Kodanikuharidus, kodanikuväärtused ja nende dünaamika uutes ja vanades demokraatiates

Abstract

This paper represents a study of civic education, civic values among young school children and their dynamics in countries with different democratic experiences. The paper is based on the databases of IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study and its main themes are: 1. The impact of state average civic knowledge score on civic values and activities inbetween two time frames (year 1999 and 2009) 2. Comparison of new and old democracies in relation to the idea of a democratic citizen Civic education has received increasing attention and has become an important part of state policies and different studies due to the broadening of democratic issues (post-communist democratizations, changing ideas of citizenship, valuing civic participation) and increased relevance on the European Union level. Civic education has been seen as benefitting post-communist countries’ civic participation levels as well as alleviating growing Western political apathy. Different studies have measured the civic knowledge levels, impacting factors and civic competence’s impact on civic participation and supporting values. This paper evaluates the dynamics of students’ political opinion and activities among new and old democracies. This paper uses multilevel analysis to study the impact of state average civic knowledge score on civic values and activities that are related to the idea of a democratic citizen (differing citizenship forms, attitudes towards one’s country, institutional trust, predicted political activities in adulthood). State level impact is controlled for with student level variables of political self-perception.

The results show that the differences between old and new democratic countries have been small or have reduced in about the past 10 years. Significant differences have developed between the estimations of political trust. The state average civic knowledge score has an impact on civic values and activities that are related to the idea of a democratic citizen, but the impact decreases significantly, once individual level political perceptions are taken into account.