According to research, international conventions and Swedish governing documents, the school has a crucial role in supporting students’ ability and willingness to actively participate in society (eg Chawla & Cushing, 2007; UNESCO, 2014; Skolverket, 2011). From a democratic perspective, it is important that all students, regardless of educational pathway, are given this support. Several studies have shown that Swedish students have good civic knowledge, shows a strong support for equal rights and a willingness to get involved in society (Manni & Knekta, 2020; Skolverket, 2016). Previous research has however indicated a differentiation in education were students at vocational education and training programmes (VETP) to a lesser extent are socialized to actively participate in the society (Nilsson 1981, Nylund et al., 2019. Kärnebro (2013) and Rosvall (2012) showed that male dominated VET programmes seem to be contexts where undemocratic views are articulated by the students. Nylund and colleagues (2020) found a lack of elements fostering questioning and participation on the construction of social orders at VETP. In contrast, other studies have shown that VET students engage in discussions and find interest in politics in civic classrooms (Forsberg 2011) and that they value knowledge providing them with access to discussions about past, present and future society (Ledman 2015). Recent decades educational policy goals have shifted from equality and citizenship towards competition and employability (Carlbaum 2012, Sundberg & Wahlström, 2012) and the proportion of time for general subjects at VETP has been reduced and curricula has narrowed (Ledman 2014, Nylund et al, 2017).

Research focusing on education for civic buildung and VETP is still relatively limited and to some part inconsistent. But as outlined above there is several indications the Swedish school don’t equally support all students’ ability and willingness to actively participate in society, regardless of educational pathway. A better understanding of the students’ perspectives on education and engagement in the society is crucial for development of teaching that encourage active participation in society.

The aim of the study presented here is to get increased knowledge of vocational students’ perspectives on the importance of education for civic building as well as on their future engagement in the society. Potential differences between students at different programmes are also analysed. The pedagogical rights described by Bernstein (2000) will be used as a theoretical frame to put the results into a larger context. These are: the right to enhancement, which builds on having had the ‘right to the means of critical understanding and to new possibilities’; the right to inclusion in the social realm, and; the right to participation in the democratic process.Bernstein advocates that the sense of having a stake in society is a fundamental prerequist for democratic citizenship.

The study is performed within a joint research and development project, where researchers and teachers in the subjects social studies, history, religion and science studies collaborate to develop education for civic bildung. In fall 2020, a survey concerning education for civic buildung and civic engagement was distributed to all students in grade three at VET programmes in one municipality in Sweden (n = 162). The survey was constructed by researcher in collaboration with upper secondary teachers. It was based on contents in the social studies, history, religion, and science studies syllabuses and items in the ICCS survey (IEA, 2016). Thirty-nine items related to the importance of different aspects of education for civic bildung. The different aspects were divided into three main groups, (1) perceived importance to learn different abilities (e.g. ability to counteract prejudices), (2) perceived importance to learn different content (e.g. human rights, different environmental and climate issues), and (3) perceived importance of different teaching methods (e.g. that teachers explain issues from several perspectives). Fourteen items concerned how likely it was that the student would engage in different civic activities in the future (e.g. participation in future election, buying certain products to support social justice or create an on-line group taking a specific view in a controversial issue). 140 students at 10 different VET programmes completed the survey. The results were analysed by looking at frequency distribution of the students answers on each item in the survey. The number of students in each VETP were too few to enable statistical comparisons between the different programs instead comparisons was made between three main groups of VETP; caring programs (female dominated), service and handicraft programs (mixed gender), and production, industry and vehicle programs (male dominated). Differences in reported importance of education for civic bildung and future civic engagement was made using Kruskal-Wallis test followed by pairwise post hoc test.

Most students were positive towards all abilities, content, and methods related to education for civic bildung mentioned in the survey. For example, 94-95% of the students rated the ability to act and that teachers explain issues from several perspectives as important and 64 and 72% of the students rated the ability to create a group to achieve change and to follow debates as important. In general, most students found content connected to social studies (e.g. how economy works) important and fewer found content connected to history, and religion (e.g. knowledge about different time periods) important. It should however be noted that within each subject there was at least one topic that more than 89% of students found important. When it comes to likely future engagement in the civic society there was a much larger variation between the activities mentioned compared to the different aspects of teaching presented above. The activities mentioned grouped in to three different groups (1) Voting in different elections, (2) Personal sacrifices in favor for the environment or social justice, and (3) Active participation in groups or public expression of views. Most students found it likely that they would vote in future elections (91-97%) while only between 8 and 23 % reported that it was likely or very likely that they would actively participate in groups or express their views in different public forums. The results imply that the vocational students value critical understanding but to some parts lacks confidence when it comes to individual engagement (Bernstein, 2000). Few and relatively small significant differences between students in different VET programs were found. The general trend was that fewer students at production, industry and vehicle related programs found the different abilities, contents, and methods important as well as reported that future engagement in society was likely.

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