Why Has Civic Education Failed to Increase Young People's Political Participation

Bibliographic Data

ID2642893
AuthorsNathan Manning (0000-0003-0488-0888, University of York, corresponding author), Kathy Edwards (0000-0002-1058-0032, RMIT University)
Year2014
Volume19
Issue1
Pages1-12
Publication date2014-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Research Online (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5153/sro.3206
OpenAlexW2108764153
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited59

Recent years have seen a revival of civic education. Advocates of this policy have cited the alleged declining normative political participation of young people as a primary reason for its need. This paper builds on the findings of a recent systematic review that examined the effect of civic education on young people's level of normative political engagement. The review found little evidence for civic education having a clear effect on voting/registering to vote, but did identify modest positive effects on forms of political expression (e.g. signing petitions). Hence, it seems civic education has broadly 'failed' in its specified aim. We argue here that this 'failure' reflects a mechanistic approach to policy and a naive notion that 'knowledge will result in action', neglecting insights from sociological literature that shows structural barriers to young people's political participation and the displacement of electoral politics by new hybrid and creative forms of participation

Civic engagement · Normative · Political action · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Voting · Voting behavior · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Law · Social Media and Politics · Youth Development and Social Support