Bryony Hoskins

Developing intercultural competence in Europe: the challenges

Abstract Anti-racism has not played a prominent role in recent major European Union Lifelong Learning strategies. Nevertheless, its importance in Europe with increasing levels of migration has kept the concept, in the form of intercultural competence and intercultural dialogue, alive within European Education and Culture policy. This article traces the use of the terminology of culture within European policy and practice, in particular focusing on intercultural learning in European Youth work. It explores the effectiveness of the use of culture in addressing discrimination at an individual and structural level, using empirical examples. The article concludes that practice that focuses almost entirely on interpersonal skills at the individual level has limited influence in creating structural change. The article ends with proposals for anti-discrimination policy and practice.

Comparing Civic Competence among European Youth: Composite and Domain-Specific Indicators Using IEA Civic Education Study Data

Addressing the European Union monitoring of civic competence, this article presents a composite indicator of civic competence and four domain indicators. The data used are from the 1999 IEA Civic Education study of 14-year-olds in school. The results demonstrate the complexity of the various influences on the development of civic competencies across countries rather than support for a single or unidirectional theoretical explanation. The nation’s years of democracy play both a positive and a negative role on different aspects of civic competence, while citizenship education has better than expected consequences in some countries.

Learning citizenship through social participation outside and inside school: an international, multilevel study of young people's learning of citizenship

In this article we revisit and re‐analyse data from the 1999 IEA CIVED transnational study to examine the factors associated with the ways in which young people learn positive attitudes towards participation in, and knowledge and skills about democracy. Less formal learning, wherever it takes place, has recently been conceptualised as a process of social participation, and we explore its effects using Lave and Wenger’s and Wenger’s understanding of learning through communities of practice. This is then contrasted with the effect of the volume of civic education. The analysis shows that learning through social participation, both inside and outside school, and in particular through meaning‐making activities shows a strong positive relationship with citizenship knowledge, skills and dispositions across a wide range of countries. Moreover, it demonstrates the usefulness of situated learning theory in the field of civic learning, and its applicability in large‐scale, quantitative studies.

Widening the participation gap: the effect of educational track on reported voting in England.

This article explores the effect of tracked education in upper secondary on voting behaviour. It discusses two causal mechanisms that link tracked education to greater disparities of political participation: the curriculum and peer socialization. Data of Waves 1, 2, 5 and 7 of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) is used to assess the hypothesis that educational track has an independent effect on voting. Controlling for several pre- and post-track influences, the paper shows that students who have taken vocational courses in less prestigious schools indeed have lower reported voting levels at age 20 than those who have pursued an academic qualification (A levels) in prestigious schools. It is proposed that the effect of tracked education on political participation is likely to vary across Europe and that this variation may well be explained by differences across Europe in the extent to which the academic and vocational tracks are integrated, both in terms of the curriculum and in their social intake.

Monitoring Active Citizenship in the European Union: the Process, the Results and initial Explanations

Monitoring Active Citizenship in the European Union: The Process, the Results and initial Explanations - This article is a descriptive account from an insider’s perspective of the complex European process of the development of indicators on active citizenship. From this position, the article explains the process behind the development of two composite indicators that have been used to measure progress on active citizenship in Europe; The Active Citizenship Composite Indicator and the Youth Civic Competence Composite Indicator. The article details the results of these indexes for European Union countries and regions inside Europe. In addition, the article examines the differences between the results of the composite indicators, with correlations found between competence and action for Northern and Western European countries but not for Southern and Eastern European Countries. Using these results it discusses possible steps forward in the development of indicators on active citizenship looking towards new data from the IEA International Citizenship and Civic Education study. Keywords active citizenship, civic education, composite indicators, European Union, political participation.

Inequalities in the education system and the reproduction of socioeconomic disparities in voting in England, Denmark and Germany: the influence of country context, tracking and self-efficacy on voting intentions of students age 16-18

This article performs exploratory research using a mixed-methods approach (structural equation modelling and a thematic analysis of interview data) to analyse the ways in which socioeconomic disparities in voting patterns are reproduced through inequalities in education in different national contexts, and the role of self-efficacy in this process. The evidence suggests that in Germany and England students with lower socioeconomic status (SES) have lower levels of general self-efficacy, and that this is reinforced through early experiences of inequalities in the education system, such as within- or between-school selection. Low levels of general self-efficacy are then found to reduce political self-efficacy and voting intentions. In Germany and England, it is these students who enter initial vocational education and training (IVET). The experience of IVET then reinforces the distinctions in civic engagement, probably either through peer socialisation and/or curriculum differences. In Denmark, where SES has a weaker association with track placement, the experience of being placed in IVET plays a stronger role in reducing political self-efficacy and voting intentions.

The 2011 Civic Competence Composite Indicator (CCCI-2) Measuring Young People's Civic Competence across Europe based on the IEA International Citizenship and Civic Education study.

