Long lasting effects of political indoctrination at school on human capital and employment

Sum­ma­ry
Using data from Poland, we show evi­den­ce that poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol redu­ces edu­ca­tion atta­in­ment and labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion later in life. The effects seem to ope­ra­te thro­ugh redu­cing indi­vi­du­al agency. 

dr Anna Niciń­ska, ana­li­tycz­ka DELab UW

Poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol in Poland: A Case Study

Poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol is often desi­gned to influ­en­ce trust in govern­ment and serve poli­ti­cal moti­va­tions. Can­to­ni et al. (2017) show that indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol can be instru­men­tal to the con­so­li­da­tion of poli­ti­cal power, whi­le Zhang et al. (2014) show that ide­olo­gy in cur­ri­cu­la can suc­cess­ful­ly instill social­ly use­ful beliefs and cul­ti­va­te good citi­zen­ship. Howe­ver, teaching indi­vi­du­als to accept beliefs uncri­ti­cal­ly might also exert nega­ti­ve effects on later life. The absen­ce of cri­ti­cal and aesthe­tic disco­ur­se in edu­ca­tion hin­ders the instil­la­tion of self-direc­tion and indi­vi­du­al agen­cy (Tor­bert, 1978), which enhan­ces most effi­cient cho­ices on one’s care­er path (Hall et al., 2018) leading to pro­fes­sio­nal excel­len­ce thro­ugh adju­sting indi­vi­du­als’ iden­ti­ties and valu­es (Bar­ro, 2001; Aspachs-Bra­cons et al., 2008). Whi­le other stu­dies point to incre­ased labo­ur mar­ket par­ti­ci­pa­tion and ear­nings (Woes­smann et al., 2022) as a result of com­pul­so­ry reli­gion edu­ca­tion in Ger­man scho­ols, apart from anti-semi­tism spre­ad due to Nazi scho­oling (Voth and Voig­tlän­der, 2015), lit­tle is known abo­ut the long-lasting effects of poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol. Our recent stu­dy (Costa-Font, Gar­cía-Hom­bra­dos, Niciń­ska, 2024)shows that, rela­ti­ve to a year in edu­ca­tion in the pre-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem, an addi­tio­nal year of edu­ca­tion in the scho­ol sys­tem with redu­ced indoc­tri­na­tion impro­ved the pro­ba­bi­li­ty of fini­shing secon­da­ry and ter­tia­ry edu­ca­tion by 1.15 and 1.42 per­cen­ta­ge points (pp) respec­ti­ve­ly, and incre­ased labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion by 1.69 pp near­ly 50 years later

A cano­ni­cal exam­ple of an edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem with the heavy load of poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion was the one esta­bli­shed in by the People’s Repu­blic of Poland fol­lo­wing the end of the World War II. By 1949, the edu­ca­tion sys­tem in Poland had sta­bi­li­zed after the war disrup­tions and adop­ted the Soviet appro­ach to the edu­ca­tion aiming at instil­ling Marxist-Leni­nist valu­es and sha­ping loy­al to the regi­me, phy­si­cal­ly fit and stron­gly atta­ched to the Soviet com­mu­ni­ty the so cal­led “new Soviet men”. Fol­lo­wing the death of Joseph Sta­lin in the spring of 1953, the govern­ment of Poland redu­ced dra­ma­ti­cal­ly the amo­unt of indoc­tri­na­tion in the scho­ol cur­ri­cu­lum and gra­ding sys­tem from the scho­ol cour­se 1954/55. The remo­val of poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion ele­ments affec­ted the cur­ri­cu­la of all scho­ol cour­ses, from histo­ry, Polish lan­gu­age, and mathe­ma­tics, to musi­cal, tech­ni­cal, and phy­si­cal edu­ca­tion. No lon­ger the scho­ol assem­blies were dedi­ca­ted to com­mu­nist leaders nor requ­ired the par­ti­ci­pa­tion of all pupils in reci­ting ide­olo­gi­cal poems or sin­ging com­mu­nist anthems. The gra­ding sys­tem after 1954/55 did not reward demon­stra­tions of the assi­mi­la­tion of the ide­olo­gi­cal con­tents nor requ­ired lear­ning by a heart set of respon­ses cen­tral­ly coined by the experts respon­si­ble for com­mu­nist scho­ols. See a video on the pri­ma­ry scho­ols in Poland from 1952 offi­cial chro­nic­les used by sta­te pro­pa­gan­da, that depict a poster with a 6‑year plan in a clas­sro­om for first-gra­de pupils and how it is used to reward chil­dre­n’s scho­ol efforts: http://www.repozytorium.fn.org.pl/?q=pl/node/7009.

