Leading for civic learning: An agenda for schools

To understand the widespread protest mobilization of Hong Kong youth form a historical perspective, this study takes a retrospective look to examine how Hong Kong young adolescents’ civic beliefs and aspirations for civic engagement changed over the ten years from 1999 to 2009. The sampled students were in Form Two aged around 14 when the surveys were conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in 1999 and 2009.
Findings suggest that students’ aspirations for civic participation appeared to increase over the ten years. In 1999, students’ intention to participate in elections was moderately related to their level of confidence in civic participation in school that also influenced their potential to join legal protests. Yet the 2009 cohort were confident in civic participation at school but were more interested in democratic values, trusted civic institutions less, and were less likely to favour the nation and less likely to join legal protests.
Based on these results, it would seem appropriate for school leaders to start by building students’ confidence in joining civic activities at school.
Yet some thought also needs to be given as to how trust can be developed in civic institutions while also building democratic values. Copyright © 2017 13th citized International Conference.