Civic Participation at School and School-Based Community Participation

• In Event: Civic Participation at School in International Comparison

Abstract

The establishment and experience of relationships and behaviors based on openness and mutual respect, active contributions to school decision-making and participation in formal or informal governance processes provide student with an opportunity to practice a democratic lifestyle (Reilly, Niens, & McLaughlin, 2005; Homana, Barber, & Torney-Purta, 2006). This paper will provide a general overview of how schools enhance and support student civic participation, both within the school and in the local communities where schools are located.
The paper will illustrate if and to what extent schools encourage participation of teachers, parents and students and to what extent they can be considered as “democratic learning environment” open to student participation both at a school and at a classroom level. Furthermore, it will review the role of school and teachers in students’ participation in civic related activities in the local community, providing an overview of differences existing across the 38 countries participating in ICCS.

Data:
Data from the teachers and the school questionnaires will be used. The following variables related to participation at school and to school-based civic related activities in the community will be included in the analyses.
From the ICCS Teacher Questionnaire:
•Teachers’ participation in school governance
•Teachers’ perceptions of student influence on decision about school
•Teachers’ perceptions of student activities in the community
•Teachers’ personal participation in activities outside school
•Teachers’ reports on student participation in class activities
•Teachers’ reports on CCE activities in class
From the ICCS School Questionnaire:
•Principals' perceptions of teacher participation in school governance
•Principals' perceptions of student opportunities to participate in the community
•Principals' perceptions of parents' participation in the school life
•Principals' perceptions of student influence on decisions about school

Analysis:
As a first step, data from the variables related to participation at school and in the local community will be described and discussed across ICCS countries. Data from the ICCS National Context Surveys will be used in order to contextualize these results.
Data from those variables will be further analyzed with regard to schools’ and teachers’ characteristics. Multivariate analyses will be carried out in order to explore the association between those variables and students’ civic engagement at a school and at a community level (as measured in ICCS).

Preliminary Results:
Analyses carried out for the ICCS international report show that there are differences among participating countries related to students’ participation at a school level. Despite these differences, similarities among participating countries can be identified when looking at the civic related activities schools’ actually organize for students in the local communities. These similarities seem to be related both to the ICCS target grade (grade 8) and to student age (13-14 years). ICCS results also show a low impact of those variables on student civic knowledge.
The paper will explore these results in depth, trying to investigate the relationships between the openness of schools to participation and student civic engagement at school and in the wider community.

Authors

• Bruno Losito, Roma Tre University

• Elisa Caponera, Roma Tre University

• Paola Mirti, Roma Tre University