Leading for civic learning in Asian contexts: How schools and classrooms in Asia support adolescent political socialization

Civic learning is and expectation of all education systems and those in Asia are no exception. As Wilkenfeld and Torney-Purta (2012, p.77) highlighted: Civic experiences in schools contribute to the preparation of youth for active citizenship and equal to these experiences has the potential to reduce civic engagement gaps between students of different demographic groups. Yet little attention has been paid to how schools might go about this task – especially schools in Asia that are more inclined to support the traditional academic development of students rather then their political development. At the same it is recognized that students are subject to multiple influences when it comes to civic learning – parents, peers and media all have a role to play. While there has been considerable research conducted in relation to these individual level effects on students’ political socialization, there has been very little attention paid to the role that teachers, schools and school leadership can play. This is the focus of the study to be reported here. Using structural equation modelling, teacher characteristics hypothesized to influences student engagement in class are tested using data from the International Civics and Citizenship Study. A multi-level model clearly distinguishes the effects of schools and the effects of individual teachers. The most significant result shows that school leaders can promote civic learning by engaging teachers in school governance and leadership.