Civic Knowledge Research Articles

Toward Self-Authoring a Civic Teacher Identity: Service-Learning in Teacher Education

Previous scholarship has examined how teachers’ civic knowledge and conceptions of citizenship influence their goals, pedagogical practices, and confidence in teaching citizenship, but few studies have probed how teacher candidates develop identities as civic educators through community service-learning projects. This case study draws upon Baxter Magolda’s framework of self-authorship to investigate how teacher candidates in a Canadian university began to self-author their identities as civic educators through their experience of developing and delivering citizenship learning modules to youth through a community-based project. Our qualitative analysis of the data indicates that participating in change-oriented service-learning can lead teacher candidates to challenge their assumptions about youth engagement, increase their sense of self-efficacy as civic educators, and, to some extent, develop an awareness of self in relation to others.

Lessons on Citizenship and Democratic Power Literacy from Undocumented Youth

To create a society in which power is more equally accessible, we must teach our youth not only about civics and government, but also how to use political tools in order to effect social change. In this essay, I argue for teaching power literacy in place of traditional citizenship education on the grounds that the former has greater potential for increasing students’ political efficacy and their abilities to apply knowledge of civics to the real-world issues that affect them. To illustrate the concept of power literacy, I draw on a case study of a grassroots, undocumented youth activist organization fighting for in-state tuition legislation in North Carolina. Members of this group, which was entirely youth-founded and youth-led, taught themselves lobbying, civil disobedience, and other political strategies that far surpass the knowledge and skills typically presented in school-based citizenship education. Their work exemplifies the type of power literacy that we should teach all youth if we wish them to have the skills necessary to address the social inequalities that currently undercut American democracy.

The model of teachers’ perceptions of ‘Good Citizens’: Aligning with the changing conceptions of ‘Good Citizens’

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of ‘good citizens’ using the Model of Teachers’ Perceptions of ‘Good Citizens’. Teachers play essential roles in the nurturing of students’ civic values because they are key figures in implementing education and curriculum policies in schools. A mixed methods approach was employed to address Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of good citizens. A total of 1089 teachers from 131 Hong Kong primary schools participated in the quantitative study. Subsequently, 29 teachers from twelve schools were chosen for interview. According to the Model of Teachers’ Perceptions of Good Citizens, the findings revealed that teachers perceived good citizens to be those who not only possessed civic knowledge, conservative values, and concern for others in society but were also critical and active citizens. The Model of Teachers’ Perceptions of Good Citizens provided an explanation for the gap between good citizens as advocated by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government and good citizens as embraced by groups within Hong Kong society. This study contributes to the body of literature on teachers’ perceptions of civic education by offering a new lens for thinking about teachers’ perceptions of good citizens.

Pathways to Adult Civic Engagement: Benefits of Reflection and Dialogue across Difference in Higher Education Service-Learning Programs

