The effect of schools on political participation: a multilevel logistic analysis

Abstract

While various recent studies have sounded the alarm about young people's civic and political participation, schools are often cited as an important means of counteracting this trend. Not only do schools prepare students for the ‘real’ world but they also provide them with essential resources required for political participation. However, it is not always clear how schools can enhance young people's political participation. In this article, I empirically test how schools can encourage young people's political participation. Through a multilevel analysis, the simultaneous effect of formal civic education, active learning strategies and school characteristics on political participation among Flemish pupils is investigated. The evidence suggests that especially formal education and active learning strategies are successful in stimulating political participation. On the other hand, the level of political participation does not depend on school characteristics.