ERIC Number: EJ1140232
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0093-3104
EISSN: N/A
Examining the Relationship between Civic Education and Partisan Alignment in Young Voters
Clark, Christopher H.
Theory and Research in Social Education, v45 n2 p218-247 2017
As American politics becomes more polarized, it is increasingly necessary for teachers to understand the relationship between education and partisan behavior. Using data from a 2012 CIRCLE survey of 18-24-year-olds, I examine the relationship between students' educational experiences (focusing on exposure to high-quality civics instruction and high school democratic climate) and their propensity to exhibit alignment between party identification, ideology, issue opinions, and candidate choices as young adults. I find that participants who report both a high number of quality civic education experiences and a highly democratic school climate show a reduced likelihood of extreme political alignment. I discuss the implications of this finding and highlight directions for further investigation.
Descriptors: Voting, Citizen Participation, Correlation, Teaching Methods, Educational Experience, Political Attitudes, Civics, High School Students, Democratic Values, Young Adults, Educational Environment, Educational Quality, Surveys, Classification, Regression (Statistics)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A