The current study explores the relationship between participation in college service-learning (SL) experiences, in both academic courses and co-curricular programs, and post-college civic engagement. Using data from a purposeful sample of 1,066 alumni from 30 campuses who participated in the 20th Anniversary Bonner Scholars Study, we explored the extent to which SL experiences during the college years were related to civic outcomes post-graduation, particularly in terms of civic-minded orientations, volunteering, and civic action. When evaluating various attributes of SL programs (e.g., curricular, co-curricular programming, types of reflection, dialogue across difference, interactions with others), two components were particularly salient. Dialogue with others across difference was the strongest predictor of cultivating civic outcomes after college. In addition, both structured and informal reflection independently contributed to civic outcomes (i.e., civic-mindedness, voluntary action, civic action). The results suggested the Pathways to Adult Civic Engagement (PACE) model, which can be used to examine SL programming in higher education and to guide future research to understand how variations in SL program attributes influence civic outcomes years after graduation. The well-being of American democracy is dependent upon the active participation of its citizens and professionals in both political and community life. This voluntary impulse for engagement is shaped, in part, by traditions learned in families, clubs, religious organizations, and schools (Daloz, Keen, Keen, & Parks, 1996; Wilson, 2000). Each of these social organizations is vital to cultivating civic commitments (Kim, Flanagan, & Pykett, 2015). Higher education has a unique responsibility to prepare graduates with the necessary disciplinary knowledge for their careers as well as with the skills and dispositions to be active citizens through both their personal and professional lives (Sullivan & Rosen, 2008). The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (2012) and the Association of American Colleges & Universities (Reich, 2014) recently reiterated to institutions of higher education that their mission should focus on civic engagement. Research suggests that the college years are indeed a crucial period in the development of civic identity and engagement (Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, & Stephens, 2003; Kneflekamp, 2008; Mitchell, Richard, Battistoni, Rost-Banik, Netz, & Zakoske, 2015). Civic outcomes for college students include a wide and complex range of dimensions, including civic knowledge, skills, dispositions, and behaviors related to civic identity, sense of social responsibility, and intentions to participate in politics as well as community engagement and voluntary action (Beaumont, 2012; Hatcher, 2011; Hatcher, Bringle, & Hahn, 2016). Understanding the conditions under which higher education institutions are best able to support civic outcomes among graduates would enrich student learning, help college administrators enact coordinated and impactful academic and co-curricular service-learning (SL) programs, and support the engagement of alumni in the public sphere. SL, defined broadly as a course-based activity or as a co-curricular program (Jacoby, 2015), is on the rise in American higher education. Concomitantly, research on SL is increasingly prevalent. There have been a number of critiques regarding the quality of SL research in higher education (Butin, 2013; Finley, 2011; Giles & Eyler, 2013). The research on SL often is focused on one course or one program and rarely uses multi-campus sampling strategies. Oftentimes, the research fails to identify clearly the various dimensions of the SL course design (Finley, 2011), thus attributing the outcomes to SL rather than to the specific characteristics of, or variations within, the SL experience itself (Giles & Eyler, 2013). …

MODEL PROJECT CITIZENSHIP IN DEVELOPING NATIONALISM ATTITUDE THROUGH INTELLETUAL CITIZENSHIP

INTRODUCTION:The spirit of nationality is necessary to be developed on any personal especially the Indonesian youthsters. However, some say that young generations do not have nationalism spirit. But there does nationalism soul exists, With no trigger that is able to make it appear. Here are many ways though which the nationalism soul can be sowed among young Indonesian generation.A university student is seen as the hope for the nation's youth and the country has an important role to embody attitude towards nationalism soul. One thing that can be conducted by those Indonesian youths to embody attitude toward nationalism soul is to utilize education science, as it is one of the important things in creating nationalism attitude.The intelligence possessed by Indonesians youth must be mirrored in three aspects such as civic knowledge, civic skill, and civic disposition.Colleges as the formal a educational institution organizing in deed have the vital rules.Exceedingly colleges use regulations to implement objectives of national education in accordance with the idealities in Indonesian constitution.University students as the nation's next young generation must have good knowledge about the dynamics of national life. Colleges of course have responsibility to creatuch an environmente for the students. From civic point of view students are believed as the new citizens, means that they are citizens who need be aware of rights and obligations either as an individual or community members. Especially the attitude of nationalism should be owned by the younger generation who later will run the government of this country.One of the learning models to develop student's nationalism is to use citizen project model. This model learning is portfolio based and, through this model students are not only persuaded to understand the concepts and scientific principles but also they can develop their abilities to work cooperatively through empiric practice of learning activities. Therefore the learning process is getting more challenging, active and meaningful.DISCUSSION:Learning is associated with children's mental development that is not separated from their activities. Therefore children's mental development is dependent on to what extent children manipulate tools and other learning tools (Suparno, 2009). Mental development is not a plan from piece of separated information. Yet it is a mental frame construction by students to understand their environment, so they are free to develop their own understanding.There are four learning pillars that are determined by UNESCO (Budimansyah D. , 2009) :1. Learning to know is a learning process that allows students to master the technique of finding (discovery) knowledge and no merely to find (inquiry) knowledge.2. Learning to do is learning to achieve the ability to carry out controlling, monitoring, maintaining, designing, and organizing. Learning by doing something concrete in the potential not just limited to the ability of mechanistic, but also includes the ability to communicate, cooperate with others and to manage and resolve conflict.3. Learning to live together is to equip the ability to live together in diversity from others with tolerance, mutual understanding and without prejudice.4. Learning to be is the success of learning to achieve this level of success required the support of the first pillar, the second and third.Those four pillars are addressed for a student's birth who seek information and find out knowledge that is capable of solving problems, cooperation, and tolerance in diversity. If those fuor succeed in a satisfactory manner it will increase the students' confidence so that they will become aresponsible citizen and civilized human being who can recognize themselves with steady and independent personality and have the emotional stability with intellectual knowledge. They are also able to control themselves consistently, which is otherwise called as Emotional Quotient. …

