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Purpose: In 2017, the Government of Québec made a high school financial education course compulsory. Anchored in the social studies, it tackles themes like consumer rights, savings, and employment. This paper strives to understand the types of citizenship education they promote. Design/methodology/approach: Our research is based on a content analysis of Québec's financial education curriculum and its textbooks. Findings: This paper reveals that Ministry approved educational materials focus on issues of personal finance and information retrieval tasks at the expense of a critical approach and tasks of a higher intellectual value. Québec's financial education materials therefore seems to foster personally responsible citizens. Research limitations/implications: To understand the use teachers and students make of financial education materials, we must now conduct individual and group interviews with teachers and students, but mostly authentic classroom observations.

Purpose: This study investigates the challenges faced by European teachers when assessing student learning of democratic citizenship competences by asking about their experiences and opinions in their teaching practices. Design/methodology/approach: Through focus group interviews conducted with the teachers, we investigate the underlying reasons for teachers' choices of using certain forms of assessment methods while excluding other methods. This paper presents the analysis of interviews with 82 schoolteachers from lower secondary schools in eight European countries (average 19 years of teaching experience) participating in an Erasmus + project. Findings: The teachers' responses uncover a need for teachers to be better equipped with relevant knowledge, tools and approaches to practice formative assessment to develop students' democratic citizenship competences. The current common understanding of the summative assessment of knowledge using simple and standardised tools poses one of the main challenges for teachers to use formative assessment methods. Practical implications: The focus on summative assessment significantly limits the teachers' room to work on democratic citizenship competence. There is a need to strengthen this as a democratic citizenship education as a cross-curricular element in education, with an emphasis on formative assessment, to monitor and support students' democratic values and attitudes.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe the state of current citizenship education in Germany with the focus on education in schools. The term 'education' in this paper refers to the concept of Bildung. It not only describes how to teach, but also the ability of self-determination of the individual. Methodology: The main focus of this article is to discuss the current state of citizenship education in Germany while taking into account various methodologies. Amongst these are findings of qualitative studies, which for example relate to the legal anchoring of citizenship education or to political action as a learning opportunity. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-the-art research on the basic principles of citizenship education is provided. Finally, current challenges are discussed, taking into consideration existing socio-political discourses, such as the question of neutrality. Findings: The article shows that the relevance of citizenship education is increasing, also in regard to current socio-political phenomena, such as the growth of right-wing populism and digitalization. At the same time, the results indicate that in various federal states the subject is marginalized and threatened by current debates about the alleged neutrality of citizenship education.

Purpose: The aim of this country report is to offer an overview of civic and citizenship education in Spain. Approach: The report analyses the Spanish curriculum and the current legislative framework, examining the way social and civic competences are integrated in both primary and secondary education. Additionally, the paper also examines the latest educational reform, establishing a comparison between how citizenship education was addressed in the curriculum until 2013 and the way a cross-curricular approach has been adopted since then. Findings: The paper has been able to establish a clear difference between two political and educational conceptions. On one hand, from 2006 to 2013, the Spanish government introduced "Citizenship and Human Rights Education" as a core subject linked to a broader approach to traditional civic education. After the 2013 reform, the new government favoured instead a cross-curricular orientation that avoided references to the idea of citizenship and limited the scope of civic education. A discussion is provided regarding what policy reforms can be expected in the near future in Spain.

The paper "American democracy is distress: The failure of social education" presents several "symptoms of democracy's dysfunction in the United States". These include the extreme reliance on campaign contributions, giving the donors--economic elites and groups representing business, frequently operating at a transnational level--an excessive power in determining government policy in areas such as the environment, media or fiscal regulations, as profusely exemplified in the paper. At the same time, policies impose restrictions on citizens' rights in areas such as voting, healthcare or employment. In this sense, the power gap between citizens and economic elites in the form of a global capital is growing and, as it goes undisputed and unchallenged, menaces the core of democracy itself. This is a paper worth reading. Not only does it present an argument--and this is something to be praised and cherished--but it also sustains its argument on a sound and systematic analysis of documents and research. As such, this is not a trivial paper. The data, analysis and argument the author develops call for our attention and challenges us to reflect on whether and how the situation described for the US resonates with the situation of those currently living in Europe.

Purpose: Scholars are increasingly paying attention to the characteristics of effective citizenship education. The systematic use of data to maximise student learning, also called an output-driven approach, is often presented as a powerful predictor of student outcomes. However, its effectiveness has not been studied in citizenship education. Therefore, this paper aims to theoretically reflect on whether an output-driven approach is also feasible for citizenship education. Methodology: We distinguish five building blocks of an output-driven approach and elaborate on their applicability in citizenship education. While doing so, we draw attention to the normative notion in citizenship education and the quality and availability of measurement instruments for citizenship competences. Both may challenge the application of an output-driven approach, particularly given the relatively young tradition of measuring citizenship competences. Findings: We conclude that an output-driven approach in citizenship education seems feasible, provided that the characteristics of citizenship education are carefully considered.

