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The Project

The „Feasibility Study: Monitoring Civic Education in Germany“ is dedicated to examining the professional, statistical, and methodological prerequisites for establishing a recurring report on civic education in Germany.

Such monitoring aims to provide data-driven and criteria-based insights into the state of civic education. The feasibility study focuses on the following four areas of the education system:

General and Vocational Schools

This area focuses on civic education in general secondary schools (lower and upper secondary levels) as well as in vocational schools within the dual system.

Higher Education

The development of indicators in the higher education sector encompasses not only formal, non-formal, and informal education, but also covers the broad field of research on civic education.

Teacher Training (Second and Third Phases)

In this area, the second and third phases of teacher training, alternative and lateral entry pathways, as well as the continuing education of active teachers without subject-specific qualifications are considered.

Non-Formal Civic Education

To capture non-formal civic education, the study focuses both on key actors in the field and on (especially public) funding streams.

The data-driven reporting is oriented towards the information needs of civic education providers and addresses relevant administrative stakeholders, decision-makers in educational policy, and civil society.

The feasibility study examines:

which aspects of the civic education landscape should and could be covered in a recurring report on civic education in Germany;
which relevant data sources exist and can be used for monitoring civic education;
which aspects of civic education lack regular data collection or data of representative quality, and what is needed to collect such data;
which indicators can be constructed based on the available data; and
which indicators should be prioritized for further data collection.

You can find the publication of the pilot monitor developed as part of the feasibility study here!

In addition to the four educational areas themselves, supporting structures which already exist in these fields are also considered. For the sectors mentioned, the feasibility study identifies, which information needs and data regarding opportunity structures (e.g., proximity to civic education offerings, qualifications of educators), educational processes (e.g., learning time for civic education, participation in education), and outcomes (e.g., political knowledge and engagement) can and should be considered with regard to the respective target groups.

Working Structure of the Feasibility Study

Why is Data-Driven Reporting Needed?

A recurring data-based, and cross-sectoral monitoring of civic education allows, among other things:

to institutionalize public attention for the field of civic education and increasing its political visibility,
to systematize the heterogeneous civic education offerings,
to highlight trends,
to generate knowledge about participants‘ interests and experiences
to illuminate options for action and needs for the (further) development of civic education programs,
to identify data deficits and initiating more consistent data generation across all sectors, and
to provide a reference point for in-depth studies.