Education is a key policy area for achieving democracy-related goals. In this respect the European Commission have developed indicators to monitor the levels of active citizenship across Europe (Hoskins et al 2006 and Hoskins and Mascherini 2009) and levels of civic competence across Europe (Hoskins et al 2008). The 2020 Education and Training policy agenda (ET 2020) continues to identify Active Citizenship as one of the four major policy goals and continues to support national governments in developing key competences, including civic competences, of its citizens. Active Citizenship was a priority of the 2011 Hungarian Presidency, and Education Ministers were invited to debate this issue at a March 2011 meeting. An outcome of this meeting was the ministers’ support of the Centre for Research on Education and Lifelong Learning’s (CRELL) development of a new composite indicator on civic competence. The Commission, represented by Commissioner Vassiliou, called for a ‘coherent and comprehensive strategy which covers all aspects of citizenship education in a lifelong learning perspective’. Based on these needs, CRELL has created a new composite indicator on civic competence, the Civic Competence Composite Indicator 2 (CCCI-2). It comprises four dimensions: ‘Participatory Attitudes’, ‘Citizenship Values’, ‘Social Justice Values’, and ‘Knowledge and Skills for Democracy’. The data was obtained from young people between 13 and 14 years old as part of the IEA International Citizenship and Civic Education Study 2009 conducted in 38 countries. The findings of this new indicator show that wealth and democratic stability in a country do not guarantee democratically engaged youth. In addition, young people’s positive attitudes towards participation and their citizenship values are often enhanced in relatively poorer countries with recent breaks in democracy. We might perceive that this will be beneficial for the future of democracies in these countries, however, the limited evidence available does not point towards the fact that these youthful aspirations actually make it into engaged adult citizens. Western democracies appear to be fostering a non-participatory culture in their youth. However, social justice attitudes and knowledge and skills for democracy, appear to be more prevalent in these wealthier and democratically more stable countries. These trends are consistent with the results of the original CRELL indicator research, using data from 10 years ago, which suggests a consistency of civic cultures amongst the younger generations. The findings also suggest that measuring the wealth of a nation only through its GDP does not capture the health of the future of democracy. The more wealthy countries need to do more to enhance and maintain the citizenship norms and participatory attitudes of their young people. In contrast, it is social justice that remains the issue for the newer democracies in Europe.

Educational trajectories and inequalities of political engagement among adolescents in England

Through analysing longitudinal data this article explores the effect of education trajectories between the ages 14-19 on voting and protesting at age 20 taking into account both type of education (vocational/academic) and level of qualifications (Levels 1-3). We find that these trajectories exert an independent effect on both outcomes. Gaining low level qualifications (up to Level 2) and in particular low level vocational qualifications diminishes the chances of political participation relative to Level 3 and academic qualifications. Whilst a wider range of qualifications are conducive to voting, only Level 3 academic qualifications support protesting relative to other qualifications. Post-14 education thus seems to make protesting more of an elite affair. Considering that the vast majority of students in the vocational and lower-level pathways come from low SES families, the undermining influence of these pathways on political participation will be felt disproportionally among the group of socially disadvantaged students.

Tackling inequalities in political socialisation: A systematic analysis of access to and mitigation effects of learning citizenship at school

This article tackles the issue of social inequalities in voting and identifies how and when differences in learning political engagement are influenced by social background in the school environment between the ages of 11-16 in England. Using Latent Growth Curve Modelling and Regression Analysis on the Citizenship Education Longitudinal (CELS) data this research identifies two elements that influence the political socialisation process: access to political learning and effectiveness in the form of learning in reducing inequalities in political engagement. The results show that there is unequal access by social background to learning political engagement through political activities in school and through an open classroom climate for discussion. However, there is equal access by social background to Citizenship Education in schools and this method of learning political engagement is effective at the age of 15-16 in reducing inequalities in political engagement.

Early school leavers and NEETs in the UK. Trends, consequences and policies

Early school leavers is a relevant priority for the UK as it has a higher rate of early school leaving (13,5%) than the EU average (12,7%). Early school leaving has a negative impact both on the individuals concerned and on society at large in terms of holding back economic performance and undermining democracy. In the UK the group of interest, however, is NEETs among 16-24 year olds rather than early school leavers. The number of NEETs has declined in recent years to the point of reaching pre-crisis levels, but the percentage of NEETs among 19-24 year olds is almost twice as high as among 16-18 year olds. Paradoxically, government policies primarily target the younger age group, with the extension of compulsory education and training to age 18 likely to be the most effective measure to further reduce the number of NEETs in this category. The little it has done influencing the older group has had negative effects: the decision to increase tuition fees to 9000 pounds has led to a dramatic decline in the numbers of 19-24 year olds enrolling in higher education. The UK appears to have developed its policies on NEETs largely independently of European policy initiatives.