In a recent stu­dy with Jor­ge Gar­cía-Hom­bra­dos and Joan Costa-Font, we show that near­ly 50 years later chil­dren affec­ted by the 1954/55 reform in scho­ol cur­ri­cu­la were more like­ly to par­ti­ci­pa­te in labo­ur mar­ket and more like­ly to obta­in higher levels of human capi­tal, i.e. edu­ca­tion levels in the­ir later life. Spe­ci­fi­cal­ly, the stu­dy shows that one addi­tio­nal year of revo­ked indoc­tri­na­tion in scho­ol impro­ved the pro­ba­bi­li­ty of fini­shing secon­da­ry and ter­tia­ry edu­ca­tion by 1.15 and 1.42 per­cen­ta­ge points (pp) respec­ti­ve­ly, and incre­ased labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion by 1.69 pp near­ly 50 years later. The stu­dy explo­res mecha­ni­sms that might yield the detri­men­tal effects of com­mu­nist edu­ca­tion, docu­men­ted also in a semi­nal stu­dy by Fuchs-Schun­deln and Masel­la (2016) explo­ring the divi­sion of Ger­ma­ny. Results sug­gest that valu­es expli­ci­tly and also impli­ci­tly pro­mo­ted at scho­ol might be cri­ti­cal for later life out­co­mes, espe­cial­ly indi­vi­du­als’ sen­se of agen­cy and inde­pen­den­ce from autho­ri­ties. Poli­ti­cal regi­mes affect cur­ri­cu­la con­tents, and auto­cra­tic ele­ments in scho­oling seem to limit the bene­fits of edu­ca­tion in a long run.

Figu­re 1: Human capi­tal and labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion for indi­vi­du­als born in the first quar­ter of the year and the last quar­ter of the pre­vio­us calen­dar year

Sour­ce: 2002 Polish cen­sus.
Note: The gra­phs com­pa­re the evo­lu­tion of labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion, the sha­re of indi­vi­du­als that com­ple­ted secon­da­ry, and the sha­re of indi­vi­du­als that com­ple­ted ter­tia­ry edu­ca­tion for tho­se born in the first quar­ter of the year and for tho­se born in the last quar­ter of the pre­vio­us calen­dar year. The year indi­ca­ted in the X‑axis refers to the year of birth for tho­se born in the first quar­ter and to the year of birth +1 for tho­se born in the last quar­ter of the pre­vio­us calen­dar year. Lines repre­sent fits from a local poly­no­mial with a ban­dwidth of 1 and 95% con­fi­den­ce intervals.

Table 1: Effect of the 1954/55 reform on edu­ca­tion and labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion (Cen­sus data)

	Labo­ur for­ce participation	Secon­da­ry education	Ter­tia­ry education
Q1 x In school	0.014***	0.017***	0.011***
	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.003)
Q1	0.014***	0.008***	0.002
	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.002)
Obse­rva­tions	198200	200706	200706
Cut-off of refe­ren­ce FE	YES	YES	YES

Note: This table reports the dif­fe­ren­ce-in-dif­fe­ren­ces esti­ma­tes of the effects of an addi­tio­nal year of expo­su­re to the post-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem on labo­ur for­ce par­ti­ci­pa­tion, the pro­ba­bi­li­ty of com­ple­ting secon­da­ry edu­ca­tion, and the pro­ba­bi­li­ty of com­ple­ting ter­tia­ry edu­ca­tion rela­ti­ve to a year of edu­ca­tion in the pre-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem during com­pul­so­ry edu­ca­tion. Robust stan­dard errors are repor­ted in paren­the­ses.*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1.

Sour­ce: 2002 Polish census.

The stu­dy relies on the 2002 Polish cen­sus data on the labo­ur mar­ket par­ti­ci­pa­tion and human capi­tal atta­in­ment for 200,706 indi­vi­du­als. We use a dif­fe­ren­ce-in-dif­fe­ren­ces stra­te­gy com­pa­ring indi­vi­du­als born in the year’s first quar­ter and the last quar­ter of the pre­vio­us calen­dar year. Despi­te being born just a few weeks later, indi­vi­du­als born in the first quar­ter of the year start scho­ol one year later and the­re­fo­re were expo­sed to one addi­tio­nal year of edu­ca­tion under the post-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem. To net out the effect of an addi­tio­nal year of edu­ca­tion from the effect of just being “old” in the scho­ol cohort, we intro­du­ce a second dimen­sion of varia­tion inc­lu­ding in the sam­ple indi­vi­du­als that ini­tia­te scho­ol alre­ady after the reform. For the­se indi­vi­du­als, being born in the first quar­ter of the year does not imply a dif­fe­rent level of expo­su­re to the reform rela­ti­ve to tho­se born in the last quar­ter of the pre­vio­us calen­dar year.

Table 2: Effect of the 1954/55 reform on self-direc­tion and agency

	Depen­den­ce on:			Self-
	autho­ri­ties	Others	desti­ny	relian­ce
Q1 x In school	-0.050*	0.003	0.027	0.097**
	(0.027)	(0.038)	(0.049)	(0.047)
Q1	-0.050	-0.145	0.231**	0.118
	(0.073)	(0.091)	(0.104)	(0.090)
Obse­rva­tions	1789	1789	1789	1789
Cut-off FE	YES	YES	YES	YES
Survey FE	YES	YES	YES	YES
Age	YES	YES	YES	YES
Sex	YES	YES	YES	YES

Note: This table reports the dif­fe­ren­ce-in-dif­fe­ren­ces esti­ma­tes of the effect of an addi­tio­nal year of expo­su­re to the post-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem on self-direc­tion and agen­cy out­co­mes rela­ti­ve to a year of edu­ca­tion in the pre-reform edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem during com­pul­so­ry edu­ca­tion. All depen­dent varia­bles are dicho­to­mo­us varia­bles. Robust stan­dard errors are repor­ted in paren­the­ses.*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1.

