Patricia Avery: Abstract for Creating Citizenship Conference

In the book Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn, Richard Niemi and Jane Junn analyze data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1988 Civics Assessment, and conclude that civics classes do have a significant impact on students' political knowledge. This finding challenges the conventional wisdom of the 1960s and 1970s political socialization research, which suggested that the civics curriculum had little, if any, effect on young people's knowledge of politics. Indeed, Niemi and Junn find that the amount of civics course work completed is only slightly less important than parents' educational level in predicting student knowledge. Niemi and Junn call for renewed attention to the civics curriculum--an area of study all but abandoned 20 years ago.

In two studies, we explored the nature of citizenship conveyed in civics curricula. We were particularly interested in the way in which civics curricula address diversity, balance rights and responsibilities, incorporate the themes of individualism versus collectivism, and portray versus passive citizenship. In the first study,¹ the content of three of the most widely used ninth grade civics textbooks was analyzed The second study² involved a content analysis of the standards for grades 9-12 in the National Standards for Civics and Government, a document developed by the Center for Civics Education in 1994 intended to serve as a guide for civics teachers and textbook authors.

Following are some of our findings:

• Diversity. The texts and the standards document do not reflect the increasing participation of women and ethnic minorities in the political structure. In the civics texts, men outnumber women by a ratio of more than 7:1. And of the 76 quotations from contemporary and historical figures cited in the civics standards, 92% are attributed to European Americans, and 83% to males.

  
  

• Rights vs. Responsibilities. In both studies, mentions of rights far outnumber mentions of duties or responsibilities (by a ration of almost 4:1 in the civics texts).

  
  

• Individualism vs. Communitarianism. The civics standards offer a vision of citizenship that is relatively balanced between individualist perspectives and the common good.

  
  

• Passive vs. Active Citizenship. The texts convey the message that voting is the primary means by which citizens participate in politics. Other forms of participation are mentioned, such as letter writing and petitioning, but it is the periodic act of voting that is emphasized. In the civics standards, less than 3% of the text units relate to political participation.

¹Avery, P.G., & Miller, A.M. (1998). A content analysis of U.S. history and civics textbooks. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
San Diego, CA.

²Riedel, E., Gonzales, M.H.I., Avery, P.G., Sullivan, J.L., & Graupman, K.J. (1999). Individualism and collectivism in civic education. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, IL.