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The impact of schooling on trust in political institutions – Differences arising from students' immigration backgrounds

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Abstract

Trust in Political Institutions (TIPI) is important for political stability as well as political change. We integrate two theories into the conceptualisation of political socialisations of students with and without immigration backgrounds: The theory of social capital conceptualises trust as a generalisation of positive social relationships, whereas the theory of the critical citizen implies that institutions need knowledgeable and scrutinising citizens for democratic improvements. This paper investigates the role of the school setting for political socialisation concerning TIPI using weighted German data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016 (N = 1451 students in 59 classes; 52% were girls; mean age was 14.29; 40% of participants had immigration backgrounds). Students with immigration backgrounds reported relatively worse social relationships and bestowed less TIPI compared to their peers without immigration backgrounds. As predicted by the theory of social capital, all groups of students bestowed more TIPI if they experienced positive relationships at school to a higher degree. A weaker predictive power of civic knowledge on TIPI for students with immigration background supports notions of the critical citizen. Results indicate that social relationships are relevant for the formation of TIPI of all students, while the role of civic knowledge varies between social groups.

Introduction

The persistence of democracies is never a given and in recent years a growing number of scholars analysed and worried about the decline of trust in democratic institutions (Foa & Mounk, 2016). Trust in political institutions (TIPI) is an important resource of political systems and can be defined as cognitive and affective belief in the benevolence and capacities of political institutions (Norris, 2017). Political institutions are organisations that carry the political powers of a regime (e.g., police, courts of justice, parliaments). Distrust in political institutions can function as correctives if political leaders ignore the interests of groups. Currently, in many democracies, populist parties utilise scepticism against those institutions to gain traction (Norris & Inglehart, 2019, pp. 257–293). Despite a potentially functional shakeup, they are also able to undermine the civic culture with a general scepticism towards elites and the inclusion of immigrants or minorities (Norris & Inglehart, 2019, pp. 409–442).

The discourse about this democratic challenge highlights the question about the resources of TIPI. Following political culture approaches (Easton, 1965), TIPI is not only based on current experiences, but also on political socialisation in a specific political context. We understand political socialisation as “the meaning-making process of being and becoming (a) political (subject)” (Andersson, 2019). More specifically, political socialisation refers to the process in which people negotiate their role(s) within the political community by acquiring knowledge, forming attitudes and values, and dis/engaging with the political system. Multiple studies show that students are already sensitive to the political context and bestow TIPI depending on their experiences of migration and discrimination (Hahn-Laudenberg & Achour, 2019; Röder & Mühlau, 2012), their cohort (Fine, Kan, & Cauffman, 2019), and political climate (Kim, 2019; Lauglo, 2013). TIPI is important for the persistence of political systems (Norris, 1999), yet little is known about the relevance of political socialisation during adolescence for the formation and bestowal of TIPI. Researchers repeatedly found differences between people with and without immigration backgrounds (e.g., Adman & Strömblad, 2015; Röder & Mühlau, 2012; Wilkes & Wu, 2019). Children of people who migrated further tend to bestow less TIPI than their non-immigrant peers (Röder & Mühlau, 2011).

Students with immigration backgrounds can be seen as a vulnerable group as they have to reconcile different cultural identities. They depend more strongly on positive interactions at school than their peers (Göbel & Preusche, 2019), but schools are not fully prepared to support them (Schachner, Juang, Moffitt, & van de Vijver, 2018). School can be a tool to reduce inequalities and integrate all students in the political system (Deimel, Hoskins, & Abs, 2020; Fend, 2009), but there is little knowledge about school related variables concerning the bestowal of TIPI in students. This paper goes beyond previous research by applying two theoretical frameworks to the political socialisation of students to explain the differential bestowal of TIPI by students with and without immigration backgrounds while regarding aspects of system stability, system change, and the students' role in the political system.

To answer the question, which school related variables influence the bestowal of TIPI by students with and without immigration backgrounds, this article draws on two theories: The theory of social capital and the critical citizen theory. The first one is useful to explain which factors may function to ensure a baseline of trust in societies. The second is concerned with the deserved bestowal of TIPI and the development of political systems. We use both theories to explain how the school context may influence the political socialisation of students with and without immigration backgrounds regarding their bestowal of TIPI. In a next step we will use data from the International Civic and Citizenship Educations Study 2016 (ICCS 2016) to empirically investigate the role of the school context for the political socialisation.

School is seen as a central agent for the political socialisation of adolescents, aiming to integrate them into the political system (Fend, 2009). In democracies, political integration is the process through which adolescents are enabled and empowered to guide their own political development and to assume their roles as emerging active citizens. Building on Esser (2001), Hahn-Laudenberg and Achour (2019) differentiate between three forms of political integration, each interacting with each other and fostering different aspects of students' political development. Cognitive integration includes teaching and learning about politics and democracy to foster competencies related to civic citizenship skills. Structural and social integration relates to the opportunities that schools can provide for students to participate in representative structures and political discussions as well as opportunities for fostering social relationships. In doing so, structural and social integration is intended to promote external and internal political efficacy. Finally, the emotional and identity dimension of political integration involves opportunities for developing civic identities, values, and attitudes – such as TIPI – that are relevant for the stability of political regimes.

