Journal of Social Science JSSE Education American Democracy in Distress: The Failure of Social Education Richard Neumann Commentary: The Failure of Social Education or Just Going Down the Road of Post-Democratic Politics? Isabel Menezes Political Youth Education in Germany. Presenting a Qualitative Study on its Biographically Long-Term Effects Nadine Balzter, Yan Ristau, Achim Schröder Students as First-time Voters: The role of Voter Advice Applications in Self-reflection on Party Choice and Political Identity Niels Nørgaard Kristensen, Trond Solhaug In-Between Fatalism and Leverage: The Different Effects of Socioeconomic Variables on Students’ Civic and Political Experiences and Literacy Carla Malafaia, Tiago Neves, Isabel Menezes Constraints and Meaning-Making: Dealing With the Multifacetedness of Social Studies in Audited Teaching Practices Ola Strandler Understanding ’Price’ and the Environment: Exploring Upper Secondary Students’ Conceptual Development Caroline Ignell, Peter Davies, Cecilia Lundholm Journal of Social Science Education Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 2017 ISSN 1618–5293 Masthead Editors: Reinhold Hedtke, Bielefeld University, Faculty of Sociology Ian Davies, Department of Educational Studies, University of York Andreas Fischer, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Tilman Grammes, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Educational Science Isabel Menezes, University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences Birgit Weber, University of Cologne, Faculty of Human Sciences Editor of this Issue: Reinhold Hedtke, Bielefeld University, Faculty of Sociology Editorial Assistant: Simon Niklas Hellmich Editorial Office: Journal of Social Science Education Bielefeld University Faculty of Sociology Postbox 100 131 33501 Bielefeld Germany E-Mail: [email protected] http://jsse.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/index.php/jsse/index Editorial Board: Helena Costa Araujo, Porto, Portugal; Mehmet Acikalin, Istanbul, Turkey; Gert Biesta, Luxembourg; Franziska Birke, Freiburg, Germany; Xavier Bonal, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Jennifer Bruen, Dublin, Ireland; Olga Bombardelli, Trento, Italy; Pepka Boyadjieva, Sofia, Bulgarian; Kenan Çayır, Istanbul, Turkey; Aviv Cohen, Jerusalem, Israel; Isolde De Groot, Utrecht, Netherlands; Pedro Daniel Ferreira, Porto, Portugal; Karl-Peter Fritzsche, Magdeburg, Germany; Márta Fülöp, Budapest, Hungary; Thomas Hellmuth, Wien, Austria; Margarita Jeliazkova, Enshede, Netherlands; Ireneusz Karolewski, Wrocław, Poland; Vjeran Katunarić, Zagreb, Croatia; Takahiro Kondo, Tokyo, Japan; Hiroyuki Kuno, Nagoya, Japan; Gitsa Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, Athens, Greece; Mary Koutselini, Nicosia, Cyprus; Janez Krek, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Slovenia; Bruno Losito, Rome, Italy; Tristan McCowan, London, Great Britain; Erich Mistrík, Bratislava, Slovakia; Concepción Naval, Pamplona, Spain; May-Brith Ohman Nielsen, Kristiansand, Norway; Fritz Oser, Fribourg, Switzerland; Svitlana Poznyak, Kiev, Ucraine; Jean Simonneaux, Toulouse, France; Trond Solhaug, Trondheim, Norway; Vladimir Srb, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic; Anu Toots, Tallinn, Estonia; Nicole Tutiaux-Guillon, Arras & Villeneuve d'Ascq, France; Ruud Veldhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Arja Hellevi Virta, Turku, Finland; Irena Zaleskiene, Vilnius, Lithuania The Journal of Social Science Education is published quarterly by sowi-online e.V., a non-profit organisation and registered society at the Bielefeld Court of Record (Registergericht), Germany. Members of the JSSE team are the editors, the editorial assistant, the technical staff, and the editorial board. http://www.sowi-online.de Journal of Social Science Education Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 2017 ISSN 1618–5293 Contents Editorial 2-4 Reinhold Hedtke Essay American Democracy in Distress: The Failure of Social Education 5-16 Richard Neumann Commentary The Failure of Social Education or Just Going Down the Road of Post-Democratic 17-20 Politics? Isabel Menezes Article Political Youth Education in Germany. Presenting a Qualitative Study on its 21-31 Biographically Long-Term Effects Nadine Balzter, Yan Ristau, Achim Schröder Students as First-time Voters: The Role of Voter Advice Applications in Self- 32-42 reflection on Party Choice and Political Identity Niels Nørgaard Kristensen, Trond Solhaug In-Between Fatalism and Leverage: The Different Effects of Socioeconomic 43-55 Variables on Students’ Civic and Political Experiences and Literacy Carla Malafaia, Tiago Neves, Isabel Menezes Constraints and Meaning-Making: Dealing With the Multifacetedness of Social 56-67 Studies in Audited Teaching Practices Ola Strandler Understanding ’Price’ and the Environment: Exploring Upper Secondary 68-80 Students’ Conceptual Development Caroline Ignell, Peter Davies, Cecilia Lundholm Review Review of the Book: Westheimer, Joel, 2015. What Kind of Citizen? Educating our 81 Children for the Common Good, New York and London, Teachers College Press. Ian Davies 1 Journal of Social Science Education Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 2017 DOI 10.4119/UNIBI/jsse-v16-i1-1632 Reinhold Hedtke Editorial 1 Introduction counteraction from the electorate, expressed, for Elections are seen as a core element of all under- instance, in the Dutch election returns, a relatively high standings of democracy and most conceptions of citizen- voter turnout, the astonishing success of a pro-European ship education aim at fostering competent participation presidential candidate in France or the recent pro- in elections. States and governments are interested in European movement “Pulse of Europe” in several coun- high levels of voter turnout as a symbol of political tries of the European Union. legitimation. Most of them launch educational policies Although the Dutch case may create a certain feeling of for securing and increasing political participation. In the relief, liberal democracies in Europe and beyond con- recent past, however, many old and new democracies tinue to be challenged. Some European democracies dis- witnessed a slow but constant decrease not only in play deep political antagonism and their societies seem electoral participation but also in their citizens’ interest to be more or less divided, not only into a number of in politics. Apparently, a growing part of them was parallel societies or even tribal islands, but also in terms discontent with the perceived outcome of their political of socio-economic class, inheritance of socio-economic system, the responsibility and achievement of the ruling status and extremely unequal distribution of risk, political classes, and with their own socio-economic si- uncertainty and insecurity. In times of economic globa- tuation. In the opinion of others, elections didn’t change lization, the principal tension between capitalism and much more than an exchange of personnel within the democracy has become more obvious than before. political classes which had no or little impact on their Moreover, in some countries a considerable part of the own conditions of living and future expectations. population is formally excluded from political citizenship. This rather sceptical picture of the state of political par- Socio-economic and political disadvantage especially ticipation is very popular. At present, however, the gloo- applies to the migrant working force and their families my painting seems to need some brightening – parado- and to refugees and asylum seekers. Parts of the xically against the backdrop of challenges to democracy autochthonous population – among them past immi- and democracies due to the coincidence of a complex of grants living in a country for generations –, perceive disturbing collective experience within a rather short themselves as disadvantaged in terms of income, wealth, period of time: status and influence. Against this backdrop, everybody The surprising results of the presidential elections in who speaks about citizenship and citizenship education the US and of the Brexit referendum in the UK, the long- must not remain silent on economic and political standing “guided democracy” in the Russian Federation inequality. and the upcoming autocracy in Turkey, the installation of Citizenship education is confronted with perturbing illiberal democracies in Hungary and, more and more, in evidence indicating that parts of the youth show a Poland – all of them supported by a big part of the tendency towards radical nationalism, illiberal politics respective population –, the increasing support for illi- and authoritarian leadership. Moreover, in some coun- beral, xenophobic and hyper-nationalist movements and tries, governments or the ruling political and economic parties in many countries and the feared success of right- classes misuse formal and informal citizenship education wing politicians in the presidential elections in France for securing support for the prevailing power relations and parliamentary elections in the Netherlands and and ideology and for minimalizing criticism and oppo- Germany. Core countries of Europe are expected to fall sition. From studies we know that sometimes teachers’ prey to populist politicians, authoritarian and isolationist attitudes, beliefs and classroom practices are not so close policy and illiberal conversion of the polity. to a democratic education which should foster an inde- pendent and critical thinking of the students. This applies 2 Counteraction from the electorate? even to the field of civic and citizenship education. However, the impression of an alarming accumulation of Empirical evidence, however, is mixed. Some studies