Political education in Saxony

Doctoral project by Stefanie Kirchner:

Professionalism of primary school teachers in the field of civic education in Saxony: A study on knowledge and beliefs of subject teachers (working title)

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Childhood is not a space free of politics. Current political issues such as populism and fake news, war and peace, migration and flight, social inequalities in gender roles and working and income conditions are also perceived by elementary school children. We also know from recent empirical studies that primary school children are already interested in political issues, have a wide range of knowledge and develop their own ideas on these topics (Asal & Burth, 2016; Becher & Gläser, 2020; Dängeli & Kalcsics, 2018; Dondl, 2013; Götzmann, 2015; Kallweit, 2019; van Deth, 2007).

Based on the learning prerequisites of the pupils, it is the task of the school to practice political education at school, classroom and subject level in order to develop, among other things, a basic democratic attitude among pupils, as "basic democratic values such as freedom, justice, solidarity and tolerance must never be up for discussion - not even in times of profound social change." (KMK 2018, P. 2).

For various reasons, civic education plays a marginal role in elementary school science lessons. Teachers' personal responsibility is therefore of great importance in the implementation of civic education in elementary school - and explicitly in subject teaching - which requires a high level of professional competence in this field. There is currently only a very limited amount of current research on the professionalism of subject teachers in the social sciences (Albers, 2014; Hartmann, 2018; Reichhart, 2018), so this research project aims to contribute to research into the professionalism of primary school teachers in the field of civic education.

Specifically, two areas, the elements of professional competence as contained in the COACTIV model (Kunter et al., 2011) and the PKP model (Weschenfelder, 2014) to varying degrees, will be examined in more detail: Knowledge and beliefs. On the one hand, the study focuses on questions that deal with subject knowledge and political didactic knowledge relevant to subject teaching. On the other hand, the convictions and attitudes of subject teachers with regard to the implementation of civic education at school as well as general democracy-related attitudes are examined.

In order to gain as differentiated and comprehensive an impression as possible of these areas of competence, (prospective) teachers in different phases of training will be surveyed as part of a quantitative survey.

Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Martina Knörzer

For further information please contact:
Stefanie Kirchner

Literature:

• Albers, S. (2014). The topic of "unemployment" in teacher training for subject teaching at elementary school. Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
• Asal, K. & Burth, H.-P. (2016). Pupils' perceptions of politics in elementary school: life-world framework conditions, political content and didactic relevance: a theory-based empirical study. Budrich UniPress Ltd.
• Becher, A. & Gläser, E. (2020). Political knowledge of primary school children in the transition to secondary school. In S. Offen, M. Barth, U. Franz & K. Michalik (Eds.), Problems and Perspectives of Subject Teaching: Volume 30. "Breaks and Bridges" - Transitions in the Context of Subject Teaching (pp. 58-65). Klinkhardt.
• Dängeli, M. & Kalcsics, K. (2018). Political perceptions of primary school students on selected learning objects. In M. Adamina, M. Kübler, K. Kalcsics, S. Bietenhard & E. Engeli (Eds.), "Wie ich mir das denken und vorstelle...": Pupils' perceptions of learning objects in science education and the subject area Nature Man Society (pp. 253-268). Klinkhardt.
• Dondl, J. (2013). Learning politics in elementary school: Reflections on political education based on a study on democracy-oriented ideas of fourth graders. Klinkhardt.
• Götzmann, A. (2015). Development of political knowledge in elementary school. Springer VS.
• Hartmann, C. (2018). Teacher professionalism in history-related subject teaching: subject-didactic knowledge, motivational orientations and beliefs in the context of institutional teacher training. Klinkhardt.
• Kallweit, N. (2019). Children's experience of war and peace: A phenomenographic study in political learning in general studies. Springer.
• Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. (2018). Demokratie als Ziel, Gegenstand und Praxis historisch-politischer Bildung und Erziehung in der Schule: Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 06.03.2009 i.d.F. vom 10.11.2018.
• Kunter, M., Baumert, J., Blum, W., Klusmann, U., Krauss, S. & Neubrand, M. (Eds.). (2011). Professional competence of teachers: Results of the COACTIV research program. Waxmann.
• Reichhart, B. (2018). Teacher professionalism in the field of civic education: A study on motivational orientations and beliefs in subject teaching. Springer VS.
• van Deth, J. W. (Ed.). (2007). Children and politics: Political attitudes of young children in the first year of primary school. Springer VS.
• Weschenfelder, E. (2014). Professional competence of politics teachers: A study on knowledge and beliefs. Springer.