Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Students’ perceptions of good citizenship: a person-centred approach

  • Published:
Social Psychology of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It is commonly understood that democracies need actively engaged democrats and that adolescence is a significant period in life for educating engaged citizens. Whereas previous quantitative studies in the field have primarily focused on the relationships among participation-related variables, the research reported here aims to categorize secondary school students according to their civic orientations. Thus, the present study proposes a different strategy of analysing quantitative data, namely a person-centred statistical approach, which is well suited when the research focuses on heterogeneous populations. It utilizes attitudes towards the importance of citizenship behaviours and employed latent class analysis using two cohorts of the Australian National Assessment Program: Civics and Citizenship. Analyses yielded four groups for both the importance of conventional citizenship and the importance of social movement-related citizenship. About one-third of all students were ‘political enthusiasts’, as they were likely to endorse all kinds of citizenship behaviour. These patterns were stable across cohorts, but some latent class sizes varied between both cohorts. The findings of this innovative approach to the study of good citizenship are linked to previous research, and possible explanations for the differences between both cohorts—cohort, lifecycle, and period effects—and the potential of person-centred quantitative research for civics and citizenship education and policy are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The study by Chow and Kennedy (2014) also included students’ views of good citizenship behaviors (indices), but they did not report details of respective results.

  2. The variances of the importance of the conventional citizenship index and of the importance of the social movement-related citizenship index are considerably smaller within the respective classes compared to the overall samples, which also indicates reliable clustering.