Purpose: The paper maps recent developments in civics and social education in primary and lower secondary Romanian education systems, pointing to significant curriculum changes, within the broader competence-based curriculum reform. The analysis aims also to formulate policy recommendations, based on identified challenges. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology uses documentary analysis of curriculum and thematic studies, relevant for the policy reforms and practice conceptualisations in civics/social education. Research limitations/implications: The main findings document the important step forward in promoting civics competencies in Romanian primary education, and social competencies in the lower secondary curriculum. Various challenges affecting the effective implementation of these changes are identified, both at system and school-level. Practical implications: Focus on formal written and taught curriculum. As curriculum reform in upper secondary education is ongoing, the analysis is limited to primary and lower secondary education.

Purpose: The paper provides an overview of the current state of school social science education in Ukraine, whose development is considered in the context of its internal and external challenges. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis of the regulatory documents, school social science curriculum and course syllabi as well as publications and interviews with the stakeholders are the methods applied to identify the mission, content and current challenges of social science education. Findings: The underlying concept is based on universal human, European and national values, respect for Ukrainian traditions and the traditions of other cultures and ethnic groups, principles of democracy, human rights and freedoms. Being a dynamic area of education, school social science is undergoing a transformation under the New Ukrainian School reform focusing on competency based integrative approach to education. The Russian military aggression against the country is another transformation factor that is currently being addressed.

Purpose: This paper discusses developments in citizenship education policy and practice in the Netherlands, and outlines key challenges as faced by the different stakeholders involved. Design/methodology/approach: Our discussion is based on existing research and policy documents in the Netherlands. The authors, from three Dutch universities, are experts in the field of research on citizenship education. Findings: Promoting citizenship education in primary, secondary and vocational tertiary education in the Netherlands has been challenging, particularly in light of the constitutional freedom of education in the Netherlands. Five issues are discussed in this regard: the contents of CE legislation, the normative character of legal requirements, integration of CE legislation in national curriculum aims, clarifying expectations from schools in teaching CE, and teacher education and professionalization.

Purpose: In light of growing attention to promoting democratic learning opportunities in the EU and the US, this study provides insight into student opportunities to engage in the organisation of mock elections in Dutch high schools, and constraints that teachers identify in implementing mock elections. Approach: A survey study was conducted. One fourth of Dutch high schools that organise mock elections through the National NGO for Democracy and Education participated. Findings: Data analysis reveals clear discrepancies between the existing versus the desired (1) participation of student groups invited to the organisation of mock elections and (2) types of student involvement offered in our research population according to teachers. Main constraints that teachers identified are: limited resources for curriculum development; lack of a clear school-policy on citizenship education; and insufficient attention to relevant teacher competences in (post)initial training. Practical implications: our paper concludes with several suggestions for strengthening policies and practices on political and educational participatory practices in schools. in citizenship education. These findings indicate that addressing the material or sensory tokens inherent in such exclusionary discourse may be a useful starting point.

Purpose: This paper compares citizenship education in Singapore and Australia. While discussions have been made about education and neoliberalism, few have explored the direct connections between citizenship education and neoliberalism. Approach: Though a discussion of country contexts, citizenship education policies and curriculum, "Character and Citizenship Education" in Singapore and "Civics and Citizenship education" in Australia are examined to explore the meanings of "Character education" and "Civics education" and their connections with "Citizenship education". Findings: The distinct use of terms for citizenship education suggests that the two countries hold different citizenship ideals. Set within the context of globalisation, the paper argues that some approaches towards citizenship education can inadvertently work towards supporting the goals of neoliberalism, which can be at odds with the classical tradition of democracy.

Purpose: This paper seeks to illuminate the background of citizenship and character education in South Korea in order to better determine a means of collaboration between the two goals. Method: The paper is based on the qualitative analysis of the official documents and law in relation to citizenship and character education. Findings: The paper finds the differences and the similarities of citizenship and character education and there are increasing needs for both educational initiatives in terms of social and national development of South Korea.

Purpose: This paper unfolds the ways in which Croatia, as a young post-communist democracy, has aligned its transition and consolidation with the development of education programs that would support the protection of human rights and the creation of a democratic political culture. Design/methodology/approach: By combining the existing studies with the authors' own analyses of documents and internet sources, as well as interviews with teachers, this paper reveals that by adopting vague and non-binding policies, the Croatian political elite has demonstrated a lack of political will and courage over the past twenty-five years to develop a systematic and quality-based citizenship education. Findings: After long-term negligence, in the most recent five-year period, the need to change the educational path has gained prominence on the policy and political agenda. However, the reform process did not result in bridging, but in the deepening of ideological divides within the Croatian society. With the officially adopted interdisciplinary and cross-curricular approach, the responsibility for carrying out citizenship education was placed in the hands of teachers, with civil society organizations taking a compensating role. Whilst the former lack practical education, as well as guidelines and resources to incorporate citizenship education into the subjects they teach, the latter are incapable of reaching out to a sufficient share of the youth population. The outcome is that the youth continuously displays inadequate levels of citizenship competences.