Kendala Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan dalam membangun karakter peserta didik di dalam proses pembelajaran

This study has the objective to discuss in depth about the obstacles experienced by Citizenship Education teacher in building the student’s character. This type of research is qualitative. Data collection method were literature study and observation. Data were analyzed using interactive data analysis. Civic Education is a lesson that must be given to students from elementary school to college, so it is not denied that Civic Education has a significant in building a good citizen. Basically, Civic Education teacher's responsibility is huge, because the task is not only to build knowledge of civic (civic knowledge), but also to build the skills of civic (civic skills) and character (civic disposition). Up to now, the effort were not yet brought about a maximal result. The reasons were many such as cognitive-heavy, lack of teacher’s competence, had teaching the emphasis on civic knowledge, but not civic skills and dispositions.

Multilevel analysis of student civics knowledge scores

ABSTRACTCompositional effects of scholarly culture classroom/school climate on civic knowledge scores of 9th graders in the United States were examined using the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) 1999 Civic Education Study data. Following Evans et al. (2010, 2014), we conceived that the number of books at home, referred to as the home literacy score by IEA, can be an index of scholarly culture of the student's home, and its aggregated average constitutes scholarly culture of the classrooms/schools. The results obtained through multilevel analysis indicated that there were indeed large unique compositional effects and its effect size was comparable to that of mean parent education, individual level scholarly culture, and parent education. Implications of the results in terms of educational policy were discussed.

Action Civics for Promoting Civic Development: Main Effects of Program Participation and Differences by Project Characteristics.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this study examined the effect of participating in an action civics intervention, Generation Citizen (GC), on civic commitment, civic self-efficacy, and two forms of civic knowledge. The sample consisted of 617 middle and high schools students in 55 classrooms who participated, or were soon to participate, in Generation Citizen. Hierarchical linear models revealed that participating in Generation Citizen was associated with positive gains in action civics knowledge and civic self-efficacy. Qualitative coding identified three types of project characteristics that captured variability in the action projects student chose to complete: context, content, and contact with decision makers. Interactions between project characteristics and participation in GC revealed differences in civic outcomes depending on project characteristics.

Unlocking the Civic Potential of Current Events with an Open Classroom Climate

Current events and citizenship intersect in students’ classrooms in ways both problematic and full of potential. Teachers take a range of approaches, from the passive, weekly regurgitation of news stories to the empowered use of current events to explore broader issues and inform civic engagement. Creating an open classroom climate can help teachers unlock the civic potential of current events, which aids students in building civic knowledge, internal political efficacy, and civic self-efficacy. This article begins by introducing teachers to research on open classroom climates using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Survey (ICCS). We then provide examples of the components of an open classroom climate and a survey created from ICCS items for teachers to assess their own classroom’s climate. Elements of an open classroom climate are applied to current events pedagogy with a lesson plan for young children that explores civic responses to water scarcity and features All the Water in the World, a picture book by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson.

