It is commonly understood that every democracy needs actively engaged democrats to persist, and adolescence is a significant period in life for becoming an active citizen. Values and attitudes are significant elements of active citizenship, yet several measures can be employed to describe different types of (dis)engaged citizens. We will use measures such as attitudes about immigrants and cultural diversity, trust in civic institutions, belief in adult citizen action etc. and employ cluster analysis using the Australian National Assessment Program: Civics and Citizenship. Similar to Torney-Purta (2009), we will categorize secondary school students according to their civic orientations into distinguishable groups of young citizens. The identified clusters will be predicted by formal and informal civic education. We will discuss the results with respect to the potential of formal and informal civics and citizenship education for promoting actively engaged and democratically oriented citizens and regarding their implications for education policy.