Purpose: This paper explores the way in which art education advances the goals of citizenship education. In the first section of this paper the similarities between ethical and aesthetic concepts will be outlined and the visual art symbol system will be carefully examined. Findings: It will be argued that the transference of a value-adaptive attitude developed through the study and practice of art to its application in civic literacy and engagement is valuable and warranted. The second section of this paper will investigate the impact that compositional study in both art practice and experience has on the reinforcement of and the alteration of values.

Purpose: This paper aims to reconstruct the discoursive shape of student participation on the base of Polish school textbooks for citizenship education. Methodology: The main research question is: What image of student participation can be reconstructed by analyzing the texts of Polish citizenship education textbooks? The method of gathering data was finding secondary sources. The sample included all textbooks used to teach a basic program of civic education at the upper secondary level of education. The applied method of analysis comes from the group of approaches defined as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The author adopted the approach represented by Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl. Findings: Through discursive exclusion and numerous mitigating cases, students become passive objects of adult policy and all forms of their agency are diminished and deprived of features that determine their strength.

Purpose: The objective of the paper is to present the effects of the evaluation study of the Polish project "Youth Vote +: Social and civic activation of young people" -- a comprehensive education program in the field of civic engagement, based on three practical pillars: conscious electoral participation (Pillar 1), involvement in civic activities (Pillar 2) and political discussion and opinion expression (Pillar 3). Methodology: We developed an evaluation study that was aligned with the nature of the program. To capture the change in civic competence and skills, we used quantitative (a retrospective pretest design and one-group pretest-posttest design) and qualitative (focus group interviews) methods. The former enabled us to achieve robust measurement of increases in competence, while the latter gave us better insight into participants' perceptions of the project. Findings: The evaluation study documented the effectiveness of the program regarding a behavioral dimension, but cognitive development was insufficient relative to goals. The study also allowed for critical evaluation of the program and its modifications.

Purpose: This paper considers the relevance of critical and decolonial approaches to global education in northern Europe through theoretical and empirical research. Methodology: We present a case for an approach that engages the modern/colonial dynamic (Mignolo, 2000; Andreotti, 2014) and pluriversality (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). We conducted a project involving workshops with secondary teachers in England, Finland, and Sweden centred on Andreotti's (2012) HEADSUP tool. We recorded discussions at the workshops and individual interviews after applying the tool in practice. Findings: Teachers are both strategic and reticent in how they take up colonialism when teaching global issues. Wider political contexts and teachers' and students' own experiences with colonialism and racialisation are very much part of how ethical global issues are framed, unpacked, and responded to in classrooms. While there are some significant challenges evident, several teachers deepened their approach and co-produced a teacher resource supporting the application of HEADSUP to classroom practice.

This article explores citizenship education for adult immigrants through informal language education in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Based on data collected over thirteen months of ethnographic research among volunteer Dutch language coaches in Amsterdam, the primary methods used in this study were in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation. While the primary focus of this article is on the ways in which informal educational settings contribute to processes of adult citizenship education, this paper also underscores some of the perceived barriers to integration faced by adult immigrants in the Netherlands. Adopting a Foucauldian theoretical approach to governmentality, this paper considers how volunteer Dutch language coaches both reproduce and challenge contemporary discourses around citizenship and belonging in Dutch society. Experiences and expressions of citizenship among volunteer Dutch language coaches reveal how entangled discourses of cultural difference and neoliberal "active" citizenship shape state and everyday notions of good citizenship practice and integration.

This paper, informed by a critique of traditional understandings of citizenship and civic education, explores the use of social media as a means of fostering activism and dissent. Specifically, the paper explores the ways in which the Idle No More Movement, which began in Canada in 2012 marshalled social media to educate about and protest Bill C-45, an omnibus budget bill passed by the Federal Government. The paper argues that Idle No More is demonstrative of young people's commitments to social change and willingness to participate in active forms of dissent. As such, it presents opportunities for fostering ethically engaged citizenship through greater knowledge and awareness of Indigenous issues in Canada, which necessarily requires an understanding of the historical and contemporary legacies of colonialism that continually position First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples as "lesser" citizens. Finally, the paper suggests that the example of Idle No More stands in contrast to the notion of a "civic vacuum" that is often used to justify the re-entrenchment of traditional civic education programs in schools and as such, can be used as a pedagogic tool to teach for and about dissent.

