고등학교 학생선거활동 참여정도가 정치의식에 미치는 효과

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of the high school students' participation degree in election activities on political awareness. Political awareness can be promoted by the firsthand experience, not simply by the recognition on the importance of political participation. The political awareness eventually acts as a major element to boost the individual participation in politics, which implies those―political awareness and political participation―are strongly connected with each other. Hence, the enhancement of political awareness can be an essential educative objective. In that way, for most high school students who have little chance of experiencing direct political participation, students' election activities in school can provide a worthy opportunity of political participation. To identify the impact of the participation degree in school election activities on political awareness, students are divided into two groups: direct and indirect participants. The former includes both election helpers and election administrator; the latter indicates the voters. For the testing of the hypothesis that students directly involved in the school election activities are likely to have higher level of political awareness than those who engage in the activities indirectly, a questionnaire survey of 420 high school students of 6 schools in Busan is conducted. The analyzed result shows the first hypothesis (the direct participation in school election activities by running for it will be more effective in enhancing political awareness than the indirect participation of voting) is proved to be reasonable by the positive correlation between the direct participation and political efficacy, political participation degree, political knowledge. The second hypothesis (the direct participation as an election helper will result in higher enhancement in political awareness than the indirect participation of voting) is verified by the positive correlation between the direct participation as an election helper and political efficacy. Lastly, the third hypothesis (the direct participation as an election administrator will result in higher enhancement in political awareness than the indirect participation of voting) is also confirmed by the positive correlation between the direct participation as an election administrator and political awareness. The result of this study suggests that we should change the prevailing lecturing politics class into a new type of class including direct participation. Furthermore, to make it possible, various programs in which students can extend their political participation need to be developed.