Social interactions at school are a tool of political integration and an aspect of political socialisation. A feeling of safety and positive social relationships in school are vital for the formation of political attitudes (Flanagan, 2013; Ziemes & Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, 2019). The quality of the relationships between teachers and students impacts on learning, motivation, and performance (Konishi, Hymel, Zumbo, & Li, 2010). Teachers' influence shapes the school climate and the quality of students' social relationships. As important adult agents of socialisation, teachers can also act as role models. Students themselves are also important partners for each other in their respective political development: they interact with each other at the same hierarchical level and see each other's opinions as more authentic and less prescriptive than those of adults. All these social interactions support the development of socio-cognitive abilities such as perspective-taking (Ferreira, Azevedo, & Menezes, 2012). As will be discussed, the working assumption underlying this paper is that experiencing multiple positive social interactions generates trust.

The theory of social capital is useful to analyse the importance of social relationships and focuses on trust as form of social capital, which is highly valuable for societies. The concept used here is informed by the works of Coleman (1988) and Putnam (1995) who aimed to prerequisites of cooperation between individuals in societies. Social relationships, rules, and norms influence the strength of social links that add up to social capital. Those social links create trust among the people in the community. Trust, in general, can be understood as “the belief that ‘others’ are fair, that they will not take advantage of us, although they could” (Flanagan, 2013, p. 169; italics in the original) – i.e., ‘trust’ entails a general belief in non-hostility. Trust is a precondition for successful human cooperation. People who trust each other need fewer precautions and resources can be shared and used more effectively. Social capital is therefore seen as an unequivocal desirable resource for organisations and societies (Flanagan, 2013, pp. 161–196; Putnam, 2007).

Trust in political incumbents and institutions can be conceptualised as one aspect of political support (Norris, 2011). The concept of political support encompasses attitudes and behaviours that are relevant for the persistence of political systems, such as democracies. Here, persistence does not merely imply stability but a notion of dynamic change in political systems as they respond to the needs and desires of their citizens (Easton, 1975). The theory of political support differentiates between diffuse and specific aspects. More diffuse aspects, such as values and identities, tend to be more stable; and more specific aspects, such as attitudes towards institutions and office holders (e.g., TIPI), tend to be more subject to (re-)evaluation in light of changing events. While these aspects of political support interact with each other, they do not determine one another.

The question of political support awarded by adolescents matters both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, adolescents are often thought of as emerging citizens (Ziemes, Hahn-Laudenberg, Batista, & Abs, 2017) or even as young citizens (Flanagan, 2013), even though they lack many of the rights that adult citizens enjoy, such as active and passive electoral rights. Torney-Purta (2004) finds that in adolescents, attitudes such as TIPI are often quite similar to the attitudes of adults, and she concludes that “by the age of 14 many young people are already members of the political culture they share with adults” (p. 472). Other researchers stress that political attitudes are more malleable in adolescents than in adults and conclude that it is therefore important to be aware of how students form their political attitudes and identities (Flanagan, 2013; Meeus, 2011).

TIPI awarded by immigrants and their descendants depends in part on their specific expectations. Adults who just migrated from a country with less trustworthy institutions tend to trust the institutions of their new country of residence more than people who did not migrate (Röder & Mühlau, 2012). However, this higher level of trust seems to manifest itself only during a certain grace period. Over time, as these individuals' expectations of institutions rise and expectations become more similar to those of people without immigration backgrounds, the immigrants' level of TIPI decreases. A similar grace period is not observed in the children of immigrants, who are likely to have the same expectations as their peers without immigration backgrounds. Accordingly, empirical studies suggest that children of immigrants bestow less TIPI than their peers without immigration backgrounds (Adman & Strömblad, 2015; Vera-Toscano, Blasko, & Dinis da Costa, 2018). Immigrants and their children are more likely to be confronted with negative experiences, such as marginalisation and discrimination, than individuals without immigration backgrounds are. The resulting sense of low security, unfairness, and discrimination can be used to explain the decrease in TIPI in adult immigrants (Röder & Mühlau, 2011; Wilkes & Wu, 2019).

Bestowing less TIPI can be sensible for individuals and productive for the political system overall. If trust is awarded undeservedly, it serves neither the individual nor the political system; after all, “[t]rust is not gullibility” (Flanagan, 2013, p. 173). Ignoring problems within political institutions can wake support for populist parties (Norris & Inglehart, 2019). Norris, 1999, Norris, 2011 developed the theory of the critical citizen to explain when and how democratic systems benefit from a dynamic of trust and distrust in political institutions, and she supports her theory with empirical analyses. In short, TIPI is, and should be, bestowed following scrutiny of the institutions in a political system. If these institutions are imperfect – and all institutions are imperfect to some extent –, citizens should withhold some trust until the institutions improve. Fuchs (2002) elaborates on this notion and suggests that from a system persistence perspective, diffuse types of support (values and identities) which uphold the system are generally desirable, while more specific types of support (trust in institutions and office-holders) should be variable to ensure institutional accountability.