The civic mission of schools in nurturing political literature, critical thinking and participatory citizens has always been played down in Hong Kong schools. On one hand, teaching civic education has never been ranked high in the education agenda. On the other hand, because of the conservative nature of schools, students are rarely encouraged to participate in school governance for the enhancement of their citizenship development. Funded by the General Research Fund (GRF) in Hong Kong, the authors conducted a quantitative survey on students' participation in school governance and their citizenship development in 2013 to explore 1) students' conception of "good citizens"; 2) the level and scope of student participation in school governance; and 3) the facilitating and hindering factors influencing student participation. This paper is a report on the simple statistical results of the survey findings. With reference to Westheimer and Kahne's typologies, the findings revealed that the students had an eclectic understanding of citizenship, with higher scores for Personally Responsible Citizen and lower scores for Participatory, Justice Oriented and Patriotic Citizen, reflecting a conservative orientation. Concerning the implementation of school civic mission through student participation in school governance, it was found that students were rarely allowed to engage in important school matters, such as formulation of school rules and discussion of the school development plan. Our findings also revealed that schools were more inclined to inform students and consult them rather than confer real participation and powers to them. The paper concludes that the current practice of student participation in school governance does not facilitate the nurturing of active participatory citizens, particularly of a Justice Oriented nature, and this is urgently needed for the democratic development of Hong Kong.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the shape of current civic education in Polish schools. Methodology: The results of the analysis presented in this article are based on the following research question: What shape of civic education can be reconstructed on the basis of the researched sources? The method of collecting data is finding secondary sources and documents. The method of analysing data is content analysis. The research sample includes legal act regarding education law, new school core curricula that have been implemented since 2017/2018 school year and publications showing results of research on civic education in Poland. Findings: Within the framework of civic education in Polish schools, emphasis was placed on knowledge and on adaptive and reconstructive function of schools. Deficiencies in terms of skills and attitudes assumed in the core curricula indicate that neither has there been an establishment of active citizenship, nor has any emphasis been placed on developing attitudes. Results of the research indicates that legal regulation regarding social bodies such student self-government fail to give these authorities significant powers and opportunities for the experience of democracy by students are very limited. Civic education in Polish schools is not learning in democracy, it is learning about democracy.

Purpose: The article gives a brief introduction to the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) and illustrates the review process of its implementation. Focusing on the second review cycle of 2016, it stresses that the Council of Europe fell short of a thorough analysis of the discrepancy in perceptions between governments and NGOs with respect to the effective implementation of EDC/HRE. Design/methodology/approach: Looking at the 2017 Report resulting from the second review cycle, the paper analyses analogies and discrepancies between responses received from governments and civil society organisations to the surveys organised by the Council of Europe. Findings: Through the selection of answers analysed, it is shown that there are areas in which responses from governments and civil society organisations are similar and aligned, for example on the issues for EDC/HRE to address and on the little priority given to make financial support available. However, there are other areas in which considerable discrepancy can be highlighted. The article draws a reflection on the way in which the Report has been put together and argues that, in order to build a more accurate analysis, the Council of Europe should have connected the responses received from governments and civil society organisations and make them dialogue, rather than providing two unrelated summaries on the state of citizenship and human rights education without merging analogies and questioning discrepancies between responses received from different stakeholders.

Purpose: The paper presents a review of the process of inclusion of 'civic education' as part of the formal education system in the Republic of Macedonia, from its beginnings as project activity in the late 1990's to its current implementation as a mandatory subject in the primary grades. Comparison is made between what was initially planned and what has been achieved in the area of civic education during this 20-year period, with a critical review on the potential of the subject for developing civic competencies. Methodology: The findings are based on content-analysis of curriculum goals and textbook tasks, through their classification in an indicators' matrix of 'Civic Key Competencies' (as defined by the EC's key competence framework for lifelong learning). Findings: The analysis provides insight into the frequency of curriculum goals and textbook tasks which relate to manifesting 'civic competencies, from 'knowledge', 'skills', 'attitudes' and 'values', to the 'behavior' indicators, which should ideally be the goal of civic education. Research limitations/implications: The research was based on the method of textual analysis, which is inherently open to individual interpretations by the researcher. However, in order to limit arbitrary interpretations and classification of textual information, variables were operationalized on the basis of the indicators of Civic Key Competences (Appendix 1) Practical implications: Bearing in mind that the country is in the process of revising the civic education curriculum for primary and secondary school, the research has the potential to inform the policy process through providing viable recommendations on the most effective models for developing active citizens.

Purpose: The main goal of this paper is to analyze how the schools and teachers in three high schools dealt with the challenges of heterogeneity in the classroom using methods of citizenship and character education (CCE). Approach: To achieve this goal we conducted case studies in three high schools in Berlin, using multiple Methodological Approaches: observation of lessons, surveys of students, focus group interviews (FGI) and workshops with students, and individual interviews with teachers and with the headmasters of the schools. For the analysis of the data we use the PRIME model developed by Berkowitz and Bier (2014). Findings: The results of the case studies provide numerous insights into the issue's complexity and highlight the need to discuss the goals as well as different models of CCE more broadly. Since the understanding of goals and appropriate means of CCE differs strongly depending on cultural and school context, analyzing CCE in the context of heterogeneity in democratic societies implies multidimensional questions. Practical implications: Future research needs to include more members of the studied school communities in the process of participatory action research: Deeper insight into the field can be achieved by integrating multiple perspectives. At the same time more members of the school community can reflect on the study outcomes, which might facilitate their direct implementation into practice.

