What makes a civic education programme more effective? Should donors support advocacy NGOs in conducting these programmes? This paper from the American Political Science Association 2002 conference reports the results of an on-going study on the effectiveness of adult civic education programmes in the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa. The impact of civic education was ascertained by comparing the responses of individuals who had undergone civic education training (a ‘treatment group’) to the responses of similar individuals who had not been trained (the ‘control group’). A total of ten civic education programmes in all three countries were evaluated in terms of their ability to affect the participation, knowledge, and democratic orientation of participants. The paper presents the implications of the study’s findings and its conclusions for the role and implementation of civic education programmes.
Recent research on civic education and democracy programmes has expressed a deep scepticism about the extent to which democratic values and behaviour can be ‘engineered’ by civic education, and effectiveness of local advocacy NGOs that conduct such training. Drawing from the survey data, the paper concludes that civic education can influence democratic behaviours and attitudes, but only when conducted frequently with certain kinds of participatory teaching methodologies. Despite these findings, it was decided that only a small number of civic education programmes possessed these characteristics of frequent sessions and the use of participatory methods.
Given the discovery of what the paper terms a threshold effect of frequency and participatory methods, it is argued that civic education should only be implemented if it is conducted ‘correctly’ in a given local context and if the implementing NGO’s political stance and relations with traditional civil society groups are conducive to developing democratic attitudes. Other findings include:
- The greatest effect of civic education is in mobilising political participation (especially at a local level). Only a secondary influence is seen on civic skills, political efficacy and democratic values which all require longer-term efforts
- Civic education can create and maintain pockets of democratic support even when democracy is threatened
- Achieving ‘good quality civic education’ is notoriously difficult and requires more effort and resources than are typically invested in such programmes
- The impact of civic education can depend on variables such as membership of voluntary associations, gender and educational level, with training tending to reinforce existing biases
- Local NGOs conducting civic education programmes often tend to be more political or partisan than ‘traditional’ civic society groups, but they appear able to mobilise people into the democratic process by working together with such groups
- Programmes that rely on local conditions and demands often have the greatest effect on participant behaviour and orientations, in contrast to those that emphasise abstract notions of democracy which are too removed from people’s daily lives.
Donors must clearly define the goals of their programmes relative to a country’s political situation. Given the costs and efforts of effective programmes, civic education should be a more targeted intervention. Other implications include:
- Civic education is more effective when individuals attend three or more workshops; workshops use more participatory methodologies; and participants perceive trainers as knowledgeable, inspiring and interesting
- The most effective programmes are organised around specific problems and issues; impart skills to address those concerns; and allow for participation/ collaboration through existing or newly created associational networks
- Communities should be engaged in designing programmes to ensure they reflect their daily lives and basic demands, and to identify obstacles to repeated participation and incentives for attendance, such as travel costs
- Donors should emphasise the training of trainers and the development of clear, participatory methodologies that include classroom techniques that foster the behaviour and attitudes the programme intends to convey
- When choosing a target audience, programmes must consider the differential impact of civic education, particularly concerning educational levels. Focusing on the more ‘democratically disadvantaged’ may support democracy better in the long- term
- ‘One-size-fits-all’ programmes will have a much weaker effect on the less well educated and women. Programmes targeting such individuals should also seek to create or support associational bodies representing these groups.
