Teachers’ Goals of Civic Education, Classroom Practices and Student Engagement

Abstract

It is undisputed that civics education is required to cultivate citizens who are capable of promoting and sustaining democracy. Therefore, the content-related beliefs of teachers and how they teach citizenship and politics in their classrooms matter significantly to the quality of students’ political learning and their understanding of citizenship. Consequently, studying teachers’ beliefs about the goals of civic education and their teaching strategies is essential to understand how these relate to students’ perceptions and understandings of citizenship and democracy. The present research examines the approaches of teachers in Hong Kong, sampled via a two-stage stratified random sampling design. Employing a teacher-centered statistical approach (latent class analysis) that accounts for the clustering of teachers and students within schools, teacher profiles reflecting distinct patterns of beliefs about the goals of civic education (e.g., acquiring political knowledge, developing independent thinking skills, promoting tolerance, motivating political participation) are identified. These distinct “teacher profiles” that result from this analysis are further examined to understand the correlates of teachers’ goals and how these “teacher profiles” relate to teaching practices and students’ levels of civic engagement. The results of this study offer suggestions for teacher training and classroom organization and are discussed with respect to its implications for citizenship education, and in relation to what the findings mean for citizenship education in schools that aims at engaged and resilient citizenship.