For democratic societies to sustain, it is important to educate young people for active and democratic citizenship. Yet research suggests that adolescents are rather passive. We will use large-scale data from secondary school students and compare elements of active citizenship such as civic and political participation and citizenship related values with data from the same cohorts after they have left school. We will conduct an online survey of young Australians in their early twenties early in 2015 using survey items adapted from the Australian Election Study and the Australian National Assessment Program. Given significant developments in Australian civics education with regard to policy, curriculum and implementation, our paper adds empirical evidence to understand the long-term success of those reforms and of civics teaching in Australia. Our results will help to understand processes of politicization and to appraise the implementation of civic education and curricula.
