Conference Program

Across Europe, democracies are facing increasing pressure from radical right-wing and anti-democratic forces. In recent years, young people in particular have become a key target group for anti-democratic actors, especially in the digital sphere. Social science research now encompasses numerous studies on radicalization and extremism, including development-oriented models of radicalization processes (e.g., McCauley & Moskalenko, 2017, Kruglanski et al., 2019, Borum, 2011), research on individual risk and protective factors (e.g., Borum, 2014), and analyses of the ideological foundations of radical-right and anti-democratic movements and their societal effects (e.g., Mudde, 2014, Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2017). In the field of radicalization prevention and education for democracy (CoE, 2018), studies indicate that interventions can promote resilience, foster democratic values, and enhance participants’ self-efficacy and empathy (e.g., Feddes et al., 2015, 2019). However, methodologically sound evaluation studies are still rare (Wolfowicz et al., 2022). While teacher training is seen as key for radicalization prevention and democracy education at schools, there is a lack of empirical studies regarding the effects of training courses for democracy education in the civics classroom.

To address these research deficits, we present the results of a scientific evaluation of multi-module training courses for civics teachers and related teaching units, implemented in Lower Saxony, Germany. Both were developed, piloted, and implemented in the project “Empowering Civics Teachers to Prevent Radicalization” (2022-2025) at University of Goettingen and Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (funded by the Ministry of Justice of Lower Saxony).

The teacher training courses were designed to enable educators to address the foundations and challenges of liberal democracy in civic education. They aimed to support teachers in using topics such as conflicts between fundamental rights, the state’s monopoly on the use of force, civil disobedience, and the question of legitimate limits of tolerance as meaningful teaching and learning opportunities, and in addressing these issues in a cognitively activating, action- and student-oriented way in the classroom.

Using semi-standardized questionnaires, a total of N=65 civics teachers, who participated in three multi-module training courses, were surveyed at two measurement points (pre-test, post-test). Furthermore, N=61 students from grammar schools and vocational schools were surveyed at pre- and post-test in order to assess changes resulting from the specially designed teaching units. For teachers, the evaluation focused on subjective (pedagogical) content knowledge regarding education of democracy and on their perceived self-efficacy in addressing and countering anti-democratic positions in the classroom. For students, the evaluation focused on their attitudes and motivations towards pluralistic democracy.

The empirical results indicate that the teacher trainings had a positive impact on teachers’ self-efficacy regarding the integration of democracy education into their civics lessons and fostered their willingness to address anti-democratic views in the classroom. The classroom interventions resulted in significant changes in students` democratic orientations, showing positive effects on their attitudes toward fundamental features of pluralistic democracy and a stronger rejection of authoritarian positions.

The presentation concludes with a discussion of methodological limitations of the study and offers an outlook for civic education practice and future research on democracy education in schools.