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The Strategy of Strengthening Civic Literacy in Learning Democracy

and Election based on Actual Issues

Erna Yuliandari

SebelasMaret University, Surakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Civic Literacy, Democracy and Elections, Actual Issues

Abstract: Democracy and Election Courses aim to shape students into good citizens who understand democracy and

elections so that students are able to behave and implement democratic values in their daily lives. The

student's civic literacy in democracy and elections learning is still lacking. The purpose of this study is to

identify the civic literacy of students and to describe the strategy of strengthening student civic literacy in

democracy and elections learning based on actual issues to improve student civic literacy. The research

method used is descriptive qualitative. Data sources used were questionnaires, interviews, observations,

document studies and focus group discussions. The results showed that the level of student civic literacy

towards the problems of democracy and elections was still low by learning based on actual issues in the

field of democracy and elections had implications for improving student civic literacy.

1 INTRODUCTION

Democracy and Election Course is one of the

subjects in the Pancasila and Citizenship Education

Study Program FKIP UNS. This course aims to

formalize students to be citizens who understand

democracy and implement democratic values in their

daily lives. The era of globalization that brings the

world to an increasingly open state has a negative

and positive influence on national character in

Indonesia. One of the negative influences for the

younger generation, among others, has begun to

forget national identity. One of the negative

influences for the younger generation is that they

have begun to forget national identity. People have

the responsibility to maintain the identity of their

nation, along with the flow of globalization and

modernization, it is necessary to strengthen

democratic values through democracy and election

courses

During this time, the level of student literacy in

democracy and election subjects is still low. The

Civic literacy becomes a demand along with the

development and advancement of technology and

the flow of globalization. Civic Literacy is an

important thing for citizens, especially, for students

because the mastery of civic literacy will form good

citizens.Good citizens are needed for the

advancement of citizens in the life of the nation and

state. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the

civic literacy.

The problems examined in this study are:

1. How the Civic Literacy of students in democratic

and electoral learning is

2. How do students' civic literacy strengthening

strategies in democratic learning and elections

use actual issues in the field of democracy and

elections do

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Civic Literacy

The Civic literacy is defined as the capacity of the

knowledge and ability of citizens to actively

participate, and the civic literacy is the basis for a

democratic society. (Dwipayana, 2013) According to

Suryadi (2010), in the civic literacy, there is a

mastery of the form of citizens' political knowledge

which will be implemented in the forms of

citizenship activities. The Civic literacy is defined as

the capacity of the knowledge and ability of citizens

to understand their political world, or more broadly

interpreted as the capacity of knowledge about how

to actively participate and initiate change in the

580

Yuliandari, E.

The Strategy of Strengthening Civic Literacy in Learning Democracy and Election based on Actual Issues.

DOI: 10.5220/0009024200002297

In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 580-583

ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1

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community and society. This willingness and ability

to participate in public discourses is in line with the

aims of democratic and electoral courses to form

citizens who understand democracy and implement

democratic values in their daily lives.

With the civic literacy in the learning of

democracy and election subjects, students are

expected to shape the critical soul and mind as

citizens in dealing with everyday life both in the

social and political world. Political learning in class

can improve political literacy or civic literacy.The

learning democracy and elections that have been

carried out so far is only in the process of gaining

new knowledge and it has not been able to

reconstruct issues so that students become active and

motivated.

2.2 The Learning of Democracy and

Election based on Actual Issues

This approach departs from the idea that the learning

of democratic and elections are fostering citizens

and have a significant role in improving civic

literacy about democracy and elections. The

approach of using actual issues in democratic

learning and elections becomes strategic, because in

this case, learning democracy and elections can be a

vehicle for fostering citizens to have a civic attitude

and awareness of democratic values.Strengthening

the civic literacy of students requires spirit support

which is the main foundation to rise up against the

various challenges facing the nation. Strengthening

the civic literacy about democracy and elections is

important so that students are able to understand the

political developments faced by their nation and

country.

Learning democracy and elections based on

actual issues is in line with the constructivism

learning model. Knowledge is not a fact of a reality

that is being studied but as a person's cognitive

construction of objects, experiences, and

environment. (Bambang Warsita,2008).

Constructivism learning emphasizes meaningful

knowledge so that students can participate fully,

capable and committed to democracy and elections,

learning follows the views of students and

emphasizes learning processes and activities in a real

context. Democracy and election courses are

directed to foster values and awareness of

democracy. Hence, with democratic and election

learning, there will be an awareness of citizens to be

good citizens who have an awareness of democracy.

