Political Sophistication among Australian Students: A Multilevel Analysis

Abstract

Raising young people’s levels of political knowledge is often understood as a major task of formal civics and citizenship education in schools, as this shall prepare students for their lives as informed and active citizens. Yet knowledge and skills are not equally distributed. Instead, the population is characterised by an unequal distribution of resources, knowledge and skills. In our study, we employ multilevel models to examine the role of student characteristics (e.g., socio-demographic variables, participation in school governance), schools (e.g., school sector), and the differences between the Australian states and territories. The triennially conducted Australian National Assessment Program on Civics and Citizenship provides nationally representative cross-sectional data for us to carry out these analyses, though not longitudinally, across different cohorts of secondary school students. Hence, we will test whether the effects of the potential precursors of the political sophistication of Australian secondary school students have changed over time. By way of example, the immigration from Asian societies may affect how immigration background influences political sophistication. We will discuss the results of our study with respect to the potential role of age, cohort and period effects and their implications for formal civics and citizenship education that aims to cultivate active and informed citizens and to reduce inequalities in political sophistication and participation.