(Civic) Educational Reconstruction and Citizens’ Societal Conceptions

An Exemplary Analysis of Democratic Beliefs and Conceptions

Abstract

The Model of Educational Reconstruction has established itself in the research field of civic education, especially when it comes to the analysis of citizens’ societal conceptions (Fischer & Lange, 2014). Due to the normative nature of the field, additional emphasis is put on the clarification and reflection of the normative goals of civic education, which are used as standards to justify the diversification of political beliefs through didactic interventions (Lange, 2010). Thus, the “civic educational reconstruction” expands the model to better match the normative nature of civic education. However, the links between the research on students’ conceptions in civic education and the Model of Educational Reconstruction are inconsistent. This article thus presents the Model of the Civic Educational Reconstruction as well as its points of reference and discusses different approaches and topics of research in civic education. The model as well as its theoretic foundations are applied by analyzing students’ conceptions of democracy. These conceptions show a strong normative connotation of the term and a close connection to other concepts. While one student has very positive beliefs about democracy and describes it as participation in all areas of life, another student sees democracy as being dominated by economic power positions. Finally, this article describes how the methodological concept of the Civic Educational Reconstruction is integrated into teacher training at the University of Hannover.