Swedish educational policy and the manifest and latent political socialization of final-year secondary students

Abstract

Political socialization, the process of transferring political values, knowledge and orientations to new members of a society, is of fundamental importance to the future development of that society. Political socialization for a democratic society requires the nurture of individual capabilities which are consistent with an efficacious political self-image, that cannot be inculcated by indoctrination. Swedish educational policy seeks to provide for individual development in a schooling environment which is consistent with democratic values. It seeks to encourage social tolerance and a participative orientation to the political process. However, it is the individual's perceptions of his or her schooling experience and other socializing influences, including the perceived consistency between them, which determines the effects these influences have on the individual. This thesis studies whether the formation of political attitudes and self-images by a nationally representative sample of Swedish secondary school students has been influenced by their schooling experience and if so, in what ways. A key distinction is made between the manifest political socializing influence of the school courses, and the latent political socializing influence of the school environment, as it is perceived by the students. A path analysis finds that t h ere i s a moderate strength relationship between the student's perceptions of their school environment and their sense of political efficacy and government responsiveness. This establishes that the school environment has a latent political socializing influence. Detailed analysis confirms that the school not only has a · socializing influence on student's attitudes and political self-images, but that the schools are seen as a source of experience directly relevant to the students' anticipation of their relationship to the wider society and political order. The students have a generally positive view of their school environment, and the specific aspects of their schooling experience which are found to have significant associations with the students' political self-image and attitudes are given very strong positive ratings by the student respondents. Their perceptions of these aspects of their schooling experience appear to have contributed to the successful political socialization of the Swedish students, as people who see themselves as politically efficacious future citizens.