Young citizens in school: A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between experiences at school and youth’s political competencies, attitudes, and behaviors

该项目旨在研究青少年在学校的经历与政治能力、态度和行为（积极的公民意识）之间的关系。青年是人生中政治发展的形成期。由于青少年在教育环境中花费大量时间，学校也有鼓励学生积极公民的共同目标，因此学校被认为是社会化的重要背景，学校经历与青少年积极公民之间的关系已得到实证证实。然而，学校环境提供了各种各样的经验，从课程（如公民课的内容和数量）到结构和气候特征（如学校参与的机会、课堂气氛、关系气氛）。因此，由于指标的多样性，很难就总体上“有利的”课程或结构/气候学校特点的程度得出一般性的结论。（例如学校整体的民主气氛）或只有学校特色（例如，学校参与的具体机会）要么与各种各样的政治结果有关，要么只与某些政治能力，态度，尤其是行为。此外，几乎没有系统的证据表明学校经历的影响随着时间的推移如何持续，或者一些学生是否从某些学校经历中受益更多，因此，拟议的项目旨在进行一项元分析，系统地整合学校经历和青年积极公民关系的定量研究结果。特别是，两个目标将被解决：第一，学校对青年的积极公民的影响的意义和普遍性将在概念层面（即考虑不同的学校经验和积极公民的指标），上下文层面（即比较个人和课堂水平的影响），并在测量时间的水平（即比较横截面和纵向协会）进行测试。第二，学校经历与积极公民权的关系将被年龄、性别、社会经济、文化和家庭背景（如家庭政治化程度）的调节作用所检验，实证研究结果的元分析整合将有助于更深刻地理解学校在青年政治发展中的作用。此外，考虑到个人之间的差异，将提供一个更有区别的画面，在多大程度上学校经验可以补偿或加速最初的差异（例如，由于社会人口因素）。这种认识反过来又是学校提高学生政治意识的一个基本前提，无论其性别、文化背景或教育水平如何。

The proposed project examines the relation between experiences at school and political competencies, attitudes, and behaviors (active citizenship) in youth. Youth is a formative period in life for political development. With young people spending much time in educational settings and schools sharing the common goal to encourage students to active citizenship, they are considered as an influential context of socialization.The relationship between experiences at school and youth’s active citizenship has been empirically confirmed. However, the school context offers a wide variety of experiences ranging from curricular (e.g. content and quantity of civic classes) to structural and climatic characteristics (e.g. opportunities for school participation, classroom climate, relationship climate). Due to the diversity of indicators it is therefore difficult to draw generalized conclusions about the extent to which generally "favorable" curricular or structural/climatic school characteristics (e.g. an overall democratic school climate) or only distinctive school characteristics (e.g. concrete opportunities for school participation) are either associated with a wide variety of political outcomes or only with certain political competencies, attitudes, and behaviors in particular. In addition, there is little systematic evidence about how persistent the effects of school experiences are over time or whether some students benefit more from certain school experiences than others.The proposed project therefore aims at a meta-analysis systematically integrating quantitative findings on the nexus of school experiences and youth active citizenship. In particular, two objectives will be addressed: First, the significance and generalizability of school effects on youth’s active citizenship will be tested at the conceptual level (i.e. considering different indicators of school experiences and active citizenship), contextual level (i.e. comparing individual and classroom level effects), and at the level of measurement time (i.e. comparing cross-sectional and longitudinal associations). Second, the relation between school experiences and active citizenship will be tested for moderations by age, gender, as well as socioeconomic, cultural, and family background (e.g. degree of familial politicization).The meta-analytic integration of empirical research findings will contribute to a more profound understanding of school’s role in youth’s political development. The consideration of inter-individual differences will furthermore provide a more differentiated picture to what extent school experiences can compensate for or accelerate initial differences (e.g. due to socio-demographic factors). This understanding, in turn, is a fundamental prerequisite for schools to raise their students’ political awareness regardless of their gender, cultural background, or educational level.