Abstract

TIRADO SEGURA, Felipe  and  GUEVARA NIEBLA, Gilberto. Knowledge of civics in Mexico: An International Comparative Study. RMIE [online]. 2006, vol.11, n.30, pp.995-1018. ISSN 1405-6666.

This article serves as a reflection on teaching civics, based on an international comparative study known as the Civic Education Study. The study was carried out with 987 Mexican school children, fourteen years of age and in the third year of secondary school. Although some results are critical, they are not exceedingly low in comparison with the international mean. Of concern in the analysis of responses is that the Mexican children show little skill in discerning between facts and opinions; they identify the political parties but do not clearly understand the operation of public power. The analysis of fourteen sociodemographic factors is presented to evaluate their relation to scholastic achievement on the test. Multiple regression analysis is carried out with a latent variable constructed to represent the family’s cultural capital, which best explains the variance. The article closes with a discussion of civic education.

Keywords : civic education; international comparative analysis; secondary education; meta-evaluation; values; Mexico.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English | Spanish     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf )