Study on the development of civic literacy in adolescence (CIVIC)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thomas Goll; Professorin Dr. Nele McElvany
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559671751

The success and persistence of democracies cannot be taken for granted. It is based on the political and social engagement of citizens and the civic literacy (CL) that underlies this engagement (Hahn-Laudenberg, 2022; Putnam, 2000). CL as a core competency describes the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions regarding socially relevant issues, as well as behavioral dispositions (i.e., motivations, attitudes, and volitions) for participation in political and civic life that are necessary for implementing the decisions made (Alscher et al., 2022; Kultusministerkonferenz, 2018). For the development of CL, adolescence is an important phase in which the school as an essential socialization instance plays a central role (Oberle, 2022). A systematic linking of theoretical considerations and research findings on general teaching quality with the analysis of school-based civic education is promising for this purpose. Internationally, as well as for Germany, however, empirical findings are available only for some areas of CL and almost no longitudinal evidence exists. Against this background, the project examines three overarching research questions based on a prior conceptualization and operationalization of CL: 1. How do the different components of Civic Literacy - cognitive components, motivational components, attitudes, volitions - develop over the course of adolescence from grade 7 to 11 (resp. in the year after leaving school)? 2. What role do different subject-specific, cross-subject and general school characteristics play for the status and development of the different components of CL? 3. How is and develops the relationship between the different components of CL and participation in political and civic life? The research questions will be investigated in the context of a longitudinal study with at least N = 675 students of different school types. Students will be assessed in grade 10 (MZP1) and in grade 11 resp. the year after leaving school (MZP 2). CL-related data from three preliminary studies (grades 7, 8 and 9) is already available for the majority of students. The findings on the development of the CL components and their conditioning factors will be introduced into the scientific discourse of educational science, educational research and civic education research and made available to educational practice and educational policy. The study thus contributes to the systematic recording of young people's CL, the identification of conditioning factors, and the optimization of future teaching in schools.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Pascal Alscher