Measuring multi-ethnic students citizenship competence: Domains and indicators

Abstract

The current study aims at developing and validating an instrument to measure citizenship competences among multi-ethnic students. It was developed based on the Iceberg Competency Model (McBer, 1996) and citizenship competence from the works of (Ten Dam and Volman, 2007; Ten Dam et al., 2010; 2011). The Citizenship Competences Framework was developed prior to indicators/items development. The Framework contained four constructs namely acting democratically, social responsibility, conflict management and dealing with differences. Indicators within these four constructs were developed and verified by experts. They were then used in the instruments. A survey was carried out involving 60 multi-ethnic students in Malaysia. Data gathered was analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability Analysis. Results showed that only 14 indicators/items from four constructs are valid and reliable to be used. Results suggest there are three new groups (indicators/14 items) emerged for measuring citizenship competences. We synthesised these 14 items into three new constructs namely (1) respecting others’ voices, (2) ethnic tolerance and (3) problem solving oriented. These new constructs and items presented in this study are supposed to be considered in researching multi-ethnic student citizenship competence.