Education and citizenship : concepts, attitudes, skills and actions: analysis of survey resultsof 9th grade students in Lebanon

النوع : Book

This Lebanese study on citizenship drew on an international study conducted in 28 countries in 1999 under the sponsorship of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The purpose of the study is to test the knowledge and attitudes of Lebanese students in the subject of citizenship, using common international concepts of citizenship, as well as to compare Lebanese students with their peers in other countries. The study was conducted on a representative cluster sample of 3111 Ninth-graders in basic education in Lebanon. Questionnaires were also distributed to school principals and civics teachers in the middle schools where the survey was conducted. Results show that civic knowledge of ninth-graders in Lebanon is modest in comparison with their peers in the other 28 countries covered by the same survey. The score of Lebanese students in Lebanese civic content knowledge is not better than their score in international civic content knowledge. Lebanese students have high understanding of citizenship concepts. There is limited trust in government and related institutions in Lebanon, whether they are political, judicial, party or security institutions. Trust in the mass media is also low. On the other hand, there is high confidence in religious institutions and private schools. Student participation in voluntary activities as in clubs and associations is generally limited, yet they are highly interested in politics. Both the social and educational contexts influenced the responses, with variance between the two sets of variables: the social factors being stronger. Generally speaking, it may be said that social stratification factors are more correrelated to subscales and items, related to civic knowledge, and concepts as well as to social values (conservatism vs. openness, gender stereotyping), including religious and political conservatism. As for diversity factors, they are explaining the students attitudes and actions, especially in political affairs. The most notable example is the choice of the preferred political leader and of other states considered as either friendly or enemy states, an area that reflected strong polarization among students consistent with their confessional affiliations. Significant differences appeared among governorates, religious sects, especially in attitudes and actions. Educational factors that impact positively students concepts and attitudes include extracurricular activities, the existence of a parents’ council and interaction with it, the school elections, co-education and the inter-active methods of teaching,