Session Information
23 SES 08 B, Politics of Equity and Inclusion: Focus on Immigrants
Paper Session
Contribution
Purpose of the study and theoretical framework
Research points out that citizens no longer feel connected to our complex societies and that intolerance tends to increase. A number of authors have emphasised their growing concern about the loss of social cohesion, and argue for increasing the attention devoted to values such as citizenship and social commitment (Sandel, 1996; Putnam, 2000). Therefore a crucial role has been granted to citizenship education (Bîrzéa et al., 2004; Osler, & Starkey, 2006; Torney-Purta et al., 2001). Schools are expected to bring about a change in the mentality of the next generations concerning matters of racism, tolerance, distrust or apathy. The possible impact of schools and civics education programs can however differ in each society.
This paper examines the impact of macro characteristics on democratic civic attitudes of youngsters in Europe. Firstly, countries differ as to the size of the public school sector and the degree of regulation of school choice. Policy choice towards a free market strategy within education, with high proportions of private schools, freedom for parents to select the school of their first choice and high levels of competition between schools, is meant as a stimulus to increase quality (OECD, 2007, 2010; Wolf & Macedo, 2004). However, research has pointed out that freedom of school choice also has a considerable side effect. Such policy systems make it more likely for pupils with different socio-economic and socio-cultural background to be segregated into other schools, with greater inequality between individual schools as a consequence (Wolf & Macedo, 2004) and concentration of minorities into less privileged schools (Karsten et al., 2003). In that way these societies do not grant minorities access to the same opportunities in education and labour market. Integration could be considered unsuccessful. This type of school segregation based on social and ethnic background characteristics also obstructs the necessary contact between different population groups, which could instigate intolerance and racism on the one hand, feelings of discrimination on the other hand, and therefore undermine social cohesion (Wrinkle et al., 1999).
Furthermore, countries also differ in their degree of migration pressure, as measured by the relative number of immigrants in the population and the presence of refugees. Various combinations of these system level indicators define the boundaries for schools to influence civic attitudes of their students.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
References Bîrzéa, C., Kerr, D., Mikkelsen, R., Froumin, I., Losito, B., Pol, M., & Sardoc, M. (2004). All-European study on education for democratic citizenship policies. Strasbourg: Council of Europe - DG IV. Hahn, C. L. (1998). Becoming political. Comparative perspectives on citizenship education. New York: State University of New York Press. Karsten, S., Ledoux, G., Roeleveld, j., Felix, Ch. and Elshof, D. (2003). School Choice and Ethnic Segregation. Educational Policy. 17:452–77. OECD (2007). PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World. Paris: OECD. OECD (2010). Education at a Glance 2010. OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD. Osler, A., & Starkey, H. (2006). Education for Democratic Citizenship: a review of research, policy and practice 1995-2005. Research Papers in Education, 21(4), 433-466. Putnam, R.D. & Feldstein, L.M. (2003). Better together: restoring the American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Schulz, W., Ainley, J., Fraillon, J., Kerr, D., & Losito, B. (2010). ICCS 2009 International Report: Civic knowledge, attitudes and engagement among lower secondary school students in thirty-eight countries. Amsterdam: IEA. Sandel, M.J. (1996). Democracy's Discontent. America in Search of a Public Philosophy. Cambridge/London: The Belknap Press of Havard University Press. Snijders, T. A. B., & Bosker, R. (1999). Multilevel analysis: an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling. London: Sage. Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., & Schulz, W. (2001). Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries? Civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. Amsterdam: IEA. Wolf, P.J. & Macedo, S. (2004). Educating Citizens: International Perspectives on Civic Values and School Choice. Washington: The Brookings Institution. Wrinkle, R. D., Steward, J. and Polinard. J. L. (1999). Public School Quality, Private Schools and Race. American Journal of Political Science. 43:1248–53. Zick, A., Pettigrew, T.F. & Wagner, U. (2008). Ethnic prejudice and discrimination in Europe. Journal of Social Issues. 64/2, 233-251.
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