Introduction

Politics is all around us, even in school. Students encounter political messages in their day-to-day lives through news outlets and social media.

For political parties and other associations, schools are an important channel for reaching young people – potential new members and voters – especially in an election year. As well as being a place where children and young people acquire knowledge, school is a meeting place and somewhere they spend much of their time. School may be the first place that a student meets a local politician or another young person who has chosen to engage in politics.

For whom

Talking Politics is aimed at Years 7–9 and upper-secondary school. Its purpose is to make it easier for schools to work systematically and qualitatively with political discourse. It can also offer support to teachers working at schools that invite political parties to visit.

Perhaps your school has a long history of working with political parties but you are looking for fresh ideas? Perhaps you are a teacher who has been handed responsibility for planning the school’s party-political debate for the first time and you are looking for methods and tips on how to go about it? Hopefully, this methodological material can support or inspire you to develop your work with political information and a party-political presence in your school.

Swedish version of Talking politics

Talking politics is also avaliable in Swedish.