Taiwanese students’ civic learning experience and anticipated future civic engagement

Abstract

Taiwanese eighth-graders combine world-leading civic knowledge with selective participation intentions. This study examined how school-based and out-of-school civic learning relate to anticipated civic participation using ICCS 2022 data for Taiwan (N = 5,227 students from 159 schools; grade 8; weighted analyses). Outcomes were ICCS indices of expected electoral participation and expected active political participation; predictors included school-based civic learning (civic learning at school, open classroom climate, school civic activities), out-of-school learning (political discussion outside school, digital media engagement, community participation), and background controls. Hierarchical regressions (listwise deletion) supported a dual-pathway pattern. For electoral participation, R² rose from .069 (demographics) to .175 with school-based learning and .190 with out-of-school experiences; strongest predictors were parental civic interest (β ≈ .18–.22 in the full model), civic learning at school (β ≈ .20), classroom openness (β ≈ .10), and discussion outside school (β ≈ .13). For active political participation, R² increased from .037 to .056 to .096; digital media engagement was the dominant predictor (β ≈ .19), with smaller effects for community participation (β ≈ .06); higher SES related negatively and girls reported lower intentions. Findings indicate culturally contingent dual pathways: institutions cultivate dutiful electoral intentions, whereas networked contexts scaffold actualizing activist intentions, yielding selective “civic hybridity.” Practically, pair knowledge-heavy curricula with participatory, student-led and digital-civic pedagogies, engage parents, and create culturally responsive, safe digital/offline spaces for critical collective action. Limitations include cross-sectional, self-report data and restricted variance estimation (replicate weights not implemented in SPSS).