Correlation between: Understanding of Nationalism and Historical Consciousness toward Students’ Democratic Attitude in Banda Aceh Senior High School

Democratic attitude is an essential element in supporting the survival of a nation, especially in Reformation Era. Therefore, the decline of democratic attitude among students today deserves attention by instilling an understanding of nationalism and historical consciousness in teaching-learning process. This study aims to analyze: 1) correlation between understanding of nationalism and students’ democratic attitude; 2) correlation between historical consciousness and students’ democratic attitude; and 3) correlation between understanding of nationalism and historical consciousness and students’ democratic attitude. Method used in this study is ex-post facto descriptive, which is also designed with correlational research. The study was conducted on a sample of 265 Senior High School students at Banda Aceh. To meet the research objective, questioners were distributed regarding three variables of the recent study. Then, the data were analyzed by using correlation analysis, simple regression and double regression in significant 5%; the calculation is done by using SPSS 22 and XLSTAT. Understanding of nationalism and historical consciousness were found to have positive correlation toward students’ democratic attitude. Therefore it is proved that history education can enhance students’ understanding of nationalism and historical consciousness, which finally lead them to develop their democratic attitude.