Extra-Curricular Learning Experiences as a Possible Way to Support Political Education in Primary School?

Recent years have seen an institutionalisation of political education in German primary school curricula. Political actors and institutions alike are emphasizing the importance and role of political education during childhood and youth. The literature on political education has highlighted the important role of introducing children and adolescents into the social and political life (Eichholz & Schröder, 2002; Hafenegger, Jansen, & Niebeling, 2005). More recent attention has focused on the political education of early schoolchildren and their understanding of political processes, levels of political interest and knowledge as well as political attitudes (Abendschön, 2010; van Deth, Abendschön, Rathke, & Vollmar, 2007). The school as an agent for political socialization plays an important role in establishing political knowledge (Schwarzer & Zeglovits, 2013), however, in some cases extra-curricular activities nurture political understanding even more (Garcìa-Albacete, 2013). In this paper we focus on a newly introduced programme of the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate. The state parliament introduced an extracurricular programme for primary school children (grades 3 and 4) to strengthen their political knowledge and democratic understanding. Within the setting of this extracurricular learning environment, the schoolchildren should evolve a deeper understanding of democratic processes (e.g. the state parliament). This paper evaluates in what ways this extracurricular programme improved the pupils' political and democratic involvement Specifically, the following issues will be addressed: What does the children's political understanding and knowledge looks like before they attend the programme? To what extent does the programme influence the children’s political attitudes, their knowledge and their understanding? And finally: are these effects only of a short-term but also more sustainable nature ? This study uses quasi experimental panel data to examine the above mentioned research questions. The programme’s participants participated in three waves (wave (1) 2 weeks before the programme, wave (2) right after the programme and wave (3) six weeks after the programme). Each parallel class was the control case and participated in wave (1) and (3). This research will help to improve the understanding of the impact of extracurricular political learning activities in primary school.