Language-sensitive political education

Civic education has a bridging function - it should make a wide variety of concepts from politics, society, business and many other areas accessible to all citizens. To achieve this, political educators use their language. What seems so obvious, however, appears to be a highly complex undertaking on closer inspection - because if citizens are to be made receptive to political education offers, an adequate language is required, which is characterized above all by one central aspect: Comprehensibility. The characteristics of comprehensibility named by Schulz v. Thun, among others, refer to texts, but what about oral communication and interaction, which is also fundamental to political education?

In recent years, there have been increasing attempts to transgress the boundaries of what can be said - the AfD in particular is changing the language of politics in Germany. Since more and more populist parties have gained a voice, the language of politics is also changing more and more in a direction that makes racism, stereotypes and hate speech appear "sayable". Social media and their supposed anonymity reinforce this effect; echo chambers, i.e. the exclusive preoccupation with one's own "opinion bubble", support this by no longer allowing other perspectives. In this context, there is also a growing communication vacuum between people of different political views. Accusations of the "lying press" and the use of "alternative media" show a strong loss of trust in the conventional media and politicians.

Young people in particular use platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to find out about topics that interest them. Studies show that the interests of young people are definitely political, even if they themselves do not recognize this as such. It is therefore worth taking a look at these communication formats with a focus on how they are designed linguistically and what we can learn from them for our work as political educators.

One example: The good old news bulletin - It is not only people who come from so-called "educationally disadvantaged" families who have difficulties understanding when it comes to consuming traditional information media, such as the news bulletin or a traditional daily newspaper. The brevity and conciseness of the selected news leads to a condensation of the language, which makes it more difficult to understand. In the case of the Tagesschau, the form of communication through the spoken word adds to the difficulty, making a second listen impossible.

This is where social media comes in and can take on important functions to increase the comprehensibility of information. The popular video by Rezo on the "Destruction of the CDU" demonstrates this very well. In addition to the linguistic level, the possibilities of multiple listening and further in-depth literature or the direct linking of sources are used here as a means of counteracting the comprehensibility problem.

At the same time, the algorithm-based structure of information procurement via social media harbors the risk of one-sidedness and uncertainty with regard to the reliability of the media consumed. This must be closely interlinked with media didactic considerations.

For extracurricular civic education, a stronger focus on language is particularly worthwhile from a participation perspective: by using a language with few exclusions, we can enable participation for everyone. By looking at educational formats through a language-sensitive lens, it is possible to uncover barriers and do justice to the inclusive claim of political education.

Other important aspects in this context include gender-sensitive and racism-critical language as well as the concepts of easy and simple language. These are by no means uncontroversial, but they show which areas are also worthy of attention when dealing with language sensitivity in extracurricular political education.

Participant orientation is one of the few principles of extracurricular civic education that is considered to be consensual. Klaus-Peter Hufer describes this as "orientation towards the learning interests, needs and prerequisites of the participants"(Hufer 2015). From this point of view, it seems elementary to also adapt to the concrete linguistic needs and prerequisites of the participants. This alone results from the wide range of previous educational and socialization experiences of the individual participants.

The following can be summarized for the (extracurricular) educational context: There are currently no specific studies on how language sensitivity can succeed in extracurricular youth and adult education. However, if we look at the results of general studies on language in politics and language sensitivity, the following can be concluded:

• Offers should also be low-threshold in terms of the language used by the educators in order to be able to reach all addressees.
• Especially in traditional lectures and seminars, political educators can pay attention to their own language. But above all, when using methods and media, the extent to which they enable participation for everyone on a linguistic level must also be taken into account.

"What was also noticeable is that language in the political field, as expressed in newspaper articles or political discussions, for example, was a recurring theme. This makes it difficult for many people to engage with political issues."(Pape 2017) Political educators must recognize and perform their bridging function. If we want citizens to engage with political issues, we must "translate" them in such a way that everyone can participate. By keeping a keen eye on the complexity of political language, for example with regard to technical terms, abbreviated sentence constructions, nominalizations and compound nouns, we can make it easier for the addressees of educational offerings to understand. In general, a fearless approach to comprehension difficulties and an openness on the part of political educators to the fact that political language can be difficult to understand should be the norm. This can be achieved, for example, by consciously moving from everyday language to educational language in educational situations.

A language-sensitive approach to the planning of educational programs should therefore be understood as a fundamental principle of extracurricular political youth and adult education.

Recommended reading:

Arnold, Nina/ Fackelmann, Bettina/ Graffius, Michael/ Krüger, Frank/ Talaska, Stefanie/ Weißenfels, Tobias (2011): Sprichst du Politik? Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojekts und Handlungsempfehlungen, Berlin. online verfügbar

This study impressively shows that young people have a major problem with the "language of politics". The media and political educators should take on a "linguistic bridging function", but this is also not successful. In order to resolve this dilemma, the authors make suggestions for action.

Besand, Anja/ Hölzel, Tina/ Jugel, David (2018): Inklusives politisches Lernen im Stadion - Politische Bildung mit unbekannten Spieler*innen und offenem Spielverlauf - Abschlussbericht der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung des Projekts Lernort Stadion, Dresden. online verfügbar

The final report of the stadium learning venue also describes from a linguistic perspective how learning venues must be designed to enable participation for all. Language and text relief as fundamental aspects of material selection and a participant-oriented, relationship-promoting selection of topics are crucial here. Visual aids offer the opportunity to work in a language-relieving way. As an element of upstream diagnostics, a focus on linguistic aspects such as the language level or the handling of texts is also evident with regard to appropriation structures.

Kämper, Heidrun Deborah (o.J.): AfD im Parlament – neue Sprach- und Kommunikationsstile, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Die Vorfassung ist online verfügbar

Prof. Dr. Heidrun Deborah Kämper has published a recent study on the changes in language in politics brought about by the AfD. In the study, the parliamentary protocols of the 16th legislature of the Baden-Württemberg parliament were analyzed and compared with the previous legislature. The results clearly show that since the AfD has been in parliament, the language used in politics has become harsher. The AfD itself uses disruption and protest as its communication style. As a result of this behavior, the other parties have also adopted a different style of language.

Kümpel, Anna Sophie/ Rieger, Diana (2020): Kann Instagram auch Politik? Beeinflussung der Informationsnutzung und Effekte für die Meinungsbildung durch politische Inhalte, Berlin. online verfügbar

Can Instagram also do politics? The meta-study by Anna Sophie Kimmel and Diana Rieger is dedicated to this exciting question. What is particularly interesting here is the finding that Instagram has a stronger influence on opinion formation than text due to its pictorial nature. On the other hand, it is shown that politicians have so far tended to use Instagram as a depoliticized means of communication, which is primarily intended to have a positive effect on them. In summary, it is stated that Instagram opens up the information gap even further, because people who are already interested in politics also use this channel as a further source of information, knowing full well that this is insufficient for comprehensive information gathering.

Pape, Natalie (2018): Literalität als milieuspezifische Praxis. Eine qualitative Untersuchung aus einer Habitus- und Milieuperspektive zu Teilnehmenden an Alphabetisierungskursen, Münster.

In Natalie Pape's dissertation project on the relevance of written language for everyday life and action for functionally illiterate people, she establishes a connection between milieu affiliation and dealing with one's own reading and writing problems. This is interesting insofar as many participants do not take advantage of further education opportunities due to shame about their poor reading and writing skills. She also asked the participants about forms of political participation and their opinions on politics. You can find the interview with the Transfer Office for Political Education Dr. Pape here.

Literature for further reading:

Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e. V. (Hrsg.): Fachzeitschrift Außerschulische Bildung Nr. 03/15.

Besand, Anja/ Jugel, David (2015): Zielgruppenspezifische politische Bildung jenseits tradierter Differenzlinien. In: Dönges, Christoph/ Hilpert, Wolfram/ Zurstrassen, Bettina (Hrsg.): Didaktik der inklusiven politischen Bildung, Bonn, S. 99-109.

Mansfeld, Clara (2020): Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten als Vermittelnde von Geschichte. Historisch-politische Bildungsarbeit und inklusive Begegnungen in der „Euthanasie“-Gedenkstätte Brandenburg. In: Meyer, Dorothee/ Hilpert, Wolfram/ Lindmeier, Bettina (Hrsg.): Grundlagen und Praxis inklusiver politischer Bildung, Bonn, S. 239-252.