Concluded projects
of the Institute of Conflict Research
Education for Democratic Citizenship: Implementation and perspectives
| Project Management: | Univ.Prof. Dr. Anton Pelinka |
| Project Team: | Dr. Günther Sandner MMag.a Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle DDr. Hubert Sickinger Institut für Empirische Sozialforschung (IFES) |
| Financed by: | Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture |
| Concluded in | May 2008 |
The research project has four main sections:
The first section contains the results of a representative survey among advanced students attending teacher accreditation study courses at universities as well as at University Colleges of Teacher Education („Pädagogische Hochschulen“), which was conducted in cooperation with the Institute for Empirical Social Research (Institut IFES. The students’ own training in education for democratic citizenship as well as their knowledge of its subjects and aims as well of its status within the Austrian school system are the main themes of this survey. The majority of the students are aware of the main objectives to be reached by education for democratic citizenship. Nevertheless the answers reveal a remarkably negative picture of the topic’s significance in their own training. Only a very limited part of the respondents has received interdisciplinary and systematic training in education for democratic citizenship. In particular, stronger linkage between theory and practice as well as the handling of controversial issues have been identified as priority desiderata or objectives. As a result, the students’ own competences in education for democratic citizenship have been evaluated to be poor. Only future teachers of core subjects, such as history, geography and German language see clear linkages of their own subject with education for democratic citizenship, and scarcely only half of the students have shown any interest in the topic as part of their own training.
The research team also conducted a qualitative study among teachers, based on semi-structured interviews. The interviewees are teaching different subjects in various school types in selected parts of Austria. Topics of the survey were form and scope of practical implementation and students’ self-evaluation of their competence in education for democratic citizenship, but also the perspective of the main target group, i.e. the pupils / students. Furthermore, practical demands on the teachers as well as their needs for advanced training and further support, designed to enhance the quality of education for democratic citizenship, formed part of the questionnaire.
Both empirical studies reveal major deficits in education for democratic citizenship in the curricula at universities and University Colleges of Teacher Education. Although respondents expressed doubts about the options of teaching education for democratic citizenship at school, they held a positive view of introducing education for democratic citizenship as a separate curricular subject. However, this does not necessarily imply that (future) teachers consider education for democratic citizenshippart of their own responsibility.
Exchanging information with other colleagues, who had worked in parallel on a model of political competence for pupils, the research team used the results of both empirical studies to formulate the basic format of such a competence model for teachers. The competence model should be based on both academic as well as didactic competence. Didactic competence covers the fields of didactic theory, diagnostic competence and communicative competence (), which can be further divided into more specific competences. To meet the requirements of the interdisciplinary character of education for democratic citizenship, academic competence is equally essential as didactic competence. To be sure, such competences would require a fundamental reform of the teacher training system.
The extension of the right to vote to young people from the age of 16 implies that, so far, pupils / students have received most of their education for democratic citizenship only after having reached their voting age. As a result, it is being considered to teach education for democratic citizenship as of the 8th grade (mainly students aged 14). The last section points out models of implementation (which are not limited to grade 8) and discusses their pros and cons against the background of the Austrian regulatory framework.
