Building Democratic Citizenship: Civic Education, Inequality, and Engagement

This virtual symposium brings together recent research on youth civic development and civic education, spanning classroom practices, political socialisation, and emerging challenges such as climate change. The contributions explore how young people can be prepared for informed and equitable civic participation in a changing world.

The event features a keynote talk by Connie Flanagan (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) who will talk about how the field of youth political development has evolved over the past decades, looking at how younger generations can be prepared to be civic actors in the face of the climate crisis. Short spotlight talks by Diego Carrasco (Universidad Católica de Chile) and Joke Matthieu (University of Antwerp, Netherlands) will follow. Additionally, Pascal Alscher (TU Dortmund University) and Daniel Deimel (University of Duisburg-Essen) will give insights into the research of the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL).

The virtual symposium is hosted by the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL), which focuses on advancing research on civic education and political socialisation through secondary data analyses. CERL aims to develop innovative research approaches, increase the visibility of civic education research, and foster collaboration among national and international scholars.

CERL is a working group funded by the PostdocLab programme of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, part of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr). 

Organisers

PostdocLab working group 'Civic Education Research Lab (CERL)': Dr Pascal Alscher, Dr Daniel Deimel, Dr Elisabeth Graf

Registration 

Please register here:

Register

Location

digital (Zoom) 

Programme

Keynote: Prof. Connie Flanagan (University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA)

Youth civic development: What have we learned and what can we recommend as civic preparation for meeting the challenges of climate change 

This keynote explores how the field of youth civic and political development has evolved over the past several decades and highlights key lessons for civic education. Building on this foundation, it examines how younger generations can be prepared to act as effective civic agents in the context of the climate crisis, drawing on insights from the emerging field of Environmental Civic Science.

Discussion 

Spotlight talks

• Asst. Prof. Diego Carrasco (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile):
  Assessing the Compensatory Hypothesis of Open Classroom Discussions on Civic Knowledge: Methodological Challenges and Solutions
• Dr Joke Matthieu (University of Antwerp, Netherlands):
  In search of a democratic equalizer: How citizenship education moderates inequalities in internal political self-efficacy

Insights from CERL

• Dr Daniel Deimel (University of Duisburg-Essen): 
  Changing Patterns of Political Socialization: A Multi-Cohort Study of Civic Knowledge in ICCS 2009–2022
• Dr Pascal Alscher (TU Dortmund University):  
  The Reciprocal Link Between Civic Literacy and Open Classroom Climate: A Longitudinal Perspective