Back on track? How civic learning opportunities widen the political knowledge gap in a tracked education system

ABSTRACT

This article examines how different civic learning opportunities relate to students’ political knowledge in different school tracks. Existing studies have found that citizenship teaching can not only enhance overall levels of civic outcomes but also mitigate inequalities. However, educational achievement studies emphasize the risk of a tracked school context exacerbating the general knowledge gap. Combining these findings, we do not know whether efforts in the vocational track to enhance civic outcomes can still reduce civic inequalities. This study relies on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 data. It uses multilevel analysis to examine how the civic learning opportunities schools offer (as perceived by students) are related to civic knowledge across different tracks. It finds that cross-track differences in civic knowledge are not smaller in schools rich in civic learning opportunities. We provisionally propose that this is due to differences across tracks in the levels and the nature of the civic learning opportunities provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic knowledge
• vocational education
• acceleration hypothesis
• compensation hypothesis
• political socialization

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dorien Sampermans

Dorien Sampermans holds a PhD on the topic of citizenship education and is a guest lecturer at KU Leuven. In her research, she underlines how school characteristics relate to citizenship education outcomes. She is a staff member at Catholic Education Flanders, where she is responsible for the management of the international, educational project. Catholic Education Flanders is a network organization that unites the boards of Catholic educational institutions, more than 1,500 basic education schools, and more than 700 secondary education schools.

Ellen Claes

Ellen Claes is a professor at KU Leuven. Her research concerns the relationship between school characteristics, citizenship education, and democratic attitudes. Her current research focuses on open classroom climate and its potential to reduce ethnic prejudice and increase social and political trust. In addition, she is looking at the effects of various styles of teaching on political knowledge, political interest, political participation, and political trust.

Jan Germen Janmaat

Jan Germen Janmaat is Professor of Political Socialization at UCL Institute of Education. His research focuses on civic values, political socialization, and the relation with inequality and social cohesion. He is Deputy Director of LLAKES. This center researches the connections between lifelong learning, economic competitiveness, and social cohesion.