Description
Objective. Both the civic education literature and the political ambition literature leave a gap in addressing the impact of political science coursework on political ambition. I address this gap by specifying the relationships between civic education, political knowledge, and political ambition. Methods. I employ paired t tests, chi-square tests, and Fisher's exact probability tests on an original dataset of 174 paired pre- and post-test survey responses. My survey improves upon prior works in the ambition literature (Fox and Lawless 2013) by virtue of its field experiment design. Results. My findings indicate that political science coursework has a positive impact on political knowledge, but only among women, and that political science coursework has a negative impact (among women) on one of the most valid measures of political ambition—how likely one is to run for office in the future. Conclusions/Implications. The results have negative normative implications for those trying to use political education as an instrument to reduce the gender gap (see Lawless and Fox 2010, Fox and Lawless 2013) in political ambition. This suggests the need to explore further options for increasing political ambition, particularly among women.
Details
Title
- Is political science raising politicians?: the influence of civic education on political ambition
Contributors
- Wiezel, Adi (Author)
- Kittilson, Miki (Thesis advisor)
- Fridkin, Kim (Committee member)
- Woodall, Gina (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2014
Subjects
- Political Science
- Education
- Women's Studies
- Civic Education
- Political Ambition
- Political Knowledge
- socialization
- Women--Political activity--United States.
- Women political candidates--United States.
- Women political candidates
- Political science--Study and teaching--United States.
- Ambition--Political aspects--United States.
- Ambition
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
- thesisPartial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2014
- bibliographyIncludes bibliographical references (p. 53-57)
- Field of study: Political science
Citation and reuse
Statement of Responsibility
by Adi Wiezel