Schools’ We-mentality and Students’ Civic Engagement – A Text-based Approach

This paper studies the role of schools' we-mentality in shaping students' civic outcome. A school's we-mentality is important for the students' perception and education of sense of community. We-mentality is measured by an automated content-analysis approach applied to the schools' general principle. Data stem from a survey conducted in 13 German schools with 488 students. Using OLS and multi-level regression techniques, I find that stronger we-mentality is associated with more students being engaged in local civic activities. Moreover, students that exhibit stronger trust in others and are willing to engage with new and unknown tasks show more positive attitudes towards civic issues. The results hold relevance for the educational design of schools in fostering adolescents' civic education and participation.