Abstract
In July 2015 at the University of Göttingen, Germany, situated at the historical venue of Pauliner Church, an international conference addressed the role and potential of citizenship, social and economic education in times of crises. This is the first of two Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (CSEE) special issues presenting keynote speeches and articles building on presentations given at this conference, which was the 11th biennial conference of the International Association for Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (IACSEE).
Political systems recently have been fundamentally challenged, for example, in Asia as in Hong Kong, China, and Thailand; in the middle-east, in the Arab spring and the Ukrainian revolution; but also in Western countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy with their movements for more devolution and independence referenda. Global climate change needs to be addressed by international political solutions adopting new modes of governance. The far-reaching problems of the global financial system highlighted by the financial crisis that started in 2008 have only been addressed superficially so far. People are disillusioned and ask for change. But many citizens feel that they adequately understand neither the problem nor the alternative solutions presented to them. In Europe, the crisis of the financial and economic system, the debt crisis, the horrendous rates of youth unemployment – especially in the South – as well as the recent immigration challenge multiplied by the Syrian war have given rise to “Politikverdrossenheit” and populist parties, but also to nationalist movements from the extreme right.
The recent British referendum on the UK membership in the European Union highlights a fundamental problem of politics in these times of globalization: while there is increasing need for transnational cooperation and regional as well as global governance, citizens’ political awareness doesn’t seem to keep up with such social and economic developments and political necessities. While there are of course different legitimate views on how to politically deal with new social and economic challenges, in many cases, the reasoning behind citizens’ votes is alarming. A widespread lack of knowledge about politics and economics as well as a fundamental lack of media competence makes too many people an easy prey for populist slogans.
At the same time, citizens are increasingly being asked by their national governments to become “active.” If citizens ought to be decisive actors confronted with such challenges, they need citizenship education to develop relevant competencies. At least this is what educators have long been claiming – however, it needs to be stated that there is often very little empirical evidence for the assumed positive effects of citizenship education due to a lack of empirical studies systematically investigating such educational measures. Which roles really can and should be adopted by citizenship, social, and economics education was the leading question of the IACSEE Conference 2015.
The 3-day conference “Political and economic systems under challenge – assessing the role and potential of citizenship education” presented a lively forum for talks and debates of scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America. The various presentations focused both on civic and social education as well as economic education research projects. Theoretical approaches alternated with empirical studies using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
From this conference spring two special issues of the journal CSEE, which I am honored to present as guest editor. This first issue contains two keynote speeches as well as three academic articles that form the domains of civic, economic, and social education. Let me point out to readers that the keynote speeches are presented here as they were held at Pauliner Church during the conference, while the other articles included in this issue are fully revised and peer-reviewed academic articles.
The first keynote by Richard Pring, Professor (em.) and honorary research fellow at Oxford University, opens with the demand to “bring back John Dewey” when preparing young people for Citizenship today. Against his examination of Dewey’s theoretical and practical work in America, Richard Pring identifies great need for today’s Britain to create in schools a sense of community as a basis for critical engagement in society, economics, and politics of future generations. Following Dewey, he suggests a common school with less emphasis on testing and more efforts to create a common culture and active citizens.
In her keynote, Sabine Manzel, Professor for Social Science Didactics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, focuses on participation and decision-making as key competences for democracy. She presents an explorative study using standardized videography to analyze how these competences are realized in classroom interaction. Sabine Manzel asks for more theoretical work as well as empirical studies investigating measures of citizenship education, including standardized studies, long-term studies, and taking into account background variables, so we can learn more about the potentials and prerequisites of civic education.
Following these two keynotes, three articles offer further perspectives on civic, social, and economic education. Hans-Peter Burth from the University of Education Freiburg critically examines Service Learning programs as a tool for increasing civic engagement at school and university level. First, the article gives an overview of results of empirical studies on the effects of Service Learning programs, showing the inconsistency of findings and stressing the design deficits of many of these studies. Second, the theoretical framework of Service Learning programs with their normative premises and implications are critically discussed drawing on different approaches in the literature. Hans-Peter Burth concludes that the danger of promoting depoliticized participation and of misuse as mere substitute of governmental social policy must be avoided through well-aimed improvements of existing Service Learning programs.
In their article, Francis K.T. Mok and Timothy W.W. Yuen from The Hong Kong Institute of Education (very recently renamed The Education University of Hong Kong) evaluate teachers’ understanding of critical thinking at Hong Kong schools. Although it is by now a widely accepted consensus that students’ ability of critical thinking should be cultivated at school, teachers’ understanding of what is meant by critical thinking and how this can be fostered has often been neglected. In their study, the authors detect a positive portrayal of critical thinking void of context sensitivity which is not conducive in the current situation of Hong Kong which, still under the shadow of Communist China, is seen in great need for truly critical citizens. Mok and Yuen ask for a more differentiated understanding of critical thinking in school teachers, giving greater attention to prevailing cultural beliefs, social values, political institutions, and economic ideologies.
Roland Happ, Manuel Förster, Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, and Vivian Carstensen from the Universities of Mainz and Bielefeld present an empirical study on the economic knowledge of students of business and economics when starting their studies at German Universities, adapting the fourth, revised edition of the American Test of Economic Literacy. So far, little is known about first-year students’ economic knowledge. Happ and colleagues are interested both in the level of students’ prior economic knowledge as well as in differences between students due to personal factors. The findings indicate significant differences between students within universities, influenced by gender, mother tongue, and economic learning experiences prior to starting university. Implications for teaching and degree program design are discussed.
I hope this special CSEE issue, the first of two Conference-related special issues, provides readers with fruitful insights into current theoretical debates and empirical approaches in the field of citizenship education. As was the 11th International Conference of IACSEE, it is hoped that this issue will stimulate further international scholarly exchange of ideas and encourage further research projects in the domains of civic, social, and economic education. Such research can promote the development of suitable measures for civic and economic education and assist in generally gaining more recognition for the potential of citizenship education.