Wiseman, A.W. (2013, May). The Development and Impact of Youth Political Socialization through Formal Mass Education Worldwide: Evidence from ICCS 2009. Paper presented at the Sino-American Academic Symposium: Comparative Research on Cultivating Respon
Please visit my website for more information: http://www.comparative-education.com/. To cite this presentation, please use the following: Wiseman, A.W. (2013, May). The Development and Impact of Youth Political Socialization through Formal Mass Education Worldwide: Evidence from ICCS 2009. Paper presented at the Sino-American Academic Symposium: Comparative Research on Cultivating Responsibility, Personality and Capability of Youth, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Similar to Wiseman, A.W. (2013, May). The Development and Impact of Youth Political Socialization through Formal Mass Education Worldwide: Evidence from ICCS 2009. Paper presented at the Sino-American Academic Symposium: Comparative Research on Cultivating Respon
Similar to Wiseman, A.W. (2013, May). The Development and Impact of Youth Political Socialization through Formal Mass Education Worldwide: Evidence from ICCS 2009. Paper presented at the Sino-American Academic Symposium: Comparative Research on Cultivating Respon (20)
Wiseman, A.W. (2013, May). The Development and Impact of Youth Political Socialization through Formal Mass Education Worldwide: Evidence from ICCS 2009. Paper presented at the Sino-American Academic Symposium: Comparative Research on Cultivating Respon
1. The Development and Impact of Youth
Political Socialization Worldwide:
Evidence from ICCS 2009
Alexander W. Wiseman
Lehigh University (USA)
aww207@lehigh.edu
2. Youth Political Socialization
• Schools are politically constructed institutions.
• National education systems contribute to the
creation of loyal and productive citizens.
• School curriculum and pedagogy develop
youths' political identity and civic values.
___
Fuller, B., & Rubinson, R. (Eds.) (1992). The political construction of education: The state, economic change, and school expansion. New York: Praeger.
Ramirez, F.O., & Boli, J. (1987). The political construction of mass schooling: European origins and worldwide institutionalization. Sociology of Education, 60(1), 2-17.
Wiseman, A.W., Astiz, M.F., Fabrega, R., & Baker, D.P. (2011). Making citizens of the world: the political socialization of youth in formal mass education systems. Compare,
41(5), 561-577.
3. Youth Political Socialization
• Political Identity
• Civic Values
• Prior research indicates measurable variation
in political identity and civic values by
governance regime type.
___
Kamens, D. H. (2012). Beyond the Nation-state: The Reconstruction of Nationhood and Citizenship .Bindley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Torney-Purta, J., & Amadeo, J. A. (2013). The Contributions of International Large-Scale Studies in Civic Education and Engagement. In The Role of International Large-
Scale Assessments: Perspectives from Technology, Economy, and Educational Research (pp. 87-114). Springer Netherlands.
Wiseman, A.W., Astiz, M.F., Fabrega, R., & Baker, D.P. (2011). Making citizens of the world: the political socialization of youth in formal mass education systems. Compare,
41(5), 561-577.
4. Governance Regime Type
• Government is the institutionalized and
operational form of the governance regime.
• Decision-making
• Policymaking
• Accountability
• Enforcement
• Formal mass education often government-
sponsored.
___
Do Amaral, M. P. (2010). Regime theory and educational governance: The emergence of an international education regime. International Perspectives on Education and Society, 12, 57-78.
Krasner, S. D. (1983). Structural causes and regime consequences: regimes as intervening variables. International regimes, 1(2).
Marshall, M.G., & Cole, B.R. (2009). Global Report 2009: Conflict, Governance, & State Fragility. Arlington, VA: George Mason University, Center for Global Policy, page 11.
5. Governance Regime Type
• Preliminary analyses suggest that the strong
role that formal mass education plays in youth
political socialization follows the regime type
for civic values more than for political identity.
• RESEARCH QUESTION: Does youth
political socialization in national education
systems vary by regime type?
6. Global Trends in Governance, 1948-2008
___
Marshall, M.G., & Cole, B.R. (2009). Global Report 2009: Conflict, Governance, & State Fragility. Arlington, VA: George Mason University, Center for Global Policy, page 11.
7. Distribution of Governance Regimes, 2009
___
Marshall, M.G., & Cole, B.R. (2009). Global Report 2009: Conflict, Governance, & State Fragility. Arlington, VA: George Mason University, Center for Global Policy, page 12.
8. Hypotheses
H1: Students' political identity is more positively
associated with autocratic regimes than democratic.
H2: Students' civic values are more positively
associated with democratic regimes than autocratic.
___
Bader, J., Grävingholt, J., & Kästner, A. (2010). Would autocracies promote autocracy? A political economy perspective on regime-type export in regional neighbourhoods. Contemporary
Politics, 16(1), 81-100.
Grimm, S., & Leininger, J. (2012). Not all good things go together: conflicting objectives in democracy promotion. Democratization, 19(3), 391-414.
Do Amaral, M. P. (2010). Regime theory and educational governance: The emergence of an international education regime. International Perspectives on Education and Society, 12, 57-78.
9. Data: ICCS 2009
International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS)
13-year-old student achievement in a test of knowledge,
understanding, and competence in civic and citizenship
education.
Student dispositions and attitudes relating to civics and
citizenship.
Background information on the context in which
students learn about civics and citizenship, including
pedagogy, resources, management, curriculum, and
climate.
10. Student-level Measures
DV: Youth Political Socialization
Political Identity
• ATTCNT = students' attitudes towards
their country (patriotism)
• PARTCOM = students' civic participation
in the wider community
• PARTSCHL = students' civic participation
in school
11. Student-level Measures
DV: Youth Political Socialization
Civic Values
• CITSOC = student perceptions of the
importance of social movement related
citizenship
• INTPOLS = students' interest in politics
and social issues
12. School-level Measures
IVs: School curriculum and teachers' pedagogy
promotes:
• IC2G17A: knowledge of social, political, and civic
institutions
• IC2G17E: knowledge of citizens rights and
responsibilities
• IC2G17F: students' participation in the local
community
• IC2G17H: students' participation in school life
• IC2G17J: preparing students for future political
engagement
13. Country-level Measure
Regime Type Country
Autocracy (N=2) Hong Kong SAR, Cyprus
Closed Anocracy (N=0) N/A
Open Anocracy (N=2) Russian Federation, Thailand
Democracy (N=31) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile,
Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominican Rep.,
Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guatemala,
Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Korea
(South), Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Paraguay, Poland, Slovak Rep.,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
England
14. Results
• Does youth political socialization in national
education systems vary by regime type?
• Hypotheses NOT confirmed:
• Governance regime type not statistically
significant in any of the HLM analyses
• Governance regime impact is largely
negative (and not significant), except for
PARTSCHL “students’ civic participation
at school”, which is positive/NS.
15. Findings
• In-school processes and resources guide the
political socialization of youth
• School-based processes are shared across
political and national boundaries
• Regime type not associated with Youth
Political Socialization in school, except that
there is a potential (but weak) relationship
between students’ civic participation at school
and democratic governance regimes.
16. Takeaways
Schools are still
highly influential in
the political
socialization of
youth, especially in
their political identity
and civic values
development.
Youth may be sharing
increasingly similar
political identities
and civic values
across traditional
political and national
boundaries.
Civic education and
political expectations
for youth may be
becoming
increasingly shared
across national
education systems
worldwide.
17. The Development and Impact of Youth
Political Socialization Worldwide:
Evidence from ICCS 2009
Alexander W. Wiseman
Lehigh University (USA)
aww207@lehigh.edu
Editor's Notes
Youth political socialization means many things to different people and in different disciplines. This symposium is a perfect example of that. We could probably have a whole day of the symposium dedicated to just discussing what “youth political socialization” means.For example, in some countries, youth political socialization is the development of knowledge and skills related to active democratic participation in community life and the political process.In other countries, YPS is more about affiliation with and support of a particular political agenda or economic perspective. And, there are other ways of thinking about YPS as well:In Saudi Arabia, for example, the development of youth into Saudi citizens has more to do with instilling an understanding of the collective benefits of being members of Saudi society and an awareness that taking care of the environment advantages both individuals and the country.In South Africa, however, developing the concept of rights and responsibilities for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, or community origin is a large part of youth political socialization and the effort to overcome the legacy of apartheid.We could also debate how youth political socialization occurs.Is it a family and community process?Is it a personal choice?Is it the product of overt government agendas?Or, as I’m going to suggest, does formal mass education play a role in the political socialization of youth?