Purpose: In the present paper we describe how civic and citizenship education takes place in Italy, trying to identify strengths and weaknesses, with the aims both of understanding the situation and of identifying possible measures for improvement. Methods: The methodology implies an analysis of the official guidelines by the Ministry in this field, a short view of the research publications of the last 30 years, the informal observation of the daily teaching at school from the personal experience of the authors in Italy. Findings: First of all we study the concept of civic and citizenship education, and focus on the curriculum of civic and citizenship education (aims, teaching approaches, taught time, methods and means) in the school system, including the school culture and the experiences of participation inside school; we investigate the teacher training and role, the informal and non-formal influences in this educational field, and conclude dealing with the student assessment, and the evaluation of the outcomes. In the daily practice there are thousands of activities for civic and citizenship education, but a systematic design is lacking.

Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) in the Republic of Ireland and Local and Global Citizenship (LGC) in Northern Ireland keenly promote students' active participation in society. However, the purpose of this participation is not necessarily to encourage students to campaign for change in the present but rather that "students are given opportunities to engage in actions and develop skills that will contribute to their becoming active participatory citizens in later life" (NCCA (2005) "CSPE Guidelines for Teachers," p. 59). This often gives rise to a culture of passive citizenship and a tendency to focus on "action projects" that are safe and self-contained. This paper focuses on a five action projects carried out by a sample of teachers and students that may be considered "controversial." In each case students actively campaign for equality and social justice, on local or global human rights issues and in ways that may be deemed controversial. It examines how the mainstream curriculum and school structures facilitate or impede this type of controversial action and explores the potential opportunities for greater engagement in such action through proposed curriculum reform.

This paper explores first-hand experiences of citizenship education specifically-designed for immigrants from the perspective of native Dutch settlement workers and volunteers in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Based on eight months of ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with settlement workers, this article explores how these "minor figures" influence and inform the "Infrastructure of Integration" and reinterpret national Dutch cultural values and norms on a local level. Using past understandings of multiculturalism and the current project of assimilating all non-western Muslim immigrants into Dutch society, this article investigates how these minor figures reproduce exclusionary discourses of belonging to the imagined community of the Netherlands.

This paper examines citizenship learning and identity construction of new Chinese immigrants in a Canadian immigration settlement organization (ISO). I address the gap between the concept of "settlement" and "citizenship" generated by government-funded ISOs and new immigrants' actual practices in these programs. I adopt Dorothy Smith's approach of examining the social organization of people's everyday lives (Smith 2005) in order to unpack the ruling relations behind the immigrant settlement services and to take the standpoint of Chinese new immigrants. Under this framework, I analyze a Canadian federal government's funding criteria for ISOs and a settlement program's annual report to unpack the ruling relations behind the texts. I further conduct in-depth interviews with two Chinese new immigrants in a Canadian ISO to understand the ruling relations behind citizenship learning and brokering activities in Canadian ISOs from the immigrants' standpoint.

Following a grounded, bottom-up approach to language policy (Blommaert 2009; Canagarajah 2005; McCarty, 2011; Ramanathan, 2005), this paper investigates available resources and discourses of citizenship in Sacramento, California to those situated within the citizenship infrastructure. It analyzes how the discursive framing of local and national educational policies affects prospective citizens and the ways that resources and discourses differ across educational sites. These sites include a government field office, citizenship classes at adult schools and community centers, and a law school-sponsored citizenship fair. This article argues that adult schools and community events introduce their own "de facto" and "de jure policies," in conjunction with top-down governmental policies that tend to reduce the complexity of naturalization at the expense of full participation. Both top-down and bottom-up educational policies consequently affect prospective citizens' understanding and enactment of citizenship.

The crisis in Europe constitutes a major test for the very pursuit of European integration and for its legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens. In this paper a number of striking economic aspects of the crisis will be discussed next to political tensions concerning sensitive issues. Given the decline in the support for the European integration among the public over the past years it is necessary to improve the quality of citizenship education on European issues and to use a more critical approach. Teaching and learning in a balanced manner is necessary about issues like migration, free movement, populist political parties, enlargement and other themes, besides other regular topics. In contrast to current opinions we argue that to reach not only the higher levels of secondary schools but also the lower levels a too strong social-constructivist approach is not effective. Complicated European issues need a good instruction by the teacher in combination with an attractive didactical approach that builds on a common core European orientation curriculum improving students' knowledge and skills and thus enhancing opinions and attitudes.

