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Following some brief introductory remarks that make dear the data and literature that have been used to write this paper, there are four main sections. Firstly, there is a description of the courses relevant to citizenship education that are provided in a range of European institutions of high education. Secondly, there is a discussion about what those courses seem to suggest that students following courses in higher education need to know about citizenship. Thirdly, an argument is made for those who work within institutions of higher education to be particularly aware of the significance of two key issues: access to courses and the process which is appropriate for teaching and learning about citizenship. Fourthly, some recommendations are made about what could be done in a cross-European context so as to improve the possibilities of strengthening the potential of citizenship education. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of a number of tensions that may affect the development of citizenship education in Europe.

This article explores the tools and strategic options for policymaking of two European intergovernmental organisations in the area of citizenship education. The first section analyses the policy tools used to date, whereas the second section presents current global, political and education-specific challenges in the field. The third section investigates options for how the two organisations might develop their policymaking in future years with a view to formulating recommendations to enable these organisations to make the best use of the policy tools and resources at their disposal. Overall, the article suggests that both the Council of Europe and the European Union are facing significant legal and resource restraints – to a greater extent where the Council of Europe is concerned and to a somewhat lesser extent for the European Union – that limit their capacity to shape and enforce citizenship education policymaking at national levels. Both institutions therefore rely heavily on informational and, to some extent, financial and organisational tools to influence policymaking. Finally, the paper presents a set of clear and actionable goals for improving the power and impact of the informational and organizational policy tools at the disposal of both institutions.

In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the unschooling movement, highlighting the important philosophical differences, among other differences, between unschooling and homeschooling. They then argue that to the extent that traditional schooling is a project of massification—increasingly dominated by a neoliberal ethos in our contemporary times—as opposed to emancipation, unschooling should be seen as its antithesis, providing an option for parents seeking a truly democratic education. Building on the basic presumption of the importance of autonomy, the authors contend that unschooling provides important insights to democratic education. A model that radicalizes Rousseau through Freire is presented. Specifically, the authors note Rousseau’s injunction to choose between making a person or making a citizen, and then consider Rousseau’s notion of the general will in combination with Freire’s lesson that citizens must engage with the collective in critically transitive ways. Rousseau and Freire can be read together to present a philosophy of unschooling in schools necessary to education for democracy to overcome the massifying, neoliberal impulse of our time.

The paper traces the development of citizenship in the curriculum in England since the 1960s, emerging particularly from the Crick report. It argues for lessons to be learnt from John Dewey’s ‘Democracy and education’, the centenary of which is being celebrated this year.

Space represented on geographical maps is ordered and navigable, allowing one to ‘know’ features and layouts of places before visiting, and finding landmarks, pathways and spaces of importance that connect you from one point to another, reducing possibilities for disorientation. Maps ‘work’ because they represent a reality already ordered and structured. We argue that this order could be considered a form of Biesta's (2011) socialisation conception of civic learning, where the map reader can know in advance where they are going and what they will find. However, regarding interactions with derelict, historical, new or ‘missing’ spaces, the use of maps with residents can create different understandings of place. The map within these engagements stimulates the unexpectedness necessary to disrupt space as seen ‘from above’. These ground-level disruptions, we argue, are a necessary part of subjectification processes ( Biesta, 2011 ): the map reader becomes map-maker in the creation of an alternative engagement with their landscape. In our paper we report on an empirical study involving two cases: a historical society in a post-industrial location with an invisible history, due to the decline of its heavy industry since the 1980s, and an environment group in an official Conservation Area with a history broadly stable and visible today, both in Scotland. We utilise a psychogeographic methodology that deconstructs the mapreading and mapmaking ‘order’, exposing it to re-explorations by individuals, who in turn construct layered spatial and temporal maps – through their civic actions – towards their subjectification and emergence as political agents.

The European dimension is of salient importance for understanding and shaping politics especially, but not only, in Europe. The European Union by now has become a compulsory content of civics classes in secondary schools throughout Germany. For teachers, however, teaching this topic is connected with manifold difficulties, for example, due to the complexity and dynamics of European integration, the (perceived) distance of European Union politics, and popular prejudices. European Union content and didactics are not always included in teacher training; moreover, civics is often taught by teachers who have not been trained in this subject. Thus, special continuing education for civics teachers with regard to teaching the European Union is needed. In the context of the Jean Monnet project Politiklehrerfortbildung zur nachhaltigen Vermittlung Europäischer Bürgerschaftskompetenzen [Civics teachers’ continuing education for sustainable teaching of European citizen competencies] ( http://peb.uni-goettingen.de ), 180 teachers participated in nine continuing education courses throughout Germany. The training courses were developed at Göttingen University and designed to update both teachers’ knowledge on European integration (focus: Treaty of Lisbon; the ‘Euro Crisis’) and their capacity to convey European Union knowledge and competencies to pupils. Practical experiences in various methodological approaches were integrated into the training course as well as a visit of a member of the European Parliament. The courses were accompanied by an empirical study with pre-, post- and follow-up-tests (standardized questionnaires, both paper and pencil and online; pre/post sample N = 179). This contribution introduces several key results of the accompanying study regarding the European Union-related characteristics of participating teachers (e.g. the relation between European Union knowledge and attitudes towards the European Union, controlling for background variables such as gender and school type), the current practice – including goals, approaches, methods and problems – of teaching the subject of the European Union from a teachers’ perspective and the effects of the teachers’ continuing education series Politiklehrerfortbildung zur nachhaltigen Vermittlung Europäischer Bürgerschaftskompetenzen.

Within the last 30 years, the African continent has experienced significant changes related to democracy, governance, and education; however, large-scale international studies of citizenship education have not included African nations. Despite this gap, youth political movements incubated in universities and secondary schools have been influential factors in political change; in addition, youth currently make up a large portion of the population of Africa, with 43% of the population under the age of 14. The ways that young people understand and enact citizenship will shape the direction of their nations and the continent. This article discusses considerations for researching citizenship education in post-colonial nations in Africa. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies of civic education in Ghana and Liberia, the paper proposes four major considerations for researchers: first, the importance of situating conceptions of citizenship in the context of historical and contemporary issues; second, the importance of considering reciprocity in research ethics; third, the need to consider the impact of the researcher on the work, and fourth, the willingness to look for civic influences beyond the civics classroom and the school.

A neglected part of the history of teaching sociology is the history of teaching high school sociology. The American Sociological Association's centennial in 2005 affords sociologists an opportunity to reflect on the teaching of sociology–anywhere and everywhere that it happens. In the spirit of contributing to the history of teaching sociology in the United States, this paper outlines the roughly 95-year history of the teaching of high school sociology. I rely upon published course descriptions written by high school sociology teachers and empirical studies conducted by academic sociologists. They demