Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Political Activism and Civic Education among Australian Secondary School Students

Political Activism and Civic Education among Australian Secondary School Students This paper investigates the impact of school variables on student political knowledge and political activity. The study is based on survey questionnaire data from 1311 secondary school students in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. The analysis focuses on the importance of civic knowledge, democratic values and dispositions towards normative and non-normative political activity. The findings show that many Australian students have had experience with normative forms of political activity, such as signing petitions or writing letters. Fewer indicate that they have engaged in forms of non-normative political behaviour, such as occupying buildings or participating in violent demonstrations. Students oriented to normative political activism tended to be female and more supportive of human rights and freedoms, whereas those oriented to non-normative political activism were generally male, alienated from school, and not supportive of rights and freedoms. Exposure to civics instruction was positively related to political knowledge and normative forms of political activity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian Journal of Education SAGE

Political Activism and Civic Education among Australian Secondary School Students

Saha, Lawrence J.
Australian Journal of Education , Volume 44 (2): 20 – Aug 1, 2000
Download PDF
20 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/political-activism-and-civic-education-among-australian-secondary-cHRbGz5Vpn

References (6)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2000 Australian Council for Educational Research
ISSN
0004-9441
eISSN
2050-5884
DOI
10.1177/000494410004400205
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of school variables on student political knowledge and political activity. The study is based on survey questionnaire data from 1311 secondary school students in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. The analysis focuses on the importance of civic knowledge, democratic values and dispositions towards normative and non-normative political activity. The findings show that many Australian students have had experience with normative forms of political activity, such as signing petitions or writing letters. Fewer indicate that they have engaged in forms of non-normative political behaviour, such as occupying buildings or participating in violent demonstrations. Students oriented to normative political activism tended to be female and more supportive of human rights and freedoms, whereas those oriented to non-normative political activism were generally male, alienated from school, and not supportive of rights and freedoms. Exposure to civics instruction was positively related to political knowledge and normative forms of political activity.

Journal

Australian Journal of Education – SAGE

Published: Aug 1, 2000

There are no references for this article.