Civic education in South Africa : the impact of adult and school programs on democratic attitudes and participation

Questionnaires were administered by a professional survey company to 1,550 individuals in eight of South Africa"s nine provinces: 475 adults trained in three adult civic education programs; 300 high school students given civic instruction by university students trained under the auspices of a national NGO; and control groups of 475 adults and 300 high school students who were not exposed to similar training. Survey findings tell a very consistent and in many ways optimistic story. Evidence was presented that civic education activities, especially among adults, have a significant and often substantial impact on South Africans" political participation, civic competence, and political knowledge. Even core values, such as political tolerance and respect for the rule of law, changed under some conditions, though to a lesser degree than behavior and participatory orientations. Given the skepticism often associated with civic education efforts and, more generally, with democracy assistance, these results provide evidence of more sizeable effects than may have been expected. At the same time, the analysis showed clearly that the effects of civic education on most democratic orientations were limited to certain types of training and teaching conditions. Individuals" democratic orientations were not affected by mere exposure to civic education. What mattered was the frequency and quality of the training received. Unless individuals are trained frequently, with a preponderance of participatory methods, and with high quality trainers, no effects are likely to be observed on most democratic attitudes. These findings were observed in both the adult and student portions of the study, and received strong additional confirmation in the study"s qualitative components as well. The fact that the positive effects of civic education are only observed under some conditions leads to a more cautious interpretation of the effectiveness of civic education programs. The study found that less than half of the South African civic education participants were trained in ways identified as highly effective; fully one-quarter were trained in ways identified as completely ineffective. This suggests that the key to the success of civic education is to ensure that as many individuals as possible are trained in demonstrably effective ways. From discussions with USAID and NGO officials, civic education trainees and participants, however, it appears that achieving this goal with the limited resources available is highly difficult to achieve in practice.