The Hesse Case - Education of Future Teachers in Political Science

In Germany, there is an upcoming debate about civic education and teachers’ neutrality in schools. The AfD launched a platform in several states, on which pupils and parents should inform against teachers, who are not politically neutral or in the words of the AfD “politically one-sided”. These developments have led to a broad discussion about Civic Education in schools, and furthermore about education of teachers in universities. This article examines the Hesse case of teachers’ education in universities: In Hesse, every prospective teacher studies one module of Civic Education on an obligatory basis and can study a second module voluntarily. In these modules, students learn about democratic order in general, democratic processes, political and societal conflicts. Furthermore, the study within these modules should nurture to inherit values of democracy, equality and citizenship. First, we show with data from the EMEL study, to what extent future teachers at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen support liberal democratic principles and to what extent they possess political knowledge and political interest. In a second step, we conduct focus group discussions with experienced teachers on the results of the survey. Based on this empirical insight, we discuss the role of Civic Education in teachers’ education and in preparation for their extra-curricular task of Civic Education in schools – besides their regular topics.