Limitations of the Educational Structure in Political Socialization
Education is the venue to dictate and implement the top-down model and to make sure that the political structure of society is perpetuated by civic or citizenship education. This assumption is enhanced by the learning theories that emphasize that children’ s political comprehension is no match to political concepts, and, therefore, learning should be incremental with hands on experiences. Hence, research focused on this area provided different results on the trajectory of civic education after school years that did not always carry on the fundamental of civic engagement. Most have argued that the impact of such curricula is contiguous on ethnicity, school systems, and class. Moreover, the top-down model does not view children as active in their learning, yet the focus on community engagement continues to be the focus in civic education. Chapter 6 discusses both formal and informal educational institutions and political socialization, the impact of intersectionality within education systems, and the Palestinian example of structured civic programs.
Media and the Neoliberal Agenda Within Political Socialization
It seems that media is central to youth political socialization because it interacts within the top-down model and trickle-up model ofyouth political socialization. Hence, to truly understand media’s impact, there is a need to deconstruct it in terms of ideology, and how the neoliberal ideology frames political socialization and emphasizes particular value systems to condemn or reward certain behaviors. It is no longer accurate to view media as a direct influence without considering the ideology embedded in the programs or the network itself. To counteract such ideological impositions, youth use their agency to create alternative media venues to communicate and combat such perspectives. Youth are no longer only a consumer of media but actual critics. Chapter 7 discusses the presentation of media and political socialization, neoliberal values and the media.
