Political Socialization in the Contemporary Greek Kindergarten Views of Kindergarten Teachers and the Readiness of Preschoolers

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study preschool children’s readiness to political socialization and to investigate kindergarten teachers’ views regarding citizenship education. It is appreciated that teachers’ views constitute strong evidence of plans, instructive choices and teaching practices, determining sometimes even their instructive effectiveness, i.e. the degree they consider themselves to be able to influence students’ performance. Children’s readiness is considered to be related to their ability for direct reaction in their political socialization. Two questionnaires were used as a data collection method. The readiness in early childhood for political socialization is investigated through fourteen proposals which are analyzed into the frequencies of “always”, “sometimes” and “never”. The views of kindergarten teachers in connection to citizenship education are investigated through five open questions. The collected data were coded, entered in SPSS and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings confirmed mostly the inquiring affairs and gave interesting information in the frame of inquiring questions as well.