How Are Young Australians Learning About Politics at School?: The Student Perspective
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How Are Young Australians Learning About Politics at School?: The Student Perspective Zareh Ghazarian 1 Zlatko Skrbis 2
& Jacqueline
Laughland-Booy 2
& Chiara
De Lazzari 3 &
Received: 11 February 2020 / Revised: 23 June 2020 / Accepted: 25 June 2020 # Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Abstract In order to confidently participate in the democratic process, citizens from liberal democracies require knowledge about how their nation’s system of politics and government functions. For the past 30 years, successive Australian governments have endeavoured to educate school students about the political system via a civics and citizenship curriculum. Despite this, official data suggests that current approaches may not be providing young Australians with the level of understanding they require to be active and informed citizens. In this paper, we present a study of Australian school leavers who were interviewed about the civics and citizenship education they received while at school. The first-hand experiences of these young people have enabled us to highlight potential problems with how the curriculum is being delivered and identify ways of improving the political knowledge of young people. Keywords Civics and citizenship . Political knowledge . Young people . First-time voters . Australia
The political knowledge of young citizens has received much interest from researchers, educators, and policymakers.1 It has been suggested that young people may not be adequately informed about their rights and responsibilities as citizens nor have the confidence to participate in democratic processes (Furlong and Cartmel 2007; TorneyPurta et al. 2001). These concerns have often been underpinned by studies that have highlighted gaps in young people’s understanding about how their nation’s system of government is structured and how it functions (Laughland-Booy et al. 2018; Print 2007; Stockemer and Rocher 2016). 1 Hereafter, the terms ‘young people’ and ‘young citizens’ refer to individuals living in liberal democracies who are aged between 18 and 25.
* Zareh Ghazarian [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Journal of Applied Youth Studies
There has been considerable discussion in Australia about whether schools are adequately preparing students to become politically informed, active, and engaged. Since the late 1980s, there have been attempts to establish a national approach to civics and citizenship education, whereby all Australian school students are taught about their nation’s system of politics and government during the compulsory years of schooling (i.e. between the ages of 6 and 16). Despite these efforts, many young Australians continue to demonstrate low levels of political literacy (Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters 2007). This lack of knowledge is concerning because it impacts the ability of young people to understand the political debate and participate in the decision-making processes of their nation. As such, this has serious implications f
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