청소년의 시민적 지식과 자기효능감이 시민․사회적 참여에 미치는 영향: 시민교육에 주는 시사점

청소년의 시민적 지식과 자기효능감이 시민․사회적 참여에 미치는 영향: 시민교육에 주는 시사점

Deepening critical thinking skills through civic engagement in Malaysian higher education

Developing critical thinking skills among undergraduates has been set as an aim in the higher education for years. In recent times, it has become more crucial in implementing this aim to improve students’ commitment to civic engagement. Thus, this study examined the association between civic engagement and critical thinking skills of Malaysian undergraduates. Based on related literature, this study is quantitative in nature where a total of 400 regular university students were chosen as participants. The results have proved that civic engagement has an impact on the students' critical thinking skills and its sub-domains can explain about almost half of the variance in critical thinking ability in the Malaysian context. Although civic skills have superior impacts on critical thinking skills, civic disposition seems to have less importance on it. The results also reveal the negative association between civic knowledge and critical thinking skills. It is hoped that this study can also provide the necessary resources for university faculty and administrators who are also interested in implementing civic engagement within the higher education context to build bridges between the university and its communities.

Influence of teachers and schools on students' civic outcomes in Latin America

ABSTRACTThe authors investigated to what extent teachers' practices and school characteristics can influence students' civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and future participation in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and how this can be related to their specific curricular structures and educational content. It uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. The results show that in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, teacher practices and attitudes relate to the civic outcomes. Although teachers' practices and attitudes significantly predict students' civic knowledge, this relationship does not seem relevant for students' expected participation and students' attitudes toward diversity. Still, the democratic environment of the school is a relevant variable in the case of expected participation of students and their attitudes toward diversity, which shows a possible indirect influence of teachers through the school environment. The results are discussed in relation to the civic education curriculum in place in the countries analyzed.

Who is the engaged citizen? Correlates of secondary school students’ concepts of good citizenship

ABSTRACTThe opinions about what characterises a good citizen are diverse, yet survey research usually employs variable-centred analytical strategies to examine people’s concepts of good citizenship. The present study builds on a person-centred approach towards good citizenship and validates previously identified types of good citizenship among Australian secondary school students. Following an in-depth characterisation of these types by sociodemographic variables and civic attitudes, this study incorporates multinomial regression analysis to take a closer look at very extreme but practically important patterns. These analyses suggest that students need to believe in the value of civic action to become political enthusiasts and not politically alienated. Civic knowledge may prevent political alienation; however, it is not the ultimate solution as it is negatively correlated with political enthusiasm when controlling for multiple predictors. The results are discussed with respect to their significance for civics and citizenship teaching and learning.

Mediated and moderated effects of political communication on civic participation

ABSTRACTAustralian scholars and politicians have long been concerned about politically uninformed and inactive young Australians. However, few efforts have been made to explain how the use of traditional and online media may affect youth’s participation in politics. Our research utilises the citizen communication mediation model and extends the expected mediation chain by an additional examination of the possible interactions between news media use and political discussions, as suggested by the differential gains model. Using representative data from Australian 10th graders, we examine whether and how news media usage (newspapers, television, radio, and the Internet) affects expected participation in a range of civic and political activities conditional of discussions about political issues (with family, friends, and online). Path models account for additional mediators (civic knowledge and civic efficacy) and control variables to explain future civic and political participation. The results suggest that news media use stimulates political discussions, although different media exert differential effects. Yet, news exposure hardly influences the second mediators (civic knowledge and civic efficacy) in a direct manner. In fact, civic knowledge and efficacy mediate the relationships between political communication and participation, both directly and sequentially. Moderation analyses clarify that despite the mediating role of political discussions, news media exposure also influences (future) civic participation contingent of students’ engagement in (primarily Internet-based) discussions about political and social issues. We emphasise the significance of these results with reference to previous research, discuss potential directions for future research, and draw conclusions for civics and citizenship education.

"The Bitter Laughter". When Parody Is a Moral and Affective Priming in Political Persuasion.

