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THE PROBLEM OF POLITICAL AND CIVIC EDUCATION OF STUDENTS IN THE SCIENTIFIC AND PEDAGOGICAL THOUGHT OF GERMANY

The article analyzes dissertations, monographs, analytical papers, and publications in periodicals by German authors. It is found that these works reveal the connection between political culture and political education, define the principles and methods of political and civic education, and the peculiarities of civic education of students with special educational needs.
Keywords: education, upbringing, political and civic education, students, basic secondary school, Germany.

Hryk M. V.
PhD student of the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education,
H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.213

The problem of political and civic education has been addressed by German scholars in dissertations, monographs, analytical papers, and publications in periodicals.

German researcher Christian Schmidt in his dissertation “Political Education as a Mirror of a Country’s Political Culture. A Franco-German Comparison” (2010) analyzed the relationship between a country’s political culture and political education. The study demonstrated the differences between the political cultures of Germany and France, focusing on the activities of social institutions. The comparison is based on the analysis of political school textbooks and lesson plans. In addition, the paper proves that different representations of textbooks are the result and expression of different political cultures. Through this comparison and interpretation of the results in the context of political culture research, it is possible to further research in a way that conceptually creates the possibility of developing a democratic political culture. The author notes that in France, democracy plays a much greater role as a principle of education than in Germany. In Germany, political education puts more emphasis on social institutions (Schmidt, 2010).

Mirka Mosch is a German scholar whose dissertation “Diagnostic Methods in Political Education. Assessing and Understanding Students’ Ideas in the Classroom” examined the question of which methods of education are appropriate for developing students’ political culture: brainstorming, mind maps, collage, etc. The paper addresses the following issues: diagnostic information contained in educational programs and plans that can be recorded and interpreted by teachers; prerequisites and conditions for using/implementing these methods in the classroom; additional information and skills that teachers need to be able to record, analyze and properly interpret the ideas of political education. M. Mosch concluded that political and didactic competence is associated with a certain pedagogical (basic) attitude, which can best be described by the principle of openness and receptivity. Teachers need to have a certain openness to provide the necessary space for students’ statements and interpretations. Teachers cannot plan for the results of diagnostic studies and should be able to respond to them spontaneously. There is a parallel here with student-centered political education (Mosch, 2013).

The empirical study of young people’s behavior in Switzerland presented by Daniela Koller, “Political Participation and Political Education in Switzerland,” is a doctoral research. This work introduces the model of civic voluntarism and other theoretical approaches into the educational process, identifies and tests seven sets of possible resources, supplemented by indicators of political education, cantonal political and historical contexts (Koller, 2017).

A scholarly monograph “Politics and Education” was published under the editorship of Gisburt Heimann and Hartmut Kienel, which presents a content and political discussion on the guidelines for political education in North Rhine-Westphalia in the 70s of the twentieth century. The authors address the content aspect, including a presentation of the educational and didactic requirements and results of methodological work, a discussion of whether and to what extent methodological guidelines and curriculum material can shape and improve teaching practice, and a description of the political debate over guidelines for political and civic education (Gemein, 1975).

An empirical study of school political education was published under the editorship of Sabine Manzel and Carla Schell. The study analyzes the state of current research projects in the didactics of political education and presents the didactic discourse between different methodological approaches, standards, and thematic focuses. The scope ranges from studying the impact of participatory or multilingual experiences on knowledge to analyzing textbooks and materials, bilingual lessons in politics and economics, learning through computer games, and different methodological approaches to recording aspects of competence in the teaching-learning process (Manzel, 2017).

Lars Böhme’s research monograph “Political Education for Students with Special Educational Needs” reveals the problems of inclusive education as a separate pedagogical approach that promotes the formation of competencies that allow students to directly address key issues typical of a particular era. The inclusive pedagogical concept is described in this study on the basis of theoretical and practical knowledge. It is worth noting that the author also considers education for people with special needs from a conceptual and practical approach, analyzes global learning in the center of special education. At the same time, the monograph reveals information about the educational environment, the results of empirical research, and the conditions for the success of inclusive education in the sense of a whole-school approach (Böhme, 2019).

The monograph “Political and Legal Consciousness of Youth: Psychological Analysis” expands the idea of political and legal consciousness as a psychological mechanism of regulatory and legal regulation of social relations. The factors of formation of political and legal consciousness of a person are described.

The socio-psychological analysis of the structure of political and legal consciousness of the individual is carried out, the peculiarities of internal regulation of the formation of political and legal consciousness are revealed. The place and role of a person’s civic position in the formation of his or her ideas about social relations are substantiated. The socio-psychological attitudes of young people towards government institutions and the place of these attitudes in the formation of behavioral scenarios in solving political and legal problem situations are determined (Sivers, 2020).

Thus, German scholars pay much attention to the political and civic education of schoolchildren. In particular, they focus on the relationship between political culture and political education, the definition of principles and methods of political and civic education, and the specifics of civic education for students with special educational needs. The results of this research are reflected in the content of political and civic education in Germany.

List of references

1. Böhme L. Politische Bildung für Schülerinnen und Schüler mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf. Frankfurt am Main, 2019. 556 р.
2. Gemein G., Kienel H. (eds.). Politik und Unterricht. Essen: Neue Deutsche Schule Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. 1975. 116 p.
3. Kolle, D. Politische Partizipation und politische Bildung in der Schweiz. Bern, 2017. 429 p.
4. Manzel S., Schelle S. (eds.). Empirische Forschung zur schulischen Politischen Bildung. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017. 179 p.
5. Mosch M. Diagnostikmethoden in der politischen Bildung. Vorstellungen von Schüler/-innen im Unterricht erheben und verstehen: Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades der Doktorin der Socialwissenschaften (Dr. rer. soc.). Gießen, 2013. 311 р.
6. Schmidt C. Politische Bildung als Spiegel der politischen Kultur eines Landes? Ein deutschfranzösischer Vergleich: Dissertation zur Erlangung des academic Grades doctor philosophiae. Jena, 2010. 215 р.
7. Sivers Z. F. (ed.). Polityko-pravova svidomist molodi: psykholohichnyi analiz. Political and legal consciousness of youth: psychological analysis. Kropyvnytskyi: Imeks-LTD, 2020. 222 p.