Lower-secondary Students’ Civic Engagement at School: Results from ICCS 2016

Based on survey data from the latest implementation of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016), this paper explores the extent of students’ civic engagement at school, their beliefs about their own ability to engage and their perceptions of the value of student participation, as well as their willingness to engage in future civic activities at school. Where possible, it compares results with those from the previous ICCS survey in 2009, and it also analyses which factors related to home background, school context and students’ beliefs about engagement explain variation in their willingness to participate at school in the future. The results show that substantial numbers of students across countries participate in civic activities at school and hold positive views regarding the value of engagement. While in particular students’ sense of self-efficacy, experience with past or current participation at school, and valuing of student engagement were consistently positive predictors of students’ willingness to become engaged at school in the future, there was no consistent association with civic knowledge.