Conference Agenda

Democracies all over the world are currently facing a variety of challenges. The rise of right-wing populist actors, particularly in Europe, and the associated erosion of democratic electorates or the establishment of autocratic systems, such as in Russia or China, reveal a glaring problem: the required diffuse support for democratic systems, as analysed by Easton (1975), is not as strong as assumed. In view of the strengthening of authoritarian regimes, e.g. through the election of Donald Trump, even Francis Fukuyama (2019) had to acknowledge that the triumph of liberal democracy is not a law of nature.

In order to ensure the stability of democracies and to strengthen the acceptance of democratic values and human rights worldwide, democracies must address the question of how they manage to anchor democratic beliefs among their citizens. Friedrich Ebert's guiding principle "Democracy needs democrats" seems more relevant than ever. The central key to achieving this lies in the political education of children and young people. Research on political socialization has long focused primarily on adolescence and young adulthood as the formative phase for the development of political attitudes and identity (Abendschön, 2022). Even if political socialization can be understood as a lifelong process (Rippl, 2015), current research suggests that the foundation for the internalization of political and democratic beliefs and values is laid in childhood (Abendschön, 2010). While there are large-scale studies on the political attitudes of young people, such as the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2022 (Abs et al., 2024), there are still significant research gaps with regard to political socialization processes in childhood (Becher & Gläser, 2019). For example, it is still "open and controversial which orientations and skills are socialized at what time and in what way." (Abendschön, 2022, p. 644)

Three major research gaps will be addressed and further closed during this symposium. The first paper, entitled "Democratic values as basic values of children. An analysis of the correlation for children in primary school." sheds light on the connection between basic values according to Schwartz's model and democratic values in children in elementary school. Particularly in adulthood, interesting results were found on the relationship between political values and the basic values of individuals (Schwartz et al., 2014). However, democratic values and beliefs were not considered, nor was this relationship investigated for children. The creation of synergies between the research areas of basic values and democratic values in childhood seems particularly promising, also for the design of political education programs in childhood.

The second article entitled "Politics is only for men! - The impact of gender role attitudes on children's political interest, political knowledge, and political efficacy", focuses on possible influences of gender role attitudes on the political socialization of children at the beginning of lower secondary school. A large number of studies have repeatedly confirmed differences between girls and boys in terms of their political attitudes. Against this background, the study asks whether and how gender roles have an influence on children's political interest, knowledge and self-efficacy.

The third article entitled "Implementing a short-term human rights education program in Greek primary schools to promote adjustment" links the empirical analysis of political socialization processes in childhood with practical implementation. An intervention on human rights values in childhood was carried out and empirically monitored in Greek elementary schools. This not only strengthened the children's political knowledge of democratic and human rights values, but also improved their emotional feelings and social behaviour. The results illustrate that human rights education not only has a positive effect on children's values, but also on their social perception and behaviour within the school.

The stability of democracies depends to a large extent on the development of democratic attitudes and values among their citizens (Easton, 1975). Childhood has emerged as an important phase in socialisation research (Döring, 2018). Although there are initial findings that democratic values and attitudes can already be observed in children, there is still a lack of empirical evidence in this regard (Abendschön, 2010). The research field of basic values has been researched more extensively in relation to childhood, but not with regard to a possible connection between basic values and democratic values. In order to further close this research gap, more than 400 children in third and fourth grade in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany were asked about their basic values and their democratic values and attitudes. The basic values were recorded using the Picture-based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C; Döring et al., 2010) based on Schwartz's (2012) value model. In the case of democratic values, the focus was placed on five dimensions: Preference for democratic decision-making, equality, freedom of expression, acceptance of rules and renunciation of violence. Two central questions are addressed with the present study: 1. To what extent can correlations between basic values and democratic values and attitudes already be found in children? 2. Are there any indications of explanations for possible differences between the children with regard to their preference for democratic values? The results indicate that children from the third grade onwards already have quite complex basic democratic values. They are already able to differentiate between different situations with regard to their evaluation of decision preferences. Furthermore, significant correlations can be identified between basic values and democratic values. In particular, the higher-order value dimensions "self-enhancement" and "self-transcendence" appear to play an important role in the preference for democratic values. Furthermore, there is a significant effect of the socioeconomic status. In addition, there are indications of possible influencing factors on children's democratic values. Both the person of the teacher and the opportunities for participation at class level seem to play an important role.

Abendschön, S. (2010). Die Anfänge demokratischer Bürgerschaft: Sozialisation politischer und demokratischer Werte und Normen im jungen Kindesalter (1. Aufl). Nomos. Döring, A. K. (2018). Measuring children’s values from around the world: Cross-cultural adaptations of the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C). Studia Psychologica, 18(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.21697/sp.2018.18.1.03 Döring, A. K., Blauensteiner, A., Aryus, K., Drögekamp, L., & Bilsky, W. (2010). Assessing Values at an Early Age: The Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS–C). Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(5), 439–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2010.497423 Easton, D. (1975). A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support. British Journal of Political Science, 5(4), 435–457. Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116

