Student Participation in Mock Elections: A Political and Educational Endeavor

• In Event: Democratic Citizenship in Education Paper Session 1

Abstract

Many governments encourage student participation in school matters. Existing criteria for student participation, however, are of limited value for evaluating student participation in the organization and facilitation of political events in schools like mock elections (MEs). To address this void, this paper reports a theoretical inquiry into criteria for critical democratic student participation in such political and educational events. Next to existing criteria, and building on theories on student voice and critical democratic citizenship education, we propose four additional criteria: the extent to which students have the opportunity to also engage in low-key types of political participation; strengthen political spaces in schools; develop a moral compass for political participation; gain a sense of political friendship.

Authors

• Isolde de Groot, University of Humanistic Studies

• Jeroen Gerard Bron, SLO - The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development