Contact:
Kazimierz Slomczynski, (614) 292-8078
Goldie Shabad, (614) 292-1047
Written by Mike Dillard, (614) 292-8457
CAN SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRACY BE TAUGHT? STUDY SHOWS MIXED RESULTS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new study suggests it may be difficult to teach teenagers in post-communist societies to develop strong support for democratic and free market principles.
Researchers at Ohio State University found that 14- and 15- year-old Polish students who took a new type of civics education class were less likely to take extreme positions against democracy and the free market than were other youth.
But, unexpectedly, the study found that students taking the new class were also less likely than were others to show a strong commitment to democratic or market values.
"In essence, this class had the unintended effect of making students more skeptical and ambivalent about democratic and market values in their extreme form," said Kazimierz Slomczynski, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State.
Slomczynski conducted the study with Goldie Shabad, an associate professor of political science at Ohio State. Their results were published in a recent issue of the journal Political Psychology.
Slomczynski said Polish educators designed the new civics program --called Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC)- - with the aid of American educators. The program includes frequent student participation in democratic games and market simulations and was designed to increase support for democratic and free market principles. Students in the EDC classes participated in role-playing and simulation games during which they were given political problems to solve.
Shabad said students who took the EDC were presented with the messy political processes that are part of a democracy. Students were introduced to democratic principles that may seem to conflict, such as majority rule vs. respect for minority opinions. "The natural conflicts found in a democracy may have caused students to be skeptical and ambivalent about the new system," she said.
The researchers surveyed 208 students who took the EDC class and compared them to 172 students who took a traditional, standard civics class. These surveys examined the students' stances on democratic and free market principles.
The surveys found that students taking the traditional classes were more likely to take extreme positions either positive or negative toward democracy and a free market system.
For example, 31 percent of the students in the traditional class agreed that some groups of people should be stripped of their voting rights. In contrast, fewer of the students who took the EDC class -- 24 percent -- agreed with this extreme anti-democratic principle.
In general, fewer than 20 percent of students expressed a pro-democracy stance on most items. "Certainly, this does not indicate widespread support among students for a liberal democracy," Shabad said. However, anti-democratic responses were infrequent as well, usually ranging from 10 to 25 percent.
Similar results were found in the questions involving support for a free market economy -- students who took the traditional class were more likely to show extreme positive or negative views of the market.
Shabad said the active teaching and learning model used in the EDC class -- which involved case studies and practical applications in real-life situations -- may have led some students in this class to see shortcomings in democratic and free market systems. The students also had to use more critical thinking in the EDC class, which may actually be a benefit for people living in a democracy.
Both researchers agreed that civics courses like the EDC program can contribute to the consolidation of Poland's new democracy and free market economy because they lessen anti- democratic and anti-capitalist values.
"In the early stages of building democracies in Western Europe after World War II, strong pro-democratic views also were only shared by a minority," Slomczynski said. "A decreasing proportion of the public holding anti-democratic views may be more important for sustainable democracy than an increasing proportion of pro-democratic supporters. From this perspective, the EDC program can be regarded as successful because it appears to diminish the number of anti-democrats."
Slomczynski said the EDC program is spreading in Poland. In 1994, only a few of these alternate programs existed throughout the country. But by the end of the study in 1996, almost 200 of these programs had been implemented. Today there are nearly 1,000 such programs in Poland.
The study was supported by the Mershon Center at Ohio State University.
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