References

  • Almond, G. A., & Verba, S. (1963). The civic culture. political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Amadeo, J.-A., Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Husfeldt, V., & Nikolova, R. (2002). Civic knowledge and engagement. An IEA study of upper secondary students in sixteen countries. Amsterdam: IEA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2011). National assessment program. Civics and citizenship years 6 and 10 report 2010. Sydney: ACARA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2014). National assessment program. Civics and citizenship years 6 and 10 report 2013. Sydney: ACARA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolzendahl, C., & Coffé, H. (2013). Are ‘good’ citizens ‘good’ participants? Testing citizenship norms and political participation across 25 nations. Political Studies, 61(S1), 45–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, D. E. (2008). Voice in the classroom: How an open classroom climate fosters political engagement among adolescents. Political Behavior, 30(4), 437–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow, K. F., & Kennedy, K. J. (2014). Secondary analysis of large-scale assessment data: An alternative to variable-centred analysis. Educational Research and Evaluation, 20(6), 469–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Civics Expert Group. (1994). Whereas the people… civics and citizenship education. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, L. M., & Lanza, S. T. (2010). Latent Class and latent transition analysis. With applications in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conover, P. J., Crewe, I. M., & Searing, D. D. (1991). The nature of citizenship in the United States and Great Britain: Empirical comments on theoretical themes. The Journal of Politics, 53(3), 800–832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conover, P. J., & Searing, D. D. (2000). A political socialization perspective. In L. McDonnell, P. M. Timpane, & R. W. Benjamin (Eds.), Rediscovering the democratic purposes of education. Studies in government and public policy (pp. 91–124). Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, R. J. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies, 56(1), 76–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, I. (2013). The civics and citizenship draft shape paper from an english perspective. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 76–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denters, B., Gabriel, O. W., & Torcal, M. (2007). Norms of good citizenship. In J. W. van Deth, J. R. Montero, & A. Westholm (Eds.), Citizenship and involvement in European democracies. A comparative perspective (pp. 88–108). London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education and Science (DES), & National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). (2005). Civic social and political education. Junior Certificate Guidelines for Teachers. Government of Ireland: Dublin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eid, M., Langeheine, R., & Diener, E. (2003). Comparing typological structures across cultures by multigroup latent class analysis: A primer. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 34(2), 195–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erebus Consulting Partners. (2003). Evaluation of the discovering democracy programme 2000–2003. A report to the Australian government department of education, science and training. Canberra: DEST.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flanagan, C. (2009). Young people’s civic engagement and political development. In A. Furlong (Ed.), Handbook of youth and young adulthood. New perspectives and agendas (pp. 293–300). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geboers, E., Geijsel, F., Admiraal, W., & ten Dam, G. (2013). Review of the effects of citizenship education. Educational Research Review, 9, 158–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geboers, E., Geijsel, F., Admiraal, W., & ten Dam, G. (2015). Citizenship orientations and knowledge in primary and secondary education. Social Psychology of Education, 18(4), 749–767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geiser, C. (2011). Datenanalyse mit Mplus. Eine anwendungsorientierte Einführung (2nd ed.). Wiesbaden: VS.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Geiser, C., Lehmann, W., & Eid, M. (2006). Separating ‘rotators’ from ‘nonrotators’ in the mental rotations test: A multigroup latent class analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41(3), 261–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, A., Wyn, J., & Younes, S. (2008). Rethinking youth citizenship. Identity and connection. Melbourne: Australian Youth Research Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooghe, M., Oser, J., & Marien, S. (2016). A comparative analysis of ‘good citizenship’: A latent class analysis of adolescents’ citizenship norms in 38 countries. International Political Science Review, 37(1), 115–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horn, J. L. (2000). Comments on integrating person-centered and variable-centered research on problems associated with the use of alcohol. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24(6), 924–930.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, C., & Patten, S. (2006). Valuing civics: Political commitment and the new citizenship education in Australia. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(2), 454–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, M. K. (1990). The crystallization of orientations. In K. M. Jennings, J. W. van Deth, S. H. Barnes, D. Fuchs, F. J. Heunks, & R. Inglehart (Eds.), Continuities in political action. A longitudinal study of political orientations in three western democracies (pp. 313–348). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, M. K. (2015). The dynamics of good citizenship norms. In T. Poguntke, S. Roßteutscher, R. Schmitt-Beck, & S. Zmerli (Eds.), Citizenship and democracy in an era of crisis. Essays in honour of Jan W. van Deth (pp. 93–111). Abingdon, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, M. K., & Niemi, R. G. (1974). The political character of adolescence: The influence of families and schools. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, M. K., & Niemi, R. G. (1981). Generations and politics. A panel study of young adults and their parents. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. A. S. (2008). An introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 302–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahne, J., Crow, D., & Lee, N.-J. (2013). Different pedagogy, different politics: High school learning opportunities and youth political engagement. Political Psychology, 34(3), 419–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, K. J. (2010). Young citizens in Hong Kong: Obedient, active and patriotic? Social Psychology of Education, 13(1), 111–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, K. J., Hahn, C. L., & Lee, W. O. (2008). Constructing citizenship: Comparing the views of students in Australia, Hong Kong, and the United States. Comparative Education Review, 52(1), 53–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennelly, J., & Dillabough, J.-A. (2008). Young people mobilizing the language of citizenship. Struggles for classification and new meaning in an uncertain world. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(5), 493–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenway, J. (2008). The ghosts of the school curriculum: Past, present and future. Radford lecture, fremantle Australia 2007. The Australian Educational Researcher, 35(2), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiwan, D. (2008). Citizenship education in England at the cross-roads? Four models of citizenship and their implications for ethnic and religious diversity. Oxford Review of Education, 34(1), 39–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuang, X., & Kennedy, K. J. (2014). Asian students’ perceptions of ‘good’ citizenship: The role of democratic values and attitudes to traditional culture. Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Development, 3(1), 33–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lane, R. E. (1965). The tense citizen and the casual patriot: Role confusion in American politics. The Journal of Politics, 27(4), 735.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laursen, B. P., & Hoff, E. (2006). Person-centered and variable-centered approaches to longitudinal data. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(3), 377–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, W. O. (2013). The shaping and reshaping of citizenship education in Australia. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 79–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lister, R., Smith, N., Middleton, S., & Cox, L. (2003). Young people talk about citizenship: Empirical perspectives on theoretical and political debates. Citizenship Studies, 7(2), 235–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manning, B., & Ryan, R. (2004). Youth and citizenship. A report for NYARS. Canberra: NYARS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L. A., & Chiodo, J. J. (2007). Good citizenship: What students in rural schools have to say about it. Theory and Research in Social Education, 35(1), 112–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masyn, K. E. (2013). Latent class analysis and finite mixture modeling. In T. D. Little (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of quantitative methods. Volume 2: Statistical analysis (pp. 551–611). