Towards engaged citizens: Understanding Singaporean students’ civic knowledge, participation, attitudes, and participation

Abstract

We adopted the theoretical model of the IEA Civic Education Study (CivEd) described as the Octagon, which reflects an interactive perspective of civic development. The model shows the ways in which the everyday lives of young people in homes, with peers and at school serve as nested context for constructive thinking, learning, and action in the social and political environment. At the centre of the octagon is the student, surrounded by public discourses of goals, values and practice relevant to civic education. The discourses influence the individual through various socialization agents, including the family, peer group, and school. Circumscribing these processes are the ‘macro-systems’, composed of institutions, processes and values in politics, economics and religion, the country’s international position, social stratification, and narratives in national and local communities. In all, 28 nations participated in the IEA CivEd.