Civic Literacy, Democratic Attitudes, and Civic Participation among Preservice Elementary Teachers

Abstract

Civic education in teacher preparation should integrate civic knowledge, democratic dispositions, and the capacity for constructive participation in public life. This article presents an illustrative analysis of the associations of civic literacy and democratic attitudes with civic participation, using the Primary School Teacher Education (PGSD) program at Campus V UNM Parepare for April–May 2026 as the specified context. The analysis used 65 constructed records representing semesters 2, 4, and 6 within a specified range of semesters 1–6. Each construct was represented by an eight-item Likert scale. Analyses included descriptive statistics, item–total correlations, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression with HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors. In the constructed dataset, civic literacy was positively correlated with civic participation (r = .499, p < .001), as were democratic attitudes (r = .380, p = .002). In the joint regression model, civic literacy retained a statistically significant positive association with participation (B = .499, p = .002), whereas the association for democratic attitudes did not reach statistical significance (B = .257, p = .081). The model accounted for 30.0% of the variance in participation. These results are illustrative and do not constitute verified field findings. The article provides an analytical framework for examining civic literacy, democratic attitudes, and civic participation together and for considering their integration into elementary teacher education.