In democracies such as Australia and New Zealand, education policy increasingly seeks to foster active citizens who are committed to social justice and change. Whilst many aspects of these initiatives are to be applauded for their commitment to empowering young people, in this paper we describe some of the ambiguities that attend young people's experiences of civic engagement and active citizenship. In doing so, we draw on Isin's (2008) reconceptualization of citizenship as something that is, above all, performed or enacted. Isin's focus is upon "acts of citizenship" which he argues are best understood by examining their grounds, effects and consequences. Drawing on illustrations of young people's global and local citizenship actions in schools in Australia and New Zealand, we examine some of the contradictions and tensions that lie within the enactment of such "performed" curricula. We conclude by reflecting on the opportunities that exist within school and community spaces for the active citizen to perform acts of citizenship.

This paper reports on a European project, the Comenius ECLIPSE project (European Citizenship Learning in a Programme for Secondary Education) developed by six European partners coordinated by the University of Trento in the years 2011-2014. ECLIPSE (co-financed by the EACEA--Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) aims at developing, testing, and implementing a Programme of European Citizenship, in order to improve citizenship competence and responsibility and to strengthen the sense of belonging and European identity of 8th grade pupils. These goals are reachable thanks to a number of measures in formal, non-formal and informal fields. The project partners created teaching and monitoring tools for pupils: seven ECMs (European Citizenship Modules), knowledge tests, pupils' portfolio, and suggestions for teachers, especially a portfolio for ECLIPSE educators. The ECLIPSE teaching/ testing materials were implemented in several schools of the partner's countries in order to make sure that it is useful for European pupils of different school systems. It can be used in a flexible way keeping in mind different learning needs in each school system, with a view to improving transversal competencies like learning to learn, as well as initiative and active involvement in improving the chances for young people in citizenship and work worlds.

This paper explores persuasive writing and what more might be done to help equip young people with the written literacy tools to be effective participants in civic activism. Firstly, we argue from an Australian (and Tasmanian) context that there may be merit in teachers and students re-visiting some of the advice from classical rhetoric around the discovery of arguments. Secondly, we analyse challenges that 14 year old students face in responding to Australia's national literacy tests which include a persuasive writing task--and exemplify this section with evidence drawn from a data source of outstanding student responses. We conclude by critically reviewing and augmenting the literacy strategies suggested in a representative citizenship education teaching text, and suggest a tentative stepped model for supporting high quality persuasive writing in the context of active citizenship and democratic engagement.

Despite the fact that historically the university has been the par excellence locus for the discussion of public issues and the formation of citizens, current European Union education policies promote and foster citizenship in secondary education, while the civic dimension of higher education is less prominent. This paper presents the case study of a small peripheral Greek university, which provides for the teaching of citizenship, through a dedicated taught module. According to the analysis a strategy of exposure to current problems, heightened due to the crisis in Greece, has affected students' behaviour and their understanding of the concept of "active citizenship" as promoted by European Union policy. Finally implications are drawn for the prospect of promoting active citizenship through university education.

In this paper, the authors address the youth as a research phenomenon and present the current position of young people in the Croatian society. The authors exhibit interesting results of a recent study of youth in Croatia and present the results of their research conducted among Croatian students aiming to explore the attitudes of young people and to discover how young people in Croatia develop resilience in times of crisis. They continue with remarks on citizenship education in Croatia and provide an overview of the Curriculum of civic education. Authors discuss whether we are dealing with education for democratic citizenship or rather, with the consequences of the non-existence of education for democratic citizenship in times of crisis in Croatia.

In spite of the fact that public schools were established to prepare students for citizenship, the alignment of teaching practice with this goal is poor. In part, this is because the knowledge base about the efficacy of curricular and pedagogical approaches in supporting specific civic outcomes is limited, as is our knowledge about the extent to which civic learning is constrained to pedagogical objectives specifically taught vs. the generalizability of what is learned to other civic outcomes. In this paper we evaluate the impact of three interventions aimed at training teachers to use a specific pedagogical approach (i.e. lesson planning, participatory learning, and a combination of both) to teach civic education to low-income eight-grade students in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. These pedagogies aimed at improving teacher practices used to teach the civic education curriculum and fostering a specific set student's civic skills. Using data from a cluster randomized experimental design at the classroom level, we found positive impact of the three civic education pedagogies on teacher practices reported by students. We also found statistically significant impacts on a range of students' civic dimensions explicitly targeted by the curriculum. Finally, we found limited or no evidence of transfer of effects to civic dimensions not explicitly targeted in the curriculum.

In this paper the author wishes to shed light on some methodological aspects of documenting civics classes as part of educational research. Rooted in the research traditions of grounded theory and the use of ideal types, this study concentrates on one case of a civics course taught in an Israel high school. Touching on the empirical and theoretical aspects of this case, this study will present the contributions of using such methodologies, particularly regarding the ways in which contextual factors such as the students' academic level and socio-economic factors influence the teaching of this subject-matter. Practical pedagogical implications that were identified as a result of this study will also be presented.

