This quantitative study explores school actors’ understanding of democracy and civic education in non-democratic countries. Thereby, the article builds on the assumption that teachers are a crucial factor in the success of learning in general (Hattie, 2003) and that their (pedagogical) beliefs influence their teaching practices (Knowles, 2018; Reichert et al., 2021). Not only because of their role model function, their pro-democratic attitudes and values are the linchpin in the implementation of democracy education (Große Prues, 2022, p. 17). Although a large number of studies have already contributed to this discourse (Chin & Barber, 2010; Reichert & Torney-Purta, 2019), there is a research desideratum with regard to the Global South in general and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, where the majority of countries are still autocracies. In addition, many of these contexts are characterized by very different access to IT and internet connection. This applies especially to schools. In Tanzania, which serves as a case for this study, internet penetration in 2023 was only 31.6%, whilst 86.4% of the total population had access to cellular mobile connection. Especially mobile internet connection had increased by almost 8% compared 2022 (DataReportal, 2023). Given that internet connection comes along with increased access to information, this development bears a potential to generate informed citizens, which are a prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy. At the same time, the spread of fake news is only one example for how increasing digitalization can challenge democracy. Moreover, in Tanzania all materials used for teaching actually need to be officially recognized by the Tanzanian institute of Education. This paper presents findings of a study based on the survey instruments of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 (cf. Schulz et al., 2016) on Tanzanian teachers’ and principals’ attitudes towards democracy and digitalization. As a result, 85% of the respondents answered that obtaining news through the Internet, television, newspaper, etc. is part of their daily life. Also, 63% believed that following political issues is “very important” for being a “good citizen.” At the same time more than one third replied that their students analyze information gathered from multiple sources including online research. Therefore, the question raises whether how a democratic dealing with the potential and threats of digitalization can be fostered when access to digital means limited. Based on this, I will address the role of information and knowledge for democracy.

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