Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 9 ~ Issue 1 (2021)pp: 01-07 ISSN(Online):2321-9467 www.questjournals.org *Corresponding Author: Antonios D. Papaoikonomou 1 | Page Research Paper A twostep cluster analysis model concerning civic education effi- ciency in Greek educational system: empirical research in a sam- ple of university students Antonios D. Papaoikonomou, PhD Department of Political Sciences Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ABSTRACT This paper presents a twostep cluster analysis model of a research that was carried out in autumn 2019 con- cerning civic education efficiency of public schools in Greece. The sample consisted of students of the depart- ment of Political Sciences of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece. Amongst the findings, the segregation of students regarding the performance in school can be stated. More specifically, it was observed that diligent students were more reluctant in changes. On the opposite, they prefer the current state of art where sterile re- production of knowledge takes place. In that way civic education fails to succeed its scope. KEY WORDS: civic education, Greek public school, students. Received 05 Jan, 2021; Revised: 18 Jan, 2021; Accepted 20 Jan, 2021 © The author(s) 2021. Published with open access at www.questjournals.org I. INTRODUCTION Political participation as an element of active citizenship in democracies has been significantly promot- ed in education policies at both international and national levels. The main direction of these policies is to pro- vide participation-skills and knowledge to all young people. For political decision-makers, political participation is now a fundamental component of the democratic order (Battistoni, 1985. Council of Europe, 2010b. OJ, 2007, 2010). Activities for participatory education, as presented by the EU, the Council of Europe and other national education organizations can be seen as an attempt to combine practical application and knowledge (Boyte, 2004. Birzea et al., 2005. Gollob, Krapf & Weidinger, 2010a, 2010b). Education policy makers draw a promising pic- ture of views and practices: due to the fact that democracy needs active citizens, research-based policies ensure that schools must teach political participation effectively to all students, who as citizens, will use the skills they will acquire, will be active and will therefore contribute to the perpetuation of democracy (Boyte & Kari, 1996. Council of Europe 2002. Schulz et al., 2010a, 2010b). At the same time, the feedback guarantees the best im- plementation of the educational programs and their continuous improvement. In these educational policies and in the relevant teaching material as well as in relevant research on political education, the basic ideas of democ- racy are taken for granted while in essence they need to be understood and consolidated. Therefore, many theo- retical approaches are built on unstable ground with the basic concepts of political education, democracy and participation being ambiguous and not well defined. On the contrary, they often refer to democracy emphatically as a good, just and harmonious feature of European societies, which, however, must be supported and experien- tially consolidated by educating citizens for their active participation (Callan, 1999. Eurydice, 2005. Hoskins, 2006). This pursuit of empowerment of participation tends to highlight a difference in the policies and practices of participatory democracy and an idealized image of democracy. Controversy and exchange of views, however, as well as participation theories, institutions and, of course, participation practices themselves are an embedded feature of democracy. Despite the complexity of modern society and the conditions of political participation, there is a general consensus on what is or should be an active political behavior, at least in the democracies of the western world. This finding now seems to be taken for granted: at European level, political education and research is based on an expected common understanding of active political behavior, democracy and participation (Conover & Searing, 2000. Hoskins & Mascherini, 2009. Torney - Purta et al., 2001). Scholars now believe that policies of participation and active political behav- ior do not require further research and theoretical construction. Differences regarding cultural differences, gen- der or the dominant political and social narrative are considered unnecessary. Education policies at the interna-