(iPoster) Centralized Education and Political Indoctrination: How States Create “Good” Citizens”

• In Event: Poster Session: New Perspectives in Political Science Research: Scholarship by Vanderbilt REU Students

Abstract

Indoctrination, although undefined across many disciplines, has been studied as to the ways it dictates citizen behavior. What has not been considered are the comparative factors that predict the presence of indoctrination. This focus on the results of indoctrination leaves us without understanding when and how governments indoctrinate their citizens with political ideas. What tools do governments use to indoctrinate citizens? Political ideology does not spur out of the abyss. Rather, it is developed through political socialization and education. These inquiries lead to my primary research question: To what extent does a government’s prioritization of centralized education programs predict political indoctrination in education? Often discussed in conversation with education, efforts have been made to separate indoctrination from education based on descriptive lexical variation. Indoctrination is particularly difficult to study because it can exist almost everywhere and may limit researchers’ ability to see the ways in which it influences their perspectives. Using existing survey data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset to compare political education effort and centralized education and curriculum, I am currently conducting regression analyses. Regardless of the results, studying indoctrination through the lens of education is significant. As individuals are a part of a global political environment that is constantly in motion, it is important that we understand the roles we play in perpetuating the systems that govern us. Especially in times of high political turmoil, it is imperative that citizens know what forms their worldview and why.

Author

• Kendal Fitzhugh, Howard University