Civic Education As A Channel To Introduce Democratic Practices And Managing Social Conflicts (original) (raw)

After decades of neglect, civic education is back on the agenda of political science in Indonesia. Despite huge increases in the formal educational attainment of the Indonesian population during the past 17 years after the reformation in 1998, levels of political knowledge have barely budged. Today's college graduates know no more about politics than did high school graduates in 1998. Recent research indicates that levels of political knowledge affect the acceptance of democratic principles, attitudes toward specific issues, and political participation. There is evidence that political participation is in part a positional good and is shaped by relative as well as absolute levels of educational attainment. Contrary to findings from 17 years ago, recent research suggests that civic education can significantly raise political knowledge. In some countries like Iraq, Sudan, and many developing democratic countries, service learning a combination of community-based civic experience and systematic classroom reflection on that experience is a promising innovation, but program evaluation shave yielded mixed results. Long standing fears that civic education will not shape democratic citizens are not supported by the evidence. This article aims in promoting to maximize the implementation of civic education to young people with various social identities in Indonesia and be the channel to develop democratization by engaging them deeper to the political process.