An Analysis of the Relationships of Selected Educational Variables with the Political Socialization of High School Students

The attitudes and actions of the pupil in a democratic school environment are to be transferred to the society when he becomes a citizen. In school, the pupil is exposed to, and becomes able to critically analyze and deal with, the political and social controversial issues of the day; he later uses these skills in his performance as a citizen. Such is one model of the school's function in political socialization of youth. John Patrick (1967) discusses several studies which have investigated the relationship of teacher attitudes and their classroom styles to the politically relevant attitudes of high school pupils. But he reflects that because of what he perceives as a predominately closed-minded and restrictive atmosphere in the high school classroom, social studies educators may not be fully exploiting the potential for democratic political education: Perhaps high school political education programs would have a greater influence upon the formation of 'democratic' attitudes if they were conducted in an atmosphere more conducive to inquiry and openmindedness. Our findings presented below substantially support this hypothesis. Kenneth Langton and M. Kent Jennings (1968) have reported their findings from a national sample of high school seniors, in which little or no impact of the civics curriculum upon political knowledge or attitudes can be found. The one exception to this conclusion obtains for their Negro subsample: Negroes' efficacy, political knowledge, civic tolerance and sense of loyalty to the political system do increase