Research on socially aware systems requires fine-grained knowledge of the mechanisms of persuasion in order to promote civic knowledge and aware political participation. Within humor studies, political parody is generally considered a simple pleasant weapon for political evaluation, currently explained by referring to the so called “just a joke effect” (Nabi et al., 2007). Indeed the funny side of parody can induce positive emotions, but it also includes a discrediting act that sometimes produces a “bitter laughter.” The present study aims to understand the role played by negative and moral emotions aroused by parody. A parody is defined as a communicative behavior (a discourse, text, body movement, song) that imitates a communicative behavior or trait displayed by some Target by reproducing it in a distorted way, with the aim of making fun of the Target. Based on a socio-cognitive approach, a distinction is made between “surface” and “deep” parody (Poggi and D’Errico, 2013), with the former simply imitating behaviors actually displayed by the Target, and the latter implying a (humorous) re-categorization of the Target. The paper studies the effect of these two different types of parody on persuasion processes. Results show that the deep parody, as opposed to surface parody, triggers more negative emotions, and in particular indignation, that in turn lead to more negative evaluations of the Target. Moreover, the moral priming of parody is influenced by the Target politician’s gender.

Testing Civics: State-Level Civic Education Requirements and Political Knowledge

Do state-level exams in civics have a positive impact on young people's civic knowledge? We hypothesize that civics exams have the biggest effect in states where they are a requirement for high school graduation—theincentivehypothesis. We further hypothesize that civics requirements have the biggest effect on young people with less exposure to information about the U.S. political system at home, specifically Latinos and, especially, immigrants—thecompensationhypothesis. We test these hypotheses with the 2006 and 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics test administered to high school students, and with a large national survey of 18–24 year-olds. Across the two datasets, we find modest support for the incentive hypothesis and strong support for the compensation hypothesis.

Using Constitutional Law Classes to Address the “Civic Empowerment Gap” Among Inner-City Public High School Students

Civic knowledge and participation are low among all students, but this pattern is even more pronounced for those who are poor, belong to a racial or ethnic minority group, or reside in a disadvantaged community. One remedy for this resulting “civic empowerment gap” is a call for teaching more effective civics classes in urban public schools. An open issue concerns identifying substantive topics to engage these students whose personal experiences may lead them to question the legitimacy of government officials. The present study examines a program that teaches constitutional law with an emphasis on civil liberties in urban public high schools. The findings obtained suggest that regular contact with school security and police increases students’ interest in learning about their rights and ways to empower themselves in these situations. These results may be used to identify course topics to promote civic engagement.

MEMBANGUN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT MELALUI MODEL SERVICE LEARNING UNTUK MEMPERKUAT KARAKTER WARGA NEGARA

Rapid social changes as the result of knowledge and technology progress have been shifted good values to the new ones which are scraping the good values. Citizenship education should be the education of a thinking process. It also should be the education of values, characters, and attitudes. It is due to the fact that education of values, characters, and attitudes does support the building of a nation’s characters. In achieving the goal of education of values, characters, and attitudes, habituation efforts are needed. It can be done through internalization and application of civic knowledge, civic values, and civic skills. Students not only have to learn from classes, but also apply those three competence in problem solving in their real lives. Those three competence will be achieved if every individuals have civic engagement in their community life. Service learning method is considered as a good way to internalize values and applying the competence of the students. Furthermore, this method will help students in giving meaning to their mastery in the learning process.

Pengembangan komponen kompetensi kewargaan dalam buku teks Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan SMP/MTs

This essay was aimed at describing the development of civic knowledge, civic skill and civic disposition on textbooks for junior high school namely “Belajar Memahami Kewarganegaraan 1, 2 and 3”. Based on content analysis, it can be conducted that civic education element was developed through teaching material presented accompanied by features, such as additional boxes, every chapter including pictures, law corner, info, public figures, and citizenship dictionary. In addition to presentation of civic skill related teaching material, box of “uji kompetensi” was utilize to enhance civic skill competences. Civic disposition was enhanced by inserting national values as well as up-held-values but conceptually.

Civic Literacy and Social Work Education: Results From a Multi-Site Study

ABSTRACTGiven the decline in civic literacy among Americans, social work educators can no longer assume that students come prepared with the civic knowledge necessary for competent advocacy or policy practice. This article examines rates of civic knowledge among social work students at four social work education programs across the United States (U.S.). Findings indicate that although social work students score higher than the general U.S. adult population, their civic knowledge scores are still low, with nearly a third of these students falling in the failing range. Results suggest that social work students need additional content on civic knowledge.