The influence of citizenship education on students’ political efficacy

Obstacles, possibilities, and promising practices

Abstract

This dissertation explores connections between citizenship education and the development of students’ political efficacy. Building on research showing that political efficacy influences political participation, and based on the premise that political participation is an important feature of a persistent democratic system, I first investigate this matter by considering the literature on education and political efficacy based on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). Thereafter, I explore qualitatively a student group’s perspective on how the subject of social studies influences political efficacy, and on how cooperative learning used in social studies teaching affects students’ political efficacy. Taken together, these aspects considered in the three articles comprising this thesis aim to answer the overarching research question: How does citizenship education influence students’ political efficacy? The purpose of this dissertation is to broaden the current knowledge on this matter, which offers a contribution to the research field of citizenship education. Moreover, I hope to provide insights into the field of social studies didactics, creating new opportunities to expand practice for both teacher education and teachers. Finally, this thesis examines how different theoretical understandings of political efficacy will have consequences when it comes to understanding the concept, what advice is given for practice, and what form of democracy that is promoted through this practice. An important contribution that this thesis seeks to make is thus also to deepen the understanding of the implications of various understandings of political efficacy.

Article 1 contains a literature review written together with Tessa E. Grevle. It aims to develop and clarify findings concerning citizenship education and political efficacy in studies that have analyzed data from the ICCS of 2009 and 2016. The reviewed articles showed that political efficacy is clearly connected to political participation and, accordingly, a common recommendation was to focus on enabling students’ political efficacy through schooling. Another central finding was that tiere is substantial variation in how the efficacy variables were operationalized, understood, and used in the research. Furthermore, the material building on ICCS data did only, to a small extent, attempt to understand political efficacy through the thorough use of theory or further qualitative explorations of quantitative findings. Consequently, we argue that there is a need for both qualitative studies using the ICCS data as a point of departure, and for the development of clear theoretical arguments to further develop knowledge about the interconnectedness between citizenship education and political efficacy.

Article 2 explores a group of lower secondary students’ perceptions of how their experiences in the social studies classroom contribute to or limit their sense of political efficacy. Focus group interviews were conducted with 13-year-old Norwegian students, which were analyzed using the constant-comparative method. The students’ responses indicate three obstacles to political efficacy in the social studies classroom: (1) the reactions of their peers in political discussions; (2) the perception that adolescents are not respected due to their young age; and (3) a view of opinions as fixed and, hence,unchangeable. The possible solutions to these hindrances, as given by the students, were to work to enhance the level of respect and support in the classroom, to practice politics through carefully structured discussions, and to work in smaller groups to make them feel more secure and supported. The main implication is that the social studies teacher should aim for critical analysis and raising awareness of how to present and promote different perspectives instead of focusing solely on the students’ personal opinions, and that the structure of the classroom has to be carefully considered in this work.

Article 3 discusses the results of a formative intervention in the tradition of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Methods from cooperative learning were tried out in the same social studies class as in Article 2, with the goal of exploring how the experiences of cooperative learning impacted the students’ political efficacy. The data underlying the research were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and consisted of interviews with the now 14-year-old Norwegian students. The main implication of the study was that cooperative learning can enhance students’ political efficacy, by providing students with opportunities to practice democratic skills, such as participating in discussions, cooperation, and constructive social interaction. However, the students’ responses indicate that a contradiction arises when students become more concerned with individual achievements than with the collective learning process, which can lead to resistance to cooperative learning in the student group.

Taken together, the value of working to establish an open classroom climate through friendly peer relations, the influence of students’ age on their political efficacy, and the challenges provided by an individualized classroom, are the main empirical contributions of this thesis. In the extended abstract that follows, these contributions are analyzed as part of a larger framework provided by the participatory democratic approach, and discussed in light of different theoretical understandings of political efficacy. Through this effort, I hope to make a contribution to the large and important persistent project to develop a sustainable democratic system through education, by providing theoretical insights and practical recommendations for educators, researchers, and policy makers interested in educating to sustain and develop adolescent political efficacy.