Sour­ce: Dia­gno­za Spo­łecz­na, waves 2011, 2013, and 2015.

We then use the Dia­gno­za Spo­łecz­na survey explo­re whe­ther the effect might be dri­ven by the effect of the reform on dif­fe­rent valu­es. The lat­ter data­ba­se inc­lu­des rich infor­ma­tion in the measu­res of valu­es and atti­tu­des, tho­ugh signi­fi­can­tly smal­ler in terms of the sam­ple size than the cen­sus set. Table 2 shows the signi­fi­cant cau­sal effects of the 1954/55 edu­ca­tion reform, sug­ge­sting that indi­vi­du­als expo­sed to redu­ced scho­ol indoc­tri­na­tion tend to pla­ce the respon­si­bi­li­ty for the­ir ove­rall life cir­cum­stan­ces in them­se­lves to a lar­ger degree and in the autho­ri­ties to a smal­ler degree than tho­se with addi­tio­nal poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion at scho­ol. The sen­se of gre­ater agen­cy and inde­pen­den­ce from autho­ri­ties could have been sha­ped with the scho­ol cur­ri­cu­la more focu­sed on scho­lar acti­vi­ties and skill acqu­ire­ment than on rewar­ding obe­dien­ce to autho­ri­ties and demon­stra­tion of loy­al­ty to the com­mu­nist regi­me. The­se in turn, appe­ar to be asso­cia­ted with the abi­li­ty to sha­pe one­’s own desti­ny, which ali­gns with the obse­rved incre­ases in labo­ur mar­ket par­ti­ci­pa­tion and human capi­tal atta­in­ment. On the other hand, we do not find any rele­vant effect on leftist views.

Impli­ca­tions

Whe­ther poli­ti­cal indoc­tri­na­tion in non-com­mu­nist auto­cra­tic regi­mes would yield simi­lar nega­ti­ve effects is an open question. Whi­le more rese­arch is needed to convin­cin­gly address this question, the fact that the nega­ti­ve effects of Marxist-Leni­nist indoc­tri­na­tion seem to be tied to the sup­pres­sion of indi­vi­du­al agen­cy sug­ge­sts that the­se results might be appli­ca­ble in auto­cra­tic regi­mes across the enti­re poli­ti­cal spec­trum, which often set edu­ca­tio­nal sys­tem to instill obe­dien­ce to the regi­me (Diwan and Var­ta­no­va, 2020; Dah­lum and Knut­sen, 2017).

Refe­ren­ces

Costa-Font J., Gar­cía-Hom­bra­dos J., Niciń­ska A., Long-lasting effects of indoc­tri­na­tion in scho­ol: Evi­den­ce from the People’s Repu­blic of Poland,
Euro­pe­an Eco­no­mic Review, Volu­me 161, 2024, 104641, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104641
Dah­lum, S. and Knut­sen, C. (2017). Do demo­cra­cies pro­vi­de bet­ter edu­ca­tion? Revi­si­ting the demo­cra­cy-human capi­tal link. World Deve­lop­ment, 94.
Diwan, I. and Var­ta­no­va, I. (2020). Does edu­ca­tion indoc­tri­na­te? Inter­na­tio­nal Jour­nal of Edu­ca­tio­nal Deve­lop­ment, 78.
Fuchs-Schun­deln, N. and Masel­la, P. (2016). Long-lasting effects of socia­list edu­ca­tion. The Review of Eco­no­mics and Sta­ti­stics, 98(3):428–441).
Hall, D. T., Yip, J., and Doiron, K. (2018). Pro­te­an care­ers at work: Self-direc­tion and valu­es orien­ta­tion in psy­cho­lo­gi­cal suc­cess. Annu­al Review of Orga­ni­za­tio­nal Psy­cho­lo­gy and Orga­ni­za­tio­nal Beha­vior, 5:129–156.
Tor­bert, W. R. (1978). Edu­ca­ting toward sha­red pur­po­se, self-direc­tion and quali­ty work: The the­ory and prac­ti­ce of libe­ra­ting struc­tu­re. The Jour­nal of Higher Edu­ca­tion, 49(2):109–135.
Voth, H.-J., Voig­tlän­der, N. (2015) Tau­ght to hate: How Nazi scho­oling ampli­fied anti-Semi­tism in Ger­ma­ny. VoexEU.org, June 18 https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/taught-hate-how-nazi-schooling-amplified-anti-semitism-germany.
Woes­smann, L., Zie­row L., Arold B. W. (2022). Reli­gio­us edu­ca­tion in scho­ol affects stu­dents’ lives in the long run. VoexEU.org, March 3 https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/religious-education-school-affects-students-lives-long-run.
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