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Abstract
The present study shed light on the continuing debate among students of political socialisation regarding the effects of civic education on the upholding of democratic attitudes. Our major conclusion is that civic education, in and of itself, has only minor effects on democratic attitudes of pupils. Furthermore, among pupils who attended civic education classes, democratic class climate would have a crucial effect on the internalisation of democratic attitudes, and the association between sociodemographic characteristics and democratic attitudes is partially mediated by perception of democratic class climate. The findings offer a model which involves demographics and class climate for predicting the success of civic education in meeting its main goal—the absorption and internalisation of democratic attitudes. Thus, we hope to take the ongoing debate in the field at least one small step forward. Footnote1
Notes
1. All authors had an equal contribution.
2. On the reasons for the decline in the interest in the role of civics in the political socialisation process and the flourishing of research on the topic in the 1990s, please refer to Niemi and Hepburn (Citation1995).
3. For detailed information on the components of class climate that were identified theoretically and through factor analysis, refer to Johnson and Johnson (Citation1983) as well as to Johnson, Johnson, and Anderson (Citation1983).
4. Parental education is occasionally regarded as a component of the socioeconomic status of the pupil's family (Chen, Citation2001; Ventura, Citation2001; Westholm, Citation1999).
5. Grades on these exams comprise the high-school diploma and grade average determines the pupil's chances of being accepted to institutions of higher education.
6. The “Kremnizer” Committee was set up in March 1995. It recommended several important reforms, which were thereafter implemented.
7. The most prominent topic in the civic curriculum in 2004 was the principals of the democratic idea such as rule of law, limits of the government, definitions of democracy (Civic education supervisor circular No. 1, 2004).
8. This type of sampling is well established in the field and has become accepted over the years (e.g., Hahn, Citation1999). Further, it seems to be a requirement in the Israeli context because of assumed differences in political atmosphere between pupils of different schools (e.g., Ichilov, Citation1991).
9. In the sample 59.8% were females, and in the population the percentage is 56.4%.;78% were born in Israel and 18% in the former USSR. Similarly, in the population 71.4% were born in Israel and 16.2% in the USSR. Most parents were born in Israel (43.4% of the fathers and 46.3% of the mothers), and approximately a quarter of the parents were born in the former USSR (21.3% of fathers and 22.1% of mothers). The remaining parents were equally distributed between European/American descent and Asian/African descent. These distributions also reflect the general population in Israel, of which Russian immigrants make up 18.5% of the general population, while 22.9% have Asian/African origins and another 12% are European/American immigrants. The majority of pupils defined themselves as secular (79.3%), or traditional (19.4%) and only a negligible percent were religious-orthodox. This also is a close reflection of the distribution in the general pupil population (72.2% and 20.8% respectively). Thus, the demographic features of the subjects of this study successfully reflected the distribution of the nationwide 258,584 Israeli high-school pupils in the Jewish sector.
10. Chi square tests show that there are no significant differences between the groups regarding state in which the pupil was born (χ2 = 4.236). T test was done for the following variables: father and mother education, student religiosity, and pupil level of excellence. None of the tests were significant, hence no difference identified between the two groups in those variables. Here are the results of the T tests: father education (t = −.449); mother education (t = −1.416); student level of religiosity (t = .294); pupil level of excellence (t = −.278).
11. As this model asks the question as to whether other sociodemographics would create a better model, we have advanced a series of extensive preliminary analyses using additional such sociodemographics. The results showed that only these four play a substantial role (full details available upon request).
12. Reliability analyses reported here represent only the final stage of comprehensive preliminary work to grant validity and reliability of each measure (full details available upon request).
13. To calculate the magnitude of an indirect path, it is acceptable to multiple the two indirect paths (Bollen, Citation1989; Kline, Citation1998).
14. Due to the relatively large number of paths from manifests to latent variables (28), and for space considerations, we cannot provide the full list of factor loadings. Details can be provided by the authors upon request.
15. The data can be found in the Israeli Bureau of Statistics: http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/?MIval = cw_usr_view_Folder&ID = 141