Medborgerutdanning gjennom dialog og kunnskap - En flernivåanalyse av demokratiske verdier og holdninger blant 8.klassinger i 38 land

Over the last years there has been an increasing emphasis on democracy and citizenship education in both national and international education policies. International organizations, such as the UN and EU, explicitly agree that one of the school’s primary tasks is to promote democratic values and principles that can ensure a more just, peaceful, tolerant and including world. This thesis investigates the factors that explain variation in students’ democratic values and attitudes, as well as how civic education can ensure support for these values and attitudes. The analysis uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study from 2009, a study conducted among 8th graders in 38 countries. Four multilevel analyses are conducted to examine how variables on individual-, class- and country level affect students’ democratic values and their attitudes towards gender equality, immigrants and ethnic groups. This research shows that characteristics on individual level are more important for democratic attitudes and values than class and country characteristics, but it also states that characteristics of the students' teaching environment and the country from which they come from are significant. At the individual level, high socioeconomic background and strong democratic knowledge and skills have a positive effect on attitudes and values. At the class level, the models show that both an open discussion environment and the students’ experience of the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes in school life have a positive correlation with attitudes and values. In addition, students from countries where citizenship education is a separate subject in school, show higher support for democratic values and attitudes than students from countries where citizenship education is integrated in other subjects. This indicates that education policy and school leadership should emphasize on teaching democratic knowledge and skills, a democratic school community and teachers who are conscious of their role as dialogue facilitators in citizenship education. Finally, the implementation of a separate citizenship subject should be considered