There is a growing concern about the lack of political interest and engagement among Western youth. This has led to a revival of political socialization studies. One recent finding is that (late) adolescence is key to understanding the development of interest for politics. This study builds on this finding by examining political interest among…

Starting from a political socialization perspective, this study examined the development of political participation during adolescence and early adulthood. We explore the effect of parents, peers, school media, and voluntary associations on political participation. Self-reported data were collected from 3,025 Belgian adolescents at three points in…

The present article deals with the crucial question: Can peace education facilitate change in the sociopsychological infrastructure that feeds continued intractable conflict and then how the change can be carried? Intractable conflicts still rage in various parts of the globe, and they not only cause local misery and suffering but also threaten…

This project offers a close look into the meaning-making practices of the Bulgarian socialist state with regard to the conception and enactment of childhood. Held for the first time in 1979, on occasion of the UN declared "International Year of the Child", the International Children's Assembly "Banner of Peace" emerges as a…

In this article, the authors review the state of civic education in schools. They point out that students typically "take only one semester-long course on American government"--unlike the situation in the 1960s, when it was common "for students to take multiple courses in civics covering not only the structure of American government, but also the…

This article argues that the field of education and conflict is, in many ways, "stuck in its emergence" because it has yet to develop common theoretical understandings, useful analytical tools, and shared conceptual frameworks to unify and sustain a mutual endeavour by scholars working on a diverse range of topics and cases. In a…

Several studies indicate that adolescents in the United States think about political issues that have relevance to their lives in ways that differ from their thinking about issues that do not have such relevance. Proposes (1) a model of moral or social reasoning; and (2) two categories of reasoning: instrumental and symbolic. (BC)

This paper is an attempt to build a theoretical model which specifies the impact of certain cognitive variables on the process of political socialization. (Author)

This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of the normative and empirical elements of four approaches to political education. The findings generally demonstrate that each approach has dramatically different normative and empirical implications for political education. (KM)

This study incorporates the perspective of deliberative democracy in proposing a framework for evaluating relationships between civic education and political development. Findings support a conception of deliberative learning as a process in which interactive curricula result in the diffusion of discursive inclinations to families and peer groups.…

Notes that previous research has shown that ordinary citizens are generally incapable of acting on the basis of beliefs about policy. It is suggested that the linkage between beliefs and attitudes can only be understood by looking at the purposes pursued by political activity. If political activity is viewed as serving symbolic ends, it is argued…

An investigation of a cognitive-perceptual model to measure adolescents' feelings of political alienation is reported. The model hypothesizes that fundamental to the political alienation process is a feared actual or potential loss of freedom; this process is called psychological reactance. The sample consisted of 460 senior high school students…

Proposes that educators abandon the Educational Psychology Paradigm which regards human behavior as phenomena without purpose and explore the Social Paradigm which studies people as human beings. Four basic features of the Social Paradigm are explored and, their meaning for an ethical approach to an educator's professional life are appraised. (RM)

The 19th-century emergence of a centralized, state-controlled school system helped stabilize government and legitimize a state model during a revolutionary period in French history. The centralized model assisted national integration goals by fabricating a symbolic public space. This ambitious political construction may be coming apart. (Contains…