Men and boys are more interested in politics (Fraile and Sánchez‐Vítores 2020), know more about politics (Abendschön and Tausendpfund 2017; Oberle 2012; Vollmar 2007) and have a greater political efficacy (Gidengil et al. 2008) than women and girls. This well-researched Gender Gap is as alarming and requires further investigation. One explanatory approach is provided by socialization theory, according to which boys and girls internalize different ideas about politics and their gender-specific roles within the political system during socialization processes (Bos et al. 2022). In line with their environmental influences, they familiarize themselves with politics as a male-dominated sphere and adapt their perspective accordingly. Following on from this approach it can be assumed that political gender role attitudes are crucial for the development of political interest, political knowledge, and political efficacy. This article therefore aims to investigate the relationships between these concepts, which are particularly relevant in democratic societies. The underlying research question is: Do political gender role attitudes have an impact on political interest, political knowledge, and political efficacy and, if so, how? Particular attention is paid to possible differences between girls and boys and between children with and without a migration background. To take into account the complexity of the relationships, the analysis is based on structural equation models. This method allows the simultaneous consideration of several directed relationships (Aichholzer 2017, p. 9) and is therefore appropriate for addressing the research question. The data used originates from our research project on political socialization, in which almost 1,300 fifth-graders were surveyed. The data collection was conducted between October 2022 and February 2023 in a total of 20 schools using a specially developed paper questionnaire adapted to the age of the respondents. First results indicate that there are complex but interesting relationships between the concepts investigated. As suspected, the gender role attitudes have an effect, which, however, must be considered in a differentiated way regarding both the dependent variable and the comparison groups.

References Abendschön, Simone, and Markus Tausendpfund. 2017. Political Knowledge of Children and the Role of Sociostructural Factors. American Behavioral Scientist 61:204–221. Aichholzer, Julian. 2017. Einführung in lineare Strukturgleichungsmodelle mit Stata. Wiesbaden, Heidelberg: Springer VS. Bos, Angela L., Jill S. Greenlee, Mirya R. Holman, Zoe M. Oxley and Celeste J. Lay. 2022. This One’s for the Boys: How Gendered Political Socialization Limits Girls’ Political Ambition and Interest. American Political Science Review 116:484–501. Fraile, Marta, and Irene Sánchez‐Vítores. 2020. Tracing the Gender Gap in Political Interest Over the Life Span: A Panel Analysis. Political Psychology 41:89–106. Gidengil, Elisabeth, Janine Giles and Melanee Thomas. 2008. The Gender Gap in Self-Perceived Understanding of Politics in Canada and the United States. Politics & Gender 4:535–561. Oberle, Monika, ed. 2012. Politisches Wissen über die Europäische Union. Subjektive und objektive Politikkenntnisse von Jugendlichen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Vollmar, Meike. 2007. Politisches Wissen bei Kindern - nicht einfach nur ja oder nein. In Kinder und Politik. Politische Einstellungen von jungen Kindern im ersten Grundschuljahr, eds. Jan W. van Deth, Simone Abendschön, Julia Rathke and Meike Vollmar, 119-160. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

The active implementation of human rights at school seems to foster an inclusive environment based on democratic values (e.g., Bajaj et al., 2016. Stavrou et al., 2023). Studies show that the educational value of human rights is gradually recognized by both students and teachers shifting from traditional to more participatory and cooperative teaching methods. Although human rights education has different forms, there is currently a general research interest on its transformative nature (Bajaj, 2017. Tibbitts, 2017). Transformative human rights education describes learning about, through and for human rights. However, the evidence demonstrating its effectiveness at school is scarce (Bajaj, 2017). For example, little is known about its effect on children’s adjustment at school, which reflects their interpersonal relationships, school perceptions, school attitudes, and feelings at school (Vassilopoulos et al., 2018). Thus, the aim of the present study was the evaluation of a 12-session, short-term, school-based transformative human rights education program on children’s knowledge of human rights and their school adjustment. Specifically, it investigated whether the children’s perceptions of human rights, empathy, school liking, school avoidance and loneliness would change after the implementation of the program. Sample selection was based on the availability of the teachers who contributed as group facilitators. Research participants were 340 Greek primary school students, who were allocated in the intervention group (n = 187) and the control group (n = 153). Intervention group members participated in 12 weekly human rights education sessions with activities from the Compasito manual on human rights (Flowers et al., 2007). Control group members followed the official school curriculum and did not participate in any human rights education program. Research data were collected through a written questionnaire, measuring knowledge of human rights, interpersonal relationships with their teacher and peers, empathy, and perceptions, attitudes, and feelings towards school. The questionnaire was administered to all participants one week prior and one week after the termination of the program. A follow-up measurement was conducted four months later. Results were encouraging in the intervention group, showing an increase in the members’ knowledge of rights, emotional support from their teacher and peers, and school liking, as well as a decrease in school avoidance, and loneliness. On the other hand, control group members did not report any improvement over time. Human rights education seems beneficial to children and schools, enhancing adjustment through strong human bonds and engaging school environments. Benefits and further human rights education possibilities are discussed.

Bajaj, M. (Ed.). (2017). Human rights education: Theory, research, praxis. University of Pennsylvania Press. Bajaj, M., Cislaghi, B., & Mackie, G. (2016). Advancing transformative human rights education: Appendix D to the report of the global citizenship commission. Open Book Publishers. Flowers, N., Santos, M. E. B., & Szelényi, Z. (2007). Compasito: Manual on human rights education for children. Council of Europe. Stavrou, V., Brouzos, A., Vassilopoulos, S. P., & Koutras, V. (2023). Evaluating the impact of human rights education on the adjustment of Greek primary school students. International Journal of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12937 Tibbitts, F. L. (2017). Revisiting ‘emerging models of human rights education’. International Journal of Human Rights Education, 1(1), 2. Vassilopoulos, S. P., Brouzos, A., & Koutsianou, A. (2018). Outcomes of a universal social and emotional learning (SEL) group for facilitating first-grade students' school adjustment. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 6(3), 223–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2017.1327830