Adolescents can be critical citizens already. Younger students tend to bestow generalised trust more or less solely based on the quality of relationships they experience; with increasing age and socio-cognitive abilities, the relevance of social relationships for bestowing trust decreases, albeit without disappearing completely (Flanagan, 2013, pp. 173–174). Also, students learn to bestow trust less generalised and distinguish between authorities (Fine et al., 2019). Lauglo (2013) used ICCS 2009 data and found that the level of students' civic knowledge correlates more positively with TIPI in countries with better indicators of state functioning, such as less corruption or a higher Human Development Index (HDI). Students with little civic knowledge bestow trust more indiscriminately while those with more civic knowledge bestow their trust more adequately. Within the framework of the critical citizen theory, the civic knowledge should be the instrument that people use to scrutinize institutions.

Students may bestow trust based on scrutiny and the social experiences they make. Both sources of trust can be regarded as desirable and problematic, depending on the theory at hand. The tension between these points of view can be decreased if we assume that neither influence is absolute but that each has some impact on the formation of TIPI during adolescence. In this way, the theories complement each other. TIPI is desirable for system persistence, but only to a degree that still allows students to hold institutions accountable and to work towards improvements or necessary changes at the system level. This is in line with the idea of system persistence. The differential relevance of these aspects deserves further empirical attention.

Gender and socioeconomic status (SES) are background variables that researchers often control for. While neither has been found to have a great influence on the bestowal of social trust (Flanagan & Stout, 2010), the economic disadvantage of people with immigration backgrounds is discussed as one important reason for the differences in the extent to which TIPI is bestowed (Röder & Mühlau, 2012). Wilkes and Wu (2019) argue and find that the discrimination through racializing (marking certain groups as `other´ based on their supposed background) partly mediates the trust gaps between people with and without immigration backgrounds. ICCS 2016 employs a single item on the perception of discrimination in the country of survey. While this is not a variable which is shaped by the school context and therefore is not included in the focus of the present research, it is an important contexts for students' political socialisation (Röder & Mühlau, 2011).

National identity is the most diffuse aspect of political support and does interact with the formation of TIPI. Civic and citizenship education distinguishes between different forms of national identity. National identity is appraised positively only in models of civic conceptions in which it is connected to rights and duties rather than ancestry or ethnicity (Ziemes, Hahn-Laudenberg, & Abs, 2019). Berg and Hjerm (2010) find that such forms of civic national identity have a positive impact on TIPI. The critical citizen theory depends on the premise that high diffuse support and low specific support will lead to concrete action(s) to spark institutional improvements with the aim of decreasing the dissonance between positive identity and low trust. Yet individuals may also decrease cognitive dissonances by being more trusting and less punitive towards the politicians with whom they identify (Halmburger, Rothmund, Schulte, & Baumert, 2012). These approaches are not mutually exclusive because reciprocal processes may be at work.

Section snippets

Hypotheses

The previous sections allow us to derive hypotheses to configure our analysis of the ICCS 2016 data. The research reviewed above found that students with immigration backgrounds bestow less TIPI than their peers without immigration backgrounds. We will investigate if this result holds true in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (H1.1). We will also investigate the quality of social relationships at school and assume that students with immigration backgrounds experience fewer positive social

Methods

Our analysis draws on data from ICCS 2016, which is after 1999 and 2009 the most recent international study on civic and citizenship education conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). 24 educational systems in different countries in Asia, Europe and South-America participated. In some countries with multiple education systems, only one education system took part (i.e., Flanders – Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia – Germany). ICCS focuses on

Differences in the experiences and attitudes of students with and without immigration backgrounds

In order to investigate the differences in scale means between the different groups, sample and descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. NRW has a tracked secondary school system, and the analysis shows that a lower percentage of students with immigration backgrounds attend the highest track (‘Gymnasium’, the most academic track). Overall, the ‘Non-Immigrant’ group has the highest SES, the most TIPI, experiences the best social school relationships, identifies more strongly with

Limitations

While the ICCS 2016 sample and questionnaire are appropriate for gaining insights concerning the relevance of social interactions at school for students' political socialisation, multiple limitations need to be noted. First, results regarding the mean differences between immigrant students and other groups should not be interpreted as reliable estimators of population values. While the standard errors and p-values are sensitive to shifts in sample size and regressions were calculated

Contribution

Johanna F. Ziemes: Conception, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting.

Katrin Hahn-Laudenberg: Conception, critical revision.

Hermann J. Abs: Interpretation of data, critical revision.

Acknowledgements

This is a secondary analysis. I was part of the team conducting the primary analyses as well. The primary analyses were partly funded by the EU: ICCS - International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2014-2017) Grant Decision 2014–3524 /001–001 Project Nr 559769-EPP-1-2014-1-DE-EPPKA3-ICCS.

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