Abstract
Over the last decades, many European Union countries have invested in strengthening participatory learning in citizenship education policy and practice. This survey study provides insight into how high school teachers in the Netherlands advance critical democratic citizenship and a democratic school culture in the context of mock elections. A quarter of the schools that organized mock elections in 2017 participated in the study. Analysis reveals that attention for critical, valuerelated teacher aims and teacher aims directed at strengthening a democratic school culture is still limited in mock election-related education. It also shows that half of the participating schools offer less than one hour of mock electionrelated educational activities, and that one-third of the teachers would like to offer additional educational activities.
Highlights
Over the last decades, many member states of the European Union (EU) have invested in strengthening participatory learning in citizenship education policy and practice (Veugelers et al, 2017)
To answer the main question of our quantitative inquiry, ‘How do teachers in secondary education advance critical democratic citizenship and a democratic school culture?’, we explored teacher and school characteristics and the current and ideal situation of mock elections regarding aspects of mock elections that were examined in a previous qualitative inquiry (De Groot, 2017, 2018b)
We answer the research questions: (1) How do teachers pursue critical aims and a democratic school culture in the mock elections context?; (2) How many hours do teachers offer educational activities in the mock elections context, and what educational activities do teachers organize?; and (3) How do teacher aims and educational activities relate to teacher and school characteristics? In order to contextualize our findings, we first report on the teachers and schools that organize MEs in Dutch high schools
Summary
Many member states of the European Union (EU) have invested in strengthening participatory learning in citizenship education policy and practice (Veugelers et al, 2017). In the Netherlands, where this study is situated, the government installed legal obligations for schools to foster ‘active participation and social integration’ of primary and secondary education students in 2006 (Ministry of Education, 2006). This means that schools need to advance specific learning goals (for example, ‘students learn to behave in line with general accepted norms and values’). The Dutch government does not mandate schools to offer a specific course or subject on citizenship. Students attend the mandatory one year Study of Society course, which is typically offered in the pre-final year. For vocational education, attended by students who have finished the pre-vocational track 1–4 in secondary education (about half of the Dutch student population, aged 16–20), no learning goals are set
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