The magic word: self-efficacy experience
What this episode is about:
Self-efficacy experiences are important in democracy. But how can they be encouraged - and is that even possible? In this piece, we look at a somewhat overused term and try to bring some objectivity to the debate. Specifically, we take a look at various forms of child and youth participation, citizens' councils and the discourse surrounding them.
Before we start:
This episode is just over 30 minutes long, has the character of a debate contribution and is quite dense, ;-)
The central question is:
Can self-efficacy experiences be promoted?
Who am I listening to?
The author and speaker in this episode is Prof. Dr. Anja Besand, Director of the John Dewey Research Center and Chair of Didactics of Civic Education at Dresden University of Technology. You can find out more about her here.
Literature for further reading:
Bandura, Albert (1977): Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. In: Psycholo- gical Review 84, pp. 191-215. Bandura, A. (1986): Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Besand, Anja (2019): Hope and its peril - Political education in the age of illusion crisis. In: This/Overwien, Bernd/Zorn, Peter (eds.): Politische Bildung mit Gefühl, Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education, pp. 173-187.
Blühdorn, Ingolfur (2013): Simulative democracy. Neue Politik nach der postdemokratischen Wende, Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Bohnsack, Fritz (2013): How pupils experience school. On the importance of recognition, affirmation and the acceptance of weakness, Opladen/ Berlin/ Toronto: Barbara Budrich.
Dewey, John (1993): Democracy and Education. An Introduction to Philosophical Pedagogy, Weinheim and Basel: Beltz.
Fatke, Reinhard/ Niklowitz, Matthias (2003): "Den Kindern eine Stimme geben". Partizi- pation von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Schweiz, Zurich: Pädagogisches Institut der Universität Zürich - in collaboration with Jürg Schwarz and Elena Sultanian on behalf of the Swiss Committee for Unicef.
Hafeneger, Benno/ Niebling, Torsten (2008): Children's and youth parliament. In: Kersting, Norbert (ed.): Politische Beteiligung, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp. 123-141.
Helsper, Werner/ Böhme, Janette/ Kramer, Rolf-Torsten/ Lingkost, Angelika (2001): Schulkultur und Schulmythos - Rekonstruktion zur Schulkultur, Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Janina Jasper, Johanna F. Ziemes & Hermann Josef Abs Identity and political self-efficacy In: Hermann Josef Abs, Katrin Hahn-Laudenberg (eds.) Das politische Mindset von 14-Jährigen Ergebnisse der International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016, p. 112ff
Krüger, Hans Peter (2008): Political participation of young people in the community. An international comparison: Leipzig - Lyon, Leipzig et al: Peter Lang.
Maßlo, Jens (2010): Young people in politics. Opportunities and problems of institutionalized youth participation, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
Oberle, M. (2017). Students' sense of political effectiveness. Structure, determinants and changeability of a motivational facet of political competence. In S. Manzel & M. Oberle (Eds.), Competence orientation. Potentials for the professionalization of political education (pp. 85-97). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Oser, Fritz/ Biedermann, Horst (2006): Participation - a term that is a master of confusion. In: Quesel, Carsten/ Oser, Fritz (eds.): Die Mühen der Freiheit. Problems and opportunities for the participation of children and young people. Zurich and Chur: Rüegger, pp. 17-37.
Rieker, Peter/ Mörgen, Rebecca/ Schnitzer, Anna/ Stroezel, Holger (2016): Participation of children and young people. Forms, conditions and opportunities for participation and co-determination in Switzerland, Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Vodaphone Foundation (2022) ed: Listen to us. How young people perceive politics in Germany and the representation of their interests Düsseldorf
Wittwer, Stefan (2014): Political participation of children and young people in Switzerland. Definition of the term "participation" and needs analysis on the political participation of children and young people, Bern. Available online at: http://www.sajv.ch/media/medialibrary/2015/04/Partizipationsstudie_Feb_2015.pdf
Self-assessment tasks:
We provide users of the evening school with self-assessment tasks for each lecture. These tasks can be used to reconsider the contribution, to deepen your thoughts or - if you want to obtain a continuing education certificate - to prepare for the course exam.
Question 1: What about your own self-efficacy experiences? When was the last time you felt politically effective? Briefly describe the context and try (also against the background of the questions raised in the play) to draw pedagogical conclusions from this experience.
Question 2: If it were really worthwhile - as suggested in the play - to promote frustration tolerance in democracy, what could this look like? Work out a project outline that could be inspiring in this respect.
Question 3: Experience shows that a contribution like this also generates opposition. Formulate a passionate rebuttal to the theses of this evening school play.
Question 4: If you would prefer to speak about the play from a position of agreement, this is of course also possible. In this case, it would be desirable if you back up your arguments with examples or experiences that are as concrete as possible.