3 METHODOLOGY

The method used in this research is descriptive

qualitative. Data sources used were questionnaires,

interviews, observations, document studies and

supported by focus group discussions (FGD). The

research location was at the SebelasMaret University

Surakarta (UNS) Civics and Science Education

Study Program (FKIP) in the course of Democracy

and Election.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Components in the civic literacy are knowledge of

citizenship (Civic Knowledge), citizenship skills

(Civic skills), and character or attitude of citizenship

(Civic dispositions). Based on the results of student

civic literacy research, especially. The knowledge

component that understands the material taught in

democratic and electoral courses such as the

concepts of democracy and elections is good, but in

the components of knowledge related to problems or

issues in the field of democracy and elections are

still lacking. This can be seen when students analyze

the issues that are circulating and developing in the

community both from the printed mass media and

from social media, students cannot provide an

analysis of these issues because students do not

aware of these issues. Students' ignorance of these

issues is caused by the fact that students have not

been interested in following issues in politics and

democracy. So that students do not have the

motivation and enthusiasm to read or look for actual

issues in the field of politics and democracy that are

developing in the community today. The low level

of students' civic literacy towards the emerging

problems of democracy and elections is, of course,

implicated in the low components of their

citizenship skills and the components of their

citizenship attitude.

Strengthening the Civic literacy through the

learning strategy of democratic and electoral based

on actual issues is carried out through a structured

and systematic learning process, from the process of

identifying learning problems, discussions and

analysis to the evaluation stage.

Democracy and election courses do not only

provide students' knowledge and understanding of

the concepts of democracy and elections but also

foster awareness and application of democratic

values to students. The steps in democratic learning

and elections are based on actual issues:

The Strategy of Strengthening Civic Literacy in Learning Democracy and Election based on Actual Issues

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1. In the Planning stage

Lecturers organize democratic and election

material in accordance with the syllabus or RPS

(semester learning plan)

2. In the Implementation stage

Delivering democratic and electoral material and

giving assignments. At this stage, determining

the material to be studied for each group grouped

into 5 groups. Each group discusses and

examines each material along with actual issues,

then each group conducts an analysis, and

responds to each material and the actual issues

examined from each group. At this stage, the

strategy of strengthening civic literacy in

democratic and elections learning based on

actual issues was developed through

a. assignment and exploration of each group

towards the material and also the actual

issues that have been identified at the

planning stage in the form of tracing in the

print media, mass media, online media as

well as field observations in accordance

with the themes being studied.

b. Students share information by presenting

the results of the study and observations of

each group. At this stage, students either

individually or in groups discuss the issues

presented. Students provide critical analysis

related to actual issues in the field of

democracy and elections

3. Evaluation stage

From the planning and implementation phases,

reflection and feedback are carried out as well

as assessments from the results of written

report studies and from the results of the

presentations made by students.

After learning based on actual issues in the

subjects of democracy and elections, it can be seen

that there is a positive response that leads to

adequate capabilities related to civic literacy after

strengthening through actual issues in the field of

democracy and elections. this is shown by the

development of the thinking power and critical

analysis ability of students in processing and then

analyzing systematically and structurally related to

actual issues in democracy and elections. Students

in responding to the problems of democracy and

elections try to find the source of the truth of the

news, then analyze it, and respond and behave with

what is believed to be implemented in their civic

attitude in daily life. Mastery of students in the study

of certain issues in democracy and elections builds a

critical attitude of students based on their political

knowledge or known as their civic literacy to behave

and determine concrete steps that are the

embodiment of the civic attitude of students. The

strengthening of student civic literacy is very

important because the development of information

technology is growing in the community, especially

through social media, which is increasingly

widespread and the increasing news of the truth is

doubtful, but some people even believe in issues that

are not true because of the low civic literacy of the

community. With democratic and electoral learning

based on actual issue issues, students have the

motivation to be active in understanding how

political life around them raises awareness of

democracy in students.Learning democracy and

elections based on actual issues emphasizes

meaningful knowledge so that students can

participate fully, be capable, have commitment and

have the ability to think about democracy and

elections.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The Civic Literacy of students related to issues or

issues in the field of democracy and elections is still

lacking. This is seen when students analyze the

issues that are circulating and developing in the

community, both from printed mass media and from

social media. Students cannot provide an analysis of

these issues because students are not aware of these

issues at all. Strengthening the Civic literacy through

the learning strategy of democratic and electoral

based on actual issues is carried out through a

structured and systematic learning process, from the

process of identifying learning problems,

discussions and analysis to the evaluation stage.

Strengthening Civic Literacy in the learning of

democratic and elections through actual issues in the

field of democracy and elections can improve

student mastery of the study of certain issues in

democracy and elections, so as to build a critical

attitude of students based on their political

knowledge or civic literacy. Political learning in

class can improve students' political or civic literacy

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