I’ve been doing work on youth political socialization for several years now, and approach the phenomenon from the perspective that national education systems play a key role in the political socialization of youth.Speaking very broadly, much evidence suggests that schools worldwide are often populated by government trained or certified teachers, and often teach students a government-approved curriculum.School attendance is often mandatory and schools enroll large percentages of the youth population during some of the most important developmental years of their lives. In fact, national education systems can be tools for politically socializing a country’s entire youth population while also teaching them the core subjects.There are two approaches to thinking about schools as components in the political socialization of youth:Civic education assumes a considerable although formalistic and narrow, impact on citizenship development, chiefly delivered through overt civics curricula and instruction.Political socialization instead suggests that formal mass education provides the structure and opportunity for youth citizenship development to occur without overt civics curricula and instruction.My definition of youth political socialization blends these approaches a bit and acknowledges that both overt instruction/curriculum and institutionalized educational structure/opportunity contribute to youth political socialization in countries worldwide.
For example, prior cross-national research suggests that, “schools are politically constructed institutions, which contribute to the creation of loyal and productive citizens” largely through the development of youths’ political identity and civic values.Political identity is both relational and contextual.In a relational sense, youth political identity explains or represents how youth politically relate to others in either their community or country. This can take the form of patriotism, or other types of overt identification with a political group or system. In a contextual sense, political identity is more about the ways and degrees in which youth participate in political activities in their schools and communities.Civic values, however, are indicators of understanding, expectations, and literally what has value, which facilitate youths’ understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it. Civic values have been defined as knowledge of government systems as well as expectations and attitudes that reflect what youth value in their communities, such as diversity, equality, and human rights.So, we arrive at this point knowing that formal mass education disseminates the ideology and expectations of the government; we know that formal mass education has a measurable impact on youth political socialization; and we know that measures of political identity and civic identity comprise key empirical evidence of the youth political socialization process.We’d like to know more about the variation in political identity AND civic values among youth by regime type, however, to confirm whether the global development of civic knowledge, skills and political attitudes is as evident as previous analyses suggest.
Regime theory is an approach suggesting that international institutions or regimes affect the behavior of states (or other international actors).Krasner (1983) defines regimes as "institutions possessing norms, decision rules, and procedures which facilitate a convergence of expectations.“One approach to regime theory suggests that social institutions or actors (like national education systems or educators) canNOT be separated out of their surrounding socio-political context, and that it’s not only interests or power that matter but perceptions and environment as well.Therefore, governance regimes have potentially large influence over youth political socialization because they contextualize the development of political identity and civic values occurring within national education systems (ie, schools) by influencing curricular and pedagogical:Decision-makingPolicymakingAccountabilityEnforcement
In work that I did using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, and reported on here at a different conference last year looked at the development of youth political socialization in terms of political identity and civic values in the only participating communities that were linked to an autocratic government: Cyprus and Hong Kong. That preliminary work suggested that the strong role formal mass education plays in youth political socialization tended to be influenced by national governance regime type more for civic values than for political identity. So, to follow up on this, my research question for this study asks: Does youth political socialization in national education systems vary by regime type?
Regime types are often measured in broad categories as democracies, anocracies, and autocracies in cross-nationally comparative social science research.This chart shows the global trends in governance (ie, regime types) from 1948-2008. The most significant trend is the recent rise in democracies relative to both anocracies and autocracies.
Distribution of governance regimes worldwide gives an indication of the variation in regime type.Which suggests that there may be significant variation in the ways that governance regime impacts youth political socialization through national education systems worldwide.
Based on the research and theoretical literature reviewed earlier, political identity is empirically measured using indicators of patriotism or political participation, while empirical measures of civic values include indicators of knowledge about government and citizenship as well as awareness of diversity and equality issues along with human rights issues.My preliminary analyses and regime theory suggest, the development of political identity may be highly valued in more autocratic countries because a strong affiliation with the national political system and citizens’ responsibilities are valued in autocracies more than individuals’ preferences in governance or awareness of political rights. Following this reasoning, I hypothesize that:H1: Students’ political identity is more positively associated with autocratic regimes than democratic ones.On the other hand, my preliminary analyses and regime theory suggest that the development of civic values may be more highly valued in democratic regimes because those values are seen to guide individuals’ choices in their political participation and citizenship. Following this reasoning, I hypothesized that:H2: Students’ civic values are more positively associated with democratic regimes than autocratic ones.
I used different dependent variables based on the core components of youth political socialization: political identity and civic values.For political identity, three variables were used which represent student patriotism as well as civic participation in both community and school.
For civic values, two variables were used to represent students’ understanding of the importance of social movements, and their interest in the intersection between politics and social issues. I also included several measures of student background characteristics as independent variables at the student level, including student sex, socioeconomic status, immigration status, and language.
At the school level, the context for youth political socialization was represented by school principals’/leaders’ perception of the importance of political institutions, citizens rights/responsibilities, local community and school participation, and preparation for future political engagement in the school curriculum and teachers’ pedagogy.
Finally, at the country level the key indicator was regime type, which was measured on a scale varying between -10 (autocracy) and +10 (democracy).As this chart suggests, the sample of countries in this data set is overwhelmingly biased in terms of democratic regimes, so a cross-national analysis of all countries in the national sample largely yield results representing democratic regimes (even though there is some variation among them).My analyses consisted of some descriptive analysis to investigate the variability and central tendency of these key DVs and IVs, but then I also conducted several interpretive analyses including bivariate correlations at the national level to determine if there were cross-national trends in regime type association with the indicators of youth political socialization, within country analyses of internal variation to see which countries had the most significant differences in political identity and civic values from school to school, but the key analysis was a series of HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) analyses using the 5 student level indicators as key DVs in 5 different HLM models.
Although I do not have the time to discuss the statistical results in full here, I can report that my hypotheses were NOT confirmed. In none of my analyses both cross-nationally at the country level nor in my HLM models (which account for nested variation within different levels) was governance regime type significantly associated with the measures of youth political socialization. Most of the school level predictors were significant and positive estimates of youth political socialization, but NOT country governance regime type.Interestingly, although none of the regime type coefficients in the HLM analysis were statistically significant, it is noteworthy to mention that they were all negative (except for students’ civic participation at school), which suggests that more democratic regimes may be negatively associated with youth political socialization at school – which was the opposite of what the literature, preliminary analyses, and my hypotheses expected.
In spite of the busted hypotheses, several interesting findings still emerged:First, in-school processes and resources seem to guide the political socialization of youth in national education systems, as indicated by the consistently strong and positive impact of school level context/expectations for youths’ political socialization.School-based processes like those mentioned above have the same or similar impact in all of the countries (national education systems) included in the analysis, which suggests that these school processes are shared to some degree across political and national boundaries.Regime type is not associated with youth political socialization, and if it was a statistically significant relationship it would be a negative one meaning that democratic regimes may be the least likely to impact the development of political identity and civic values among youth in schools.
Takeaways for policymakers and educators are that:Schools (and national education systems) continue to be key institutions for incorporating youth as political/national citizens, and that school curricula and teacher pedagogy can (and do) play a measurably significant role in this process.So, curricular, pedagogical, and resource investment in civic education and political socialization efforts in schools have genuine returns in developing youth political identity and civic values.Regime type does not influence youth political socialization as previous research has suggested, which either means that political identity and civic values among youth are becoming more shared across political/national boundaries than before, or that civic education in schools worldwide is increasingly similar, especially in countries that have more similar regime types to begin with.So, those investments in civic education curriculum, pedagogy, and resources may not lead to youth political identities or civic values that are unique to only one community, but may support the development of shared identities and values.So, perhaps this research does confirm previous work which has suggested that there is evidence of a shared “global” development of civic knowledge, skills and political attitudes among youth as a result of formal mass education. Given the growing amount of evidence, it’s certainly worth testing this idea further.