As candidates vie for votes with polished messaging and party lines, a team of researchers from the University of South Australia warns that the real lesson young Australians are learning this election season may be how not to do democracy.
With social media now a mainstay of teenage life, politics is no longer a topic reserved for the dinner table or classrooms. Children and adolescents are encountering political content—memes, speeches, scandals—daily, often without guidance. According to UniSA’s Associate Professor Joel Windle, this unfiltered exposure offers a crucial but largely missed opportunity to engage young people meaningfully in democratic life.
“The problem isn’t that young people aren’t interested,” says Assoc Prof Windle. “It’s that what they’re observing from our elected officials is a crash course in avoiding tough questions and managing spin. If that’s what democracy looks like to them, we’ve got a bigger problem down the line.”
The concerns follow recommendations from a recent Australian Parliament report calling for a unified, national approach to civics and citizenship education. The report emphasises digital literacy—arming students with the tools to spot misinformation and manipulate less. But that’s only one part of the equation.
The UniSA researchers argue that what’s taught in classrooms must be mirrored by what’s modelled in public. When politicians dodge hard questions, avoid open debates, or reduce engagement with young people to hashtags and one-off school visits, it sends the message that participation is performative.
Their research suggests that students—particularly those in the upper years of primary school—are more than ready for complex discussions on political and social matters. Whether the issue is a broken pedestrian crossing near school or the broader questions of climate justice, students can research, present, and advocate. And they’re often doing it through formats like podcasts, videos, and digital storytelling.
“They’re not just passive consumers. They’re already engaging as creators,” says Windle. “And yet in too many classrooms, civics is dated, disconnected, or seen as too risky. That hesitation does them a disservice.”
The team’s new book, Being Heard: Remixing Critical Literacy for Active Citizenship, presents a set of strategies for teachers to better connect curriculum with students’ lived experiences. The book aims to equip educators with practical ways to help students find their voice and use it—within the classroom and beyond.
Crucially, the book frames this not as a feel-good exercise, but as a necessity in a system that requires informed voters. Australia’s model of compulsory voting means citizens must turn up at the ballot box whether they’ve followed the issues or not. But growing levels of distrust, media fatigue, and misinformation make the task of becoming informed harder than ever—especially for young people trying to make sense of it all.
“If we’re serious about democracy, it needs to start early,” Windle says. “And it needs to look like what we claim it is—something open to questions, rooted in dialogue, and accountable to those who will inherit its outcomes.”
The research team comprises Associate Professor Joel Windle, Associate Professor David Caldwell, Associate Professor Melanie Baak, and Dr Aidan Windle. Their collective work offers a timely reminder that while the official votes will come from adults on polling day, the unofficial lessons will be absorbed far earlier—and may shape how future generations participate in public life.
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