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, T. H. (1992). Citizenship, diversity and education: A philosophical perspective. Journal of Moral Education, 21(3), 235–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, S. (1998). ‘What’s the point?’ Political attitudes of victorian Year 11 students. Melbourne: ACER Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, S., Kennedy, K., & Greenwood, L. (2002). Citizenship and democracy. Australian students’ knowledge and beliefs. The IEA civic education study of fourteen year olds. Camberwell: ACER.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). (2008). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. Melbourne: MCEETYA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nylund, K. L., Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. O. (2007). Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: A Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(4), 535–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osborne, D., Sears, D. O., & Valentino, N. A. (2011). The end of the solidly democratic South: The impressionable-years hypothesis. Political Psychology, 32(1), 81–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oser, J., & Hooghe, M. (2013). The evolution of citizenship norms among Scandinavian adolescents, 1999–2009. Scandinavian Political Studies, 36(4), 320–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Özbek, G. (2014). A proposal for the reorganization of citizenship education via the implementation of the dramatic method. Andragoška spoznanja, 20(1), 87–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, H. C. J., & Moroz, W. (1996). Civics and citizenship. Research findings on students’ perceptions. Youth Studies Australia, 15(1), 13–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Print, M. (2007). Citizenship education and youth participation in democracy. British Journal of Educational Studies, 55(3), 325–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Print, M., Kennedy, K., & Hughes, J. (1999). Reconstructing civic and citizenship education in Australia. In J. Torney-Purta, J. Schwille, & J.-A. Amadeo (Eds.), Civic education across countries: Twenty-four national case studies from the IEA civic education project (pp. 37–59). Amsterdam: IEA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior, W. (1999). What it means to be a “good citizen” in Australia: Perceptions of teachers, students, and parents. Theory and Research in Social Education, 27(2), 215–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roelofs, M. H. (1957). The tension of citizenship. Private man and public duty. New York: Rinehart and Company Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saha, L. J., & Print, M. (2010). Student school elections and political engagement: A cradle of democracy? International Journal of Educational Research, 49(1), 22–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, W., Ainley, J., Fraillon, J., Kerr, D., & Losito, B. (2010). ICCS 2009 international report: Civic knowledge, attitudes, and engagement among lower-secondary school students in 38 countries. Amsterdam: IEA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sears, D. O., & Funk, C. L. (1999). Evidence of the long-term persistence of adults’ political predispositions. The Journal of Politics, 61(1), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sears, D. O., & Valentino, N. A. (1997). Politics matters: Political events as catalysts for preadult socialization. American Political Science Review, 91(1), 45–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherrod, L. R. (2003). Promoting the development of citizenship in diverse youth. Political Science and Politics, 36(2), 287–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theiss-Morse, E. (1993). Conceptualizations of good citizenship and political participation. Political Behavior, 15(4), 355–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torney-Purta, J. (2009). International psychological research that matters for policy and practice. American Psychologist, 64(4), 825–837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torney-Purta, J., & Amadeo, J.-A. (2013). The contributions of international large-scale studies in civic education and engagement. In M. von Davier, E. Gonzalez, I. Kirsch, & K. Yamamoto (Eds.), The role of international large-scale assessments: Perspectives from technology, economy, and educational research (pp. 87–114). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Torney-Purta, J., Amadeo, J.-A., & Andolina, M. W. (2010). A conceptual framework and multimethod approach for research on political socialization and civic engagement. In L. R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C. A. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth (pp. 497–523). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Torney-Purta, J., & Barber, C. (2011). Fostering young people’s support for participatory human rights through their developmental niches. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(4), 473–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., & Schulz, W. (Eds.). (2001). Citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries. Civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. Amsterdam: IEA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tupper, J. A., & Cappello, M. P. (2012). (Re)creating citizenship: Saskatchewan high school students’ understandings of the ‘good’ citizen. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(1), 37–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veugelers, W. (2007). Creating critical-democratic citizenship education: Empowering humanity and democracy in Dutch education. Compare, 37(1), 105–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vromen, A. (1995). Paul Keating is the prime minister, but who delivers the mail? A study of political knowledge amongst young people. Australian Journal of Political Science, 30(1), 74–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vromen, A. (2003). People try to put us down …’: Participatory citizenship of ‘Generation X. Australian Journal of Political Science, 38(1), 79–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vromen, A., & Collin, P. (2010). Everyday youth participation? Contrasting views from Australian policymakers and young people. Young, 18(1), 97–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. E. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yates, M., & Youniss, J. (1998). Community service and political identity development in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 54(3), 495–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zumbo, B. D. (1999). A handbook on the theory and methods of differential item functioning (DIF). Logistic regression modeling as a unitary framework for binary and likert-type (Ordinal) item scores. Ottawa: Directorate of Human Resources Research and Evaluation, Department of National Defense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zyngier, D. (2012). Rethinking the thinking on democracy in education: What are educators thinking (and doing) about democracy? Education Sciences, 2(4), 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. It was carried out during a visiting fellowship (2014/2015) and while the author was a postdoctoral research associate (2016), respectively, at The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Part of this research was conducted while the author was affiliated with the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany. The author expresses his gratitude to Prof Murray Print, Prof M. Kent Jennings and Prof Kerry J. Kennedy, as well as to Marlene Mauk, Sugianto Tandra and an anonymous reviewer for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. The author also wishes to thank Prof Judith Torney-Purta for a one-to-one discussion of person-centred quantitative analysis; Dr Carolyn Barber for valuable feedback and references; and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority for the provision of the NAP-CC data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, The University of Sydney, 401c, 4/F, Runme Shaw Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Frank Reichert

  2. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Education Building A35, Sydney Camperdown, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Frank Reichert

Authors
  1. Frank Reichert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank Reichert.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5 Fit indices for separate LCA models
Full size table
Table 6 Fit indices for LCA models using the combined sample of both cohorts
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reichert, F. Students’ perceptions of good citizenship: a person-centred approach. Soc Psychol Educ 19, 661–693 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9342-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9342-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation