Conservative trends across western schooling contexts are signalling an explicit devaluing of social and moral learning within their official curriculum mandates. These mandates are increasingly privileging the "academic rigour" of traditional subject disciplines. This paper draws on interview and observation data from a case study of a…

Seeks to broaden definitions of politics and political education by focusing on gender. Suggests that political education should be a process of demystification, teaching that power can be challenged and problem-solving techniques can be used to inject skills and new styles of seeking political alternatives. (JOW)

A research study supports the notion that history books with political themes function for most students as repositories of knowledge rather than as agents of renewal or grounds of transformation. (AEA)

Presents results of survey of high school seniors taken in 1968 (N=825), 1972 (N=119), and 1984 (N=200). The survey consisted of 13 widely accepted attitudinal items and 16 demographic variables designed to measure degree of political cynicism and attitudes toward democracy. Concludes that 1984 results show a loss of innocence, increasing…

Finds that the rate of reproduction of parents' political outlook in their adolescent children does not vary significantly in Israel among four types of family communication patterns but that family communication patterns relate to political participation and political ideologies, with the pluralist family most likely to induce political…

This study is concerned with adolescents' response levels on seven measures of political alienation: powerlessness, discontentment, cynicism, detachment, hopelessness, elitism, and democratic deficiency. Using a random sample of 269 Hartford, Connecticut high school students surveyed in May 1976, political alienation levels are found to be…

Original survey data dealing with the attitudes about international relations of secondary students in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, area are analyzed. Student opinions were measured in three areas: (1) international interest, knowledge, and information sources; (2) international conflict and the balance of power; and (3) international…

Maintains that the French family and school intentionally avoid the subject of politics. Reports the results of a survey of 13- to 18-year-old students regarding their sources of political information and level of interest in politics. (JDH)

In a May 1976 study of 269 Hartford, Connecticut high school students, four fundamental questions were investigated. First, what is the source of responsibility for the present state of the political system? Second, using a four-dimensional attributional scheme to measure such responsibility, what is the underlying structure of such attributed…

The unintended impact of an employment and training program on the political orientations of participants is investigated. The post program attitudes toward citizenship of 286 CETA-eligible youth are compared with a randomly assigned control group. Results indicate that political orientations of experimentals are significantly higher than control…

This study examines the effect of the degree of family politicization on several citizenship orientations of adolescents. The research population consisted of 734 respondents, ages 14-18, who were students in both academic and vocation schools in the greater Tel-Aviv area. Degree of family politicization was assessed using three sub-scales:…

Examines the attitudes of Irish secondary school students toward political parties and the influence of the parties on the students. Results showed high student awareness of party differences, parental disposition to be an important influence, and party attitude to be an important influence on certain issues. (Author/CK)

Describes how six case study institutions were selected by the Political Education Research Unit, outlines some of the questions which the research team attempted to answer, and describes the approaches adopted to these questions. (Author/CK)

Proposes an interactive model of political development that predicts that socialization effects of communication will be moderated by age, such that younger children will be influenced less than older children by the same communication source. Test the model on 290 children in grades 5 through 12. Finds strong support for the model. Discusses…

In the absence of a planning strategy, politics and expediency will take over an educational innovation and lead it astray. Formal planning is in many ways a controlling device, but it is also a potential enabling device through which participants can affect their futures. One academic year was spent studying three suburban or rural schools'…