Students' Concepts of Democracy

Husfeldt, Vera; Nikolova, Roumiana

doi:10.2304/eerj.2003.2.3.6

Cited by 19 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Many adolescents are not able to define democracy or provide a coherent description of it. Those who are able to define democracy, moreover, typically do so in terms of such characteristics as individual rights and freedoms, democratic representation, majority rule, and/or civic equality (Husfeldt and Nikolova 2003;Flanagan 2013;Flanagan et al 2005). Only a small group of adolescents have been shown to be able to provide a more comprehensive account of the concept of democracy by mentioning several key characteristics, relating these to each other and explaining why they constitute a democracy (De Groot 2013;Sigel and Hoskins 1981).…”

Section: Orientations Towards Democracy and Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Democracy always comes first’: adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

Nieuwelink

Dekker

Geijsel

et al. 2016

Journal of Youth Studies

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Research shows adolescents to be positively oriented towards democracy, but little is known about what it actually means to them and what their views are on decision-making in both everyday situations and political democracy. To gain insight into these aspects of adolescents' democratic views, we have interviewed 40 Dutch adolescents from second grade of different types of high school. Potential conflict between various democratic principles prevalent in everyday life situations was discussed and compared to how they view decision-making in political democracy. The results of our qualitative study showed that adolescents' views on issues concerning collective decisionmaking in everyday situations are quite rich and reflect different models of democracy (majoritarian, consensual, and deliberative). Moreover, how adolescents deal with tensions between democratic principles in everyday life situations varies. While some adolescents combine several principles (for instance, majority rule as a last resort after trying to find broader consensus), other adolescents tend to strictly focus on only one of these principles. Adolescents' views on political democracy, however, are rather limited and one-dimensional. Those adolescents who seemed to have a more explicit picture of political democracy often preferred a strict focus on majority rule, neglecting minority interests. For the stability of a democratic society, it is of great importance that new generations develop democratic orientations. Yet, during the past 15 years, studies have raised questions about the orientations of new generations towards democracy and specific aspects thereof, such as political interests, willingness to vote, freedom of speech, and collective decision-making. Scholars claim that new generations are largely preoccupied with their own lives and interests, and are therefore less focused on participation in public spheres and the common good (Galston 2001;Putnam 2000;Ribeiro et al. 2015).

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Section: Orientations Towards Democracy and Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Democracy always comes first’: adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

Nieuwelink

Dekker

Geijsel

et al. 2016

Journal of Youth Studies

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show abstract

“…Political socialization research shows two developments in how adolescents gain a fuller perspective on the political world: increasing familiarity with politics and increasing complexity in reasoning about democratic issues. As to the first development, it is suggested that adolescents grow into politics by becoming more familiar with abstract institutions and principles, such as government, parliament, and the concept of democracy (Greenstein, 1965;Hooghe and Dassonneville, 2011;Husfeldt and Nikolova, 2003;Sapiro, 2004). While children develop views and attitudes towards aspects of everyday situations such as choice of friends, bullying, and boundaries of parental control over the preferences of their children (Helwig and Turiel, 2002), adolescents usually also develop democratic orientations (Adelson, 1971;Husfeldt and Nikolova, 2003).…”

Section: Developing Democratic Views During Adolescencementioning

confidence: 99%

Growing into politics? The development of adolescents’ views on democracy over time

Nieuwelink

Dam²,

Geijsel

et al. 2017

Politics

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This study focuses on how views on democracy develop during adolescence. A total of 40 Dutch adolescents were interviewed in their second and fourth year of secondary education. The study shows that the interviewed adolescents do become more familiar with politics but do not develop more nuanced views towards democracy. As the adolescents age, a one-dimensional perspective on democracy becomes more apparent. In the interviewees' perspective, democracy increasingly equals majority rule. Other aspects, such as minority interests and finding consensus, are increasingly neglected. This study, therefore, suggests that adolescents do not 'naturally' develop more complex views on democracy when they age.

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“…These scales were included in the discriminant function analysis because these values and attitudes are among important civic learning outcomes for active citizenship reported in the literature, such as democratic values (Papanastasiou, Koutselini, & Papanastasiou, 2003), civic concepts (Husfeldt & Nikolova, 2003;Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, Fragoulis, Zanni, & Ntelikou, 2003), civic engagement and participation (Menezes, 2003;Torney-Purta & Richardson, 2002), democratic school engagement and civic participation 482…”

Section: External Validitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Secondary analysis of large-scale assessment data: an alternative to variable-centred analysis

Chow¹,

Kennedy²

2014

Educational Research and Evaluation

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International large-scale assessments are now part of the educational landscape in many countries and often feed into major policy decisions. Yet, such assessments also provide data sets for secondary analysis that can address key issues of concern to educators and policymakers alike. Traditionally, such secondary analyses have been based on a variable-centred approach that gives rise to league tables. In the study reported here, a person-centred analysis is used as an alternative to the traditional approach. Data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) were analysed to investigate Asian students' attitudes to their future civic participation. Cluster analysis with validity measures showed that 4 distinct groups of students were identified within the societies studied thus highlighting the diversity within the samples. These results cannot be achieved with a conventional variable approach to analysis, and they suggest the usefulness of exploring alternative approaches to secondary data analysis.

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Students' Concepts of Democracy

Cited by 19 publications

References 5 publications

‘Democracy always comes first’: adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

‘Democracy always comes first’: adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

Growing into politics? The development of adolescents’ views on democracy over time

Secondary analysis of large-scale assessment data: an alternative to variable-centred analysis

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