Purpose: In 2017, the Government of Québec made a high school financial education course compulsory. Anchored in the social studies, it tackles themes like consumer rights, savings, and employment. This paper strives to understand the types of citizenship education they promote. Design/methodology/approach: Our research is based on a content analysis of Québec’s financial education curriculum and its textbooks. Findings: This paper reveals that Ministry approved educational materials focus on issues of personal finance and information retrieval tasks at the expense of a critical approach and tasks of a higher intellectual value. Québec’s financial education materials therefore seems to foster personally responsible citizens. Research limitations/implications: To understand the use teachers and students make of financial education materials, we must now conduct individual and group interviews with teachers and students, but mostly authentic classroom observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: - There is a lack of resources and examples of good practice in citizenship education and relevant assessment tools for the teachers to transform and use in their practices. - The teachers experience a lack of pedagogical approaches to work with designing learning activities to enhance normative changes and values relevant to citizenship education. - Teachers experience a lack of time to foster student citizenship competence. - When personal opinions are at stake, some teachers find it difficult to give appropriate feedback to non-democratic values and attitudes. - School systems' and parents' expectations of high-stakes summative feedback influence teachers' hesitation to perform formative assessment in citizenship education. Purpose: This study investigates the challenges faced by European teachers when assessing student learning of democratic citizenship competences by asking about their experiences and opinions in their teaching practices. Design/methodology/approach: Through focus group interviews conducted with the teachers, we investigate the underlying reasons for teachers' choices of using certain forms of assessment methods while excluding other methods. This paper presents the analysis of interviews with 82 schoolteachers from lower secondary schools in eight European countries (average 19 years of teaching experience) participating in an Erasmus + project. Findings: The teachers' responses uncover a need for teachers to be better equipped with relevant knowledge, tools and approaches to practice formative assessment to develop students' democratic citizenship competences. The current common understanding of the summative assessment of knowledge using simple and standardised tools poses one of the main challenges for teachers to use formative assessment methods. Practical implications: The focus on summative assessment significantly limits the teachers' room to work on democratic citizenship competence. There is a need to strengthen this as a democratic citizenship education as a cross-curricular element in education, with an emphasis on formative assessment, to monitor and support students' democratic values and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this country report is to offer an overview of civic and citizenship education in Spain. Approach: The report analyses the Spanish curriculum and the current legislative framework, examining the way social and civic competences are integrated in both primary and secondary education. Additionally, the paper also examines the latest educational reform, establishing a comparison between how citizenship education was addressed in the curriculum until 2013 and the way a cross-curricular approach has been adopted since then. Findings: The paper has been able to establish a clear difference between two political and educational conceptions. On one hand, from 2006 to 2013, the Spanish government introduced "Citizenship and Human Rights Education" as a core subject linked to a broader approach to traditional civic education. After the 2013 reform, the new government favoured instead a cross-curricular orientation that avoided references to the idea of citizenship and limited the scope of civic education. A discussion is provided regarding what policy reforms can be expected in the near future in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe the state of current citizenship education in Germany with the focus on education in schools. The term 'education' in this paper refers to the concept of Bildung. It not only describes how to teach, but also the ability of self-determination of the individual. Methodology: The main focus of this article is to discuss the current state of citizenship education in Germany while taking into account various methodologies. Amongst these are findings of qualitative studies, which for example relate to the legal anchoring of citizenship education or to political action as a learning opportunity. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-the-art research on the basic principles of citizenship education is provided. Finally, current challenges are discussed, taking into consideration existing socio-political discourses, such as the question of neutrality. Findings: The article shows that the relevance of citizenship education is increasing, also in regard to current socio-political phenomena, such as the growth of right-wing populism and digitalization. At the same time, the results indicate that in various federal states the subject is marginalized and threatened by current debates about the alleged neutrality of citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Scholars are increasingly paying attention to the characteristics of effective citizenship education. The systematic use of data to maximise student learning, also called an output-driven approach, is often presented as a powerful predictor of student outcomes. However, its effectiveness has not been studied in citizenship education. Therefore, this paper aims to theoretically reflect on whether an output-driven approach is also feasible for citizenship education. Methodology: We distinguish five building blocks of an output-driven approach and elaborate on their applicability in citizenship education. While doing so, we draw attention to the normative notion in citizenship education and the quality and availability of measurement instruments for citizenship competences. Both may challenge the application of an output-driven approach, particularly given the relatively young tradition of measuring citizenship competences. Findings: We conclude that an output-driven approach in citizenship education seems feasible, provided that the characteristics of citizenship education are carefully considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper seeks to illuminate the background of citizenship and character education in South Korea in order to better determine a means of collaboration between the two goals. Method: The paper is based on the qualitative analysis of the official documents and law in relation to citizenship and character education. Findings: The paper finds the differences and the similarities of citizenship and character education and there are increasing needs for both educational initiatives in terms of social and national development of South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper unfolds the ways in which Croatia, as a young post-communist democracy, has aligned its transition and consolidation with the development of education