Enhancing Active Citizenship and Political Literacy among Young Voters in High School

Abstract

This research is aimed to create a model of active citizenship in order to overcome the deficit of political literacy among first time voters in high school. Employing action research as method of study, this ongoing project is involving students whose range of ages are between 16-18 years old. Through a combination of creative activities in a workshop designed to serve this purpose, political literacy of high school students as first time voters who participated in this project were shaped and enhanced. At the end of the workshop, it is sufficient to conclude that active citizenship approach applies for the model has worked well in bringing students’ attention toward political issues, especially the local one, and motivate them to cast their vote in the upcoming local election. Direct experience in handling political issues and family engagement are proved to be the keys in optimizing the model to activate critical thinking, maintain their political awareness, and, in turn, to prompt their political