Research Methods
Research plan
This research will include three phases: 1. Developing baseline measures of students・ attitudes to citizenship drawing on their responses to the IEA Civic Education Study (Torney-Purta et al., 2001, Amadeo, 2002). 2. Developing and administering a new survey to a sample of Hong Kong students. This will include the original IEA survey questions, with appropriate modifications, plus additional questions drawing on the National Attitudes Questionnaire (Fairbrother, 2005). 3. Based on the results of this survey, developing measures that reflect students・ current attitudes to citizenship and national identity. For the purpose of this project, these new measures will be used can as points of comparison with the baselines developed in Phase 1. This will provide two measurement points approximately a decade apart. Future surveys can use these results as benchmarks against which student attitudes can be compared.
In the first phase of the study the purpose is to utilize what the IEA has called the CivEd databases for the purpose of identifying and analyzing the Hong Kong data concerned with the citizenship attitudes of 15 and 19 year olds. In addition, the enhanced CivEd database developed by the CEDARS project (Husfeldt, Barber and Torney-Purta, 2005) will also be used. These enhancements provide a more comprehensive overview of student attitudes to citizenship than was possible in the original analysis (Husfeldt, Barber and Torney-Purta, 2005, p.3). To date very little work has been done on these enhancements specifically in relation to Hong Kong. For the purposes of developing baseline measures for student attitudes to citizenship, both community level and school level attitudes will be identified. These will include: concepts of democracy, social rights and obligations of citizenship, expected participation in political activities, political efficacy, , government responsibilities, attitudes towards immigrants, women・s political rights, ethnic minorities and anti-democratic groups, protective feelings towards the nation, trust in government related institutions, trust in the media, open classroom climate, confidence in participating at school and civic learning in school. The outcome for this stage will be a comprehensive report on Hong Kong students・ pre-handover attitudes to citizenship.
In the second phase of the study a new instrument will be developed combining items from the IEA Civic Education survey (Schultz and Sibberns, 2004) with items form Fairbrother・s (2003) National Attitudes Questionnaire (NAQ). The IEA items chosen will be the ones that made up the scales analyzed in Phase1 and that were commonly administered to both the younger and older populations. The original Chinese translations will be used with some adjustment to specific items that referred to Hong Kong rather than China (for example, the Attitudes to the Nation scale referred to Hong Kong rather than China). The Hong Kong question will be retained but new questions will be added that also seek students attitudes to China. This is an important addition since it is clear that Hong Kong people often display bifurcated allegiances to their own city and the nation (Lee, ?). It will be important to tap this dimension of students・ attitudes in this study. The NAQ items will be those related particularly to national attitudes and civic learning. The new instrument (tentatively named Attitudes to Citizenship and National Identity Survey (ACNIS) will be trialed, items will be scaled using Rasch analysis and the psychometric properties of the new instrument will be explored. The instrument will be administered to representative samples of 15 and 18 year old students.
In the third phase of the study the data collected in Phase 2 will be analyzed using a range of analytic techniques. These will include descriptive statistics for all items, reliability analysis for potential scales including inter-item and item total correlations and traditional reliability measures. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis will be used to confirm theoretically expected scales. Item Response theory scaling methods will be used to establish a common ordinal scale for all items so that results can be reported in Rasch scale scores comparable with the 1999/2000 IEA results. Structural equation modeling will then be used with both the 1999/2000 data and the data generated from this study. For each data set, the relationship between student background variables, school variables and student performance on key measures will be established and then compared. These analyses will provide a dynamic model that will explain Hong Kong students・ attitudes to citizenship and national identity and the changes, if any, that have taken place over the ten year. It also extends the multiple regression model sued in the original IEA study.
Methodology
Survey methodology informs all phases of the study. In Phase 1 the focus is on secondary data analysis of an already administered group questionnaire. In Phase 2 the focus is on the development of a new survey instrument, Attitudes to Citizenship and National Identity Survey (ACNIS) and trialing and administering it to two representative samples of students, 15 year old and 19 year old students. In Phase 3, the results from ACNIS will be analyzed so that they will be comparable to the results of the 1999/2000 surveys, but in addition it will include new items on China and the national identity component
The design of the study will enable generalizations to be made from the sample surveyed to the population of Hong Kong 15 and 19 year olds. This requires strict sampling procedures to ensure that all schools and students in Hong Kong have an equal chance of being selected for the survey. Details on these procedures are provided below.
Methods and Techniques
Sample
A two stage stratified cluster sample design will be used in line with other large scale assessments (Shultz and Sibberns, 2004, p.44). This will involve schools being selected within a stratified sampling frame as the first stage and single intact classes being selected in the second stage. Two explicit strata will be used in the sampling frame: district and financial mode. The number of schools selected within each stratum will be proportional to the total number of schools. A minimum of 150 schools will need to be included in the sample (as was the case in the original IEA study) in order ：to obtain sufficient data for reliable analysis at school and class levels； (Schultz and Sibberns, p. 45). The target populations within schools will be in line with the original IEA population targets: the young population will be made up of students who are from 14.00-14.11 (Form 3) and the older population will be 17.00 -17.11 (Form 6). International exclusion rules for students will be followed and replacement of sample schools will be allowed to ensure that the minimum number of schools is achieved. This sampling design should ensure accurate estimates of population parameters.
Instrumentation
The Attitudes to Citizenship and National Identity Survey (ACNIS) to be developed for Phase 2 of the study will combine parts of two already developed instruments: the IEA survey (Schultz and Sibberns, pp 242-281) and the National Attitudes Questionnaire (Fairbrother, 2003). Both surveys have already been translated into Chinese. ACNIS will be piloted with a small sample of schools and based on feedback using Item Response Theory item analysis to test the function of items to discriminate amongst individuals the final version will be prepared.
Data collection
ACNIS will be distributed to schools at a chosen point in time so that it is completed by all students within a common time-frame. It is estimated that completion time will be one full class period. Once schools have completed the surveys, they will be picked up by project staff.