programs that would support the protection of human rights and the creation of a democratic political culture. Design/methodology/approach: By combining the existing studies with the authors' own analyses of documents and internet sources, as well as interviews with teachers, this paper reveals that by adopting vague and non-binding policies, the Croatian political elite has demonstrated a lack of political will and courage over the past twenty-five years to develop a systematic and quality-based citizenship education. Findings: After long-term negligence, in the most recent five-year period, the need to change the educational path has gained prominence on the policy and political agenda. However, the reform process did not result in bridging, but in the deepening of ideological divides within the Croatian society. With the officially adopted interdisciplinary and crosscurricular approach, the responsibility for carrying out citizenship education was placed in the hands of teachers, with civil society organizations taking a compensating role. Whilst the former lack practical education, as well as guidelines and resources to incorporate citizenship education into the subjects they teach, the latter are incapable of reaching out to a sufficient share of the youth population. The outcome is that the youth continuously displays inadequate levels of citizenship competences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper considers the relevance of critical and decolonial approaches to global education in northern Europe through theoretical and empirical research. Methodology: We present a case for an approach that engages the modern/colonial dynamic (Mignolo, 2000; Andreotti, 2014) and pluriversality (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). We conducted a project involving workshops with secondary teachers in England, Finland, and Sweden centred on Andreotti's (2012) HEADSUP tool. We recorded discussions at the workshops and individual interviews after applying the tool in practice. Findings: Teachers are both strategic and reticent in how they take up colonialism when teaching global issues. Wider political contexts and teachers' and students' own experiences with colonialism and racialisation are very much part of how ethical global issues are framed, unpacked, and responded to in classrooms. While there are some significant challenges evident, several teachers deepened their approach and co-produced a teacher resource supporting the application of HEADSUP to classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main goal of this paper is to analyze how the schools and teachers in three high schools dealt with the challenges of heterogeneity in the classroom using methods of citizenship and character education (CCE). Approach: To achieve this goal we conducted case studies in three high schools in Berlin, using multiple methodological approaches: observation of lessons, surveys of students, focus group interviews (FGI) and workshops with students, and individual interviews with teachers and with the headmasters of the schools. For the analysis of the data we use the PRIME model developed by Berkowitz and Bier (2014). Findings: Findings: The results of the case studies provide numerous insights into the issue's complexity and highlight the need to discuss the goals as well as different models of CCE more broadly. Since the understanding of goals and appropriate means of CCE differs strongly depending on cultural and school context, analyzing CCE in the context of heterogeneity in democratic societies implies multidimensional questions. Practical implications: Future research needs to include more members of the studied school communities in the process of participatory action research: Deeper insight into the field can be achieved by integrating multiple perspectives. At the same time more members of the school community can reflect on the study outcomes, which might facilitate their direct implementation into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper compares citizenship education in Singapore and Australia. While discussions have been made about education and neoliberalism, few have explored the direct connections between citizenship education and neoliberalism. Approach: Though a discussion of country contexts, citizenship education policies and curriculum, 'Character and Citizenship Education' in Singapore and 'Civics and Citizenship education' in Australia are examined to explore the meanings of 'Character education' and 'Civics education' and their connections with 'Citizenship education'. Findings: The distinct use of terms for citizenship education suggests that the two countries hold different citizenship ideals. Set within the context of globalisation, the paper argues that some approaches towards citizenship education can inadvertently work towards supporting the goals of neoliberalism, which can be at odds with the classical tradition of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to reconstruct the discoursive shape of student participation on the base of Polish school textbooks for citizenship education. Methodology:The main research question is: What image of student participation can be reconstructed by analyzing the texts of Polish citizenship education textbooks? The method of gathering data was finding secondary sources. The sample included all textbooks used to teach a basic program of civic education at the upper secondary level of education. The applied method of analysis comes from the group of approaches defined as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The author adopted the approach represented by Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl. Findings: Through discursive exclusion and numerous mitigating cases, students become passive objects of adult policy and all forms of their agency are diminished and deprived of features that determine their strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The article gives a brief introduction to the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) and illustrates the review process of its implementation. Focusing on the second review cycle of 2016, it stresses that the Council of Europe fell short of a thorough analysis of the discrepancy in perceptions between governments and NGOs with respect to the effective implementation of EDC/HRE. Design/methodology/approach: Looking at the 2017 Report resulting from the second review cycle, the paper analyses analogies and discrepancies between responses received from governments and civil society organisations to the surveys organised by the Council of Europe. Findings: Through the selection of answers analysed, it is shown that there are areas in which responses from governments and civil society organisations are similar and aligned, for example on the issues for EDC/HRE to address and on the little priority given to make financial support available. However, there are other areas in which considerable discrepancy can be highlighted. The article draws a reflection on the way in which the Report has been put together and argues that, in order to build a more accurate analysis, the Council of Europe should have connected the responses received from governments and civil society organisations and make them dialogue, rather than providing two unrelated summaries on the state of citizenship and human rights education without merging analogies and questioning discrepancies between responses received from different stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]