Political Youth Education in Germany

The article “Political Youth Education in Germany. Presenting a Qualitative Study on Its Biographically Long-Term Effects” describes the change of attitudes among young Germans about politics. The study has a qualitative design and investigates other bibliographical resources. Notably,

The authors start to define the educational area from the historical perspective. After the Nazi period, the involvement of adolescents was clear because they supported the power of Adolf Hitler. When the Second World War ended, the government decided to create the Federal Youth Plan that aimed to eradicate the remnants of the Third Reich. The notion of democracy was important in the 1950s. In addition, educational programs for youth in the United States reinforced the development of democratic society in Germany. For this reason, during the 1970-1980s, there was a rise of political activism among youngsters (Baltzer et al. 21). The initiatives related to youth work became a political movement. For example, the organized debates were essential for the future growth of activism in Germany (Baltzer et al. 22). This aspect is crucial because it is helpful for identifying the vital features of personal experience. Therefore, such information provides a substantive background of the political education.

Furthermore, the authors of the article describe the idea of a substantive goal and the way it might advance the young society in a proper manner. The literature review is present in the investigations. The necessity to implement a political discourse plays a crucial role in the process of advancing a political culture of youth in Germany. The article represents two crucial aspects of education. The first one is a professional discourse, whilst the second one is a challenging opportunity for students to try a political activity in reality (Baltzer et al. 23). From this perspective, such a prospect of the study is efficient for social science because it helps to determine the essential elements of a study design.

The scope of the problem is clear in the article. The authors define the educational activity of people as one of the most important notions; however, only a few studies explored this problem in detail. Thus, the significance of such a problem is obvious, and it helps to maintain proper methods of actualization. The efforts in social science to explore the importance of political education is apparent. The investigators used a methodological design because it helps to develop the prominent technique of the study. The inclusion criteria helped to select the respondents who were 18-27 years old and had an experience in political activity at the age of 14-18 (Baltzer et al. 24). The tool of biographical-narrative interview reactivated memories from the past and their influence on the lifestyle of the respondents. They described the events and told about their actions in the political sphere during school times. As a result, the case study established a meaningful process of activism in Germany.

Based on the exclusion criteria, individuals who took part in political activism in foreign educational institutions and outside the country were selected. In total, the authors managed to collect 23 interviews from people with different background, and nearly 50 people participated in the study. To interpret findings, the scientists used an interpretative paradigm of Rosenthal (Baltzer et al. 25). Notably, the questions of the interview were open, and they had two categories such as the special interest and political commitment. The keywords were attitude, political skills, and participation, which was helpful for the analysis of the results. The example of Mareike proved that the reason to become politically active was to change a current hardship of the country. In fact, the girl suffered from material problems in her family (Baltzer et al. 26). Overall, the personality of Mareike helped to detect the vital issues of long-term effects of political experience during school times.

The study showed that students who were active in political organizations succeeded in this career. Furthermore, the effective interpretations were essential for the study because the authors implied a new approach to social science investigation. Specifically, they tried to combine diverse methods of qualitative data and introduce aspects of political activism in details. For this reason, such study is important due to its contribution to investigating education in Germany. The interviews introduced the main aspects of the development and showed how it caused the adoption of new methods of education. Thus, the article illustrates the importance of the problem and shows how it helped to introduce the aspects of political activism.

In conclusion, the article contributes to the social studies field. It contains such research components as methods, participants, significance, literature review, and results. However, it illuminates only several cases of interviews, which cannot provide a substantive explanation of the problem. Germany was a successful example of the state that survived the authoritarian past and implemented new techniques for political education. Moreover, the initiation of special programs in this domain was vital for the country’s development. As a consequence, it formed a new generation that is conscious of the actions and their outcomes.

About the author: Georgia Kliff is a master in Literature at Maryland University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at the custom essay writing service She also studies male psychology.


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