This study was motivated by the growing need for political education amid social changes in which adolescents’ political participation has been institutionally expanded. Considering practical constraints in school settings, including the requirement...
This study was motivated by the growing need for political education amid social changes in which adolescents’ political participation has been institutionally expanded. Considering practical constraints in school settings, including the requirement of political neutrality, the researcher designed and implemented mock political party and mock election lessons as a feasible form of civic education in regular classrooms. Using an action research approach, the study collected and analyzed student worksheets, teacher consultation meeting minutes, and the researcher’s observation records produced throughout a six-lesson sequence, and continuously refined the lessons based on the findings. The lessons were structured so that students could organize political parties, develop policies and select candidates, conduct election campaigns, and experience voting and vote counting.
The mock political party and election lessons aimed to move beyond textbook knowledge transmission and to extend students’ learning from merely “understanding” political processes to “experiencing” them directly. By organizing the entire process as a continuous participatory experience, students came to perceive the political unit not as content to be memorized but as a process of participation and judgment, as evidenced by student reflections and classroom observations. However, increased participation did not necessarily lead to deeper political thinking. In some lessons, entertainment- and form-oriented elements were emphasized, or deliberation on students’ proposed policies was omitted, limiting opportunities to examine the validity and feasibility of the policies. In addition, when campaign pledges generated in the lessons were connected to actual changes in school life, students were not sufficiently positioned as decision-making agents, which constrained the development of civic efficacy. Accordingly, this study suggests that future instruction should expand mock political participation into authentic practice of school democracy by organizing party formation around public issues, structuring stages for policy comparison and evaluation, and linking the lessons with an election management committee and the student council.