Citizenship and American High School Students: A Comparative Look at a 1957 and 2004 Study of Democratic Values and Beliefs

Abstract

The conceptualized view of American Democracy and civic values does not enjoy a standardized and uniform belief system throughout the nation's constituency. Many Americans appear to have differing interpretations of freedoms and rights; expressing an individualized view that appears to be ever morphing or changing due to numerous variances such as age, culture, socio-economic status, and/or demographics. What, for many is a common variable is the education received, specifically civics or government classes in high school. The intent of this research was to see if any differences could be associated with a democratic values survey, originally given during the tumultuous 1950's, re-submitted to government high school students in 2004. The idea of the research was to compare the issues of both decades to student's responses to possibly determine any congruence and/or difference and to see if culture or societal values of a given time may have an impact on perception despite the (presumably) neutral view as taught in our American government classes.

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