Civic Education Outcomes After Emergency Lockdowns: International Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

In early 2020, nations around the globe responded to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic by implementing emergency containment measures to slow the spread of the virus. Educational systems were widely impacted as they made the difficult decision to close schools affecting over 1.5 billion students globally. This study aims to characterize the relationship between COVID-19 lockdown stringency and changes in several secondary student civic education outcomes. We use data on more than 100,000 grade 8 students from 15 educational systems that participated across multiple cycles of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). We utilize multiple regression models with country- and cycle-fixed effects to estimate the relationship between the duration and stringency of COVID-19 containment measures and changes in grade 8 student civic education outcomes. We find that longer school closures and greater lockdown stringency were associated with greater declines in average civic knowledge and trust in civic institutions. They were also associated with increases (or smaller decreases) in intentions to protest or expectations to participate in politics. Less consistent evidence was found regarding the relationship with expected participation in elections. The findings provide valuable insights into the associations between lockdown measures and early secondary student civic education outcomes, highly relevant for understanding how the pandemic and related policies may have influenced the future citizens of the world. • Studies international variation of COVID-19 policies in relation to country-level changes in secondary school civic outcomes. • More stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures associated with greater declines in civic knowledge and trust in civic institutions. • More stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures positively correlated with changes in expected participation in protests and politics.