The measurement of political ideologies and its implications for education

Focusing on the research topic of political ideologies, which is understudied in Italy, this paper provides a reflection about the eventual role of a validated measurement instrument for analysis in educational contexts. After defining the ideological concepts under consideration (conservatism-liberalism continuum), a synthetic presentation of the methodological approach is offered in the second section. The third section reflects on the role of schools as agents of political socialization in reproducing specific values, which constitute the ideological dimension of interest. Indeed, following a sociological approach that focuses on everyday life, Italian students are embedded in educational contexts which much research would consider focus on so-called ‘democratic’ values, that is, oriented towards tolerance and equality of rights. The conclusions summarize the main contributions of the work and discuss the limits of the approach adopted.