What Drives High School Students' Civic Literacy? An Investigation of German Seventh and 10th Graders

• In Event: "Democracy Needs Democrats": What Can Schools and Teachers Do to Provide Good Civic Education?

Abstract

The academic literature on both theoretical and empirical research (e.g., Almond & Verba, 1963; Putnam, 2000; Tocqueville, 1835) has shown that democratic institutions and laws are rarely sufficient to ensure the survival of democracy. Instead, democracies can only function well if embedded in a culture of democracy (Barrett, 2018). However, among democratic nations, each generation is a new people (Tocqueville, 1835) and therefore, this democratic culture must be ‘reacquired’ by every new generation. Imparting the appropriate civic knowledge and attitudes in a coherent and agreed upon manner seems logical and necessary. Accordingly, (civic) education and the appropriate teaching techniques play a key role in ensuring a nation’s civic culture (e.g., Hess & McAvoy, 2015). In addition, political orientations and are transmitted within an individual’s family (Deimel, Hoskins and Abs, 2020). Research has demonstrated that political labels with greater heuristic value are transmitted more often rom parents to their offspring (Ventura, 2001). This transmission of political labels can refer to specific parties, group of parties or an abstract political ideology. Therefore, an individual’s social background plays a key role in the process of becoming a politically interested and active citizen (e.g., Hoskins, 2019; Grob, 2009).
This paper reports on a multi-perspective investigation of different driving factors for the acquisition of civic literacy during high school. Approximately 900 seventh and tenth graders in West-Germany and East-Germany (former German Democratic Republic), their parents, teachers and school directors were questioned and tested in a cross-sectional study. Specifically, we illustrate that embedding civic education into the curriculum, democratic teaching techniques, and offers for democratic participation in the school environment can partially compensate social (dis-)advantages in high school students’ home environment. Nonetheless, social background and parents’ behavior are expected to remain the most significant factors for the development of civic knowledge, attitudes and participation.
Furthermore, this paper will offer an answer to the question how civic knowledge and attitudes, e.g. the approval of democracy, interact with each other in the formation of a civic literacy. We anticipate that knowledge and attitudes are mutually dependent for most students. The implications of these findings as well as their limitations are discussed against the background of a possible improvement of adolescents’ civic literacy.

Authors

• Pascal Alscher, TU Dortmund University

• Paul Fabian, TU Dortmund University

• Ulrich Ludewig, TU Dort­mund University

• Nele McElvany, TU Dortmund University