's citizenship and ability to access the franchise. Whilst acknowledging the liberal roots of neoliberalism I argue that whereas the neoliberal state identifies young people's political disengagement as a problem, and constructs participation using the language of 'choice', that its own social policies act to create barriers to the franchise for young people and thus effectively disenfranchise them.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
This article reviews the literature on youth engagement in politics. The article develops the argument that much of the research
in this area is not set within the commonly understood and widely accepted political science literature on the determinants
of voting behaviour in the UK. The article critiques the methodological approach which underpins much of this research, suggesting
that in order to gain a real understanding of the dynamics of contemporary youth engagement an understanding of generational
influences and differences is essential. I argue that explanations for youth disengagement tend to emanate from two schools
of thought: the traditional political science understanding of youth turnout based on life-cycle explanations, or what I term
the ‘anti-apathy’ approach, which, I argue, fails to situate young people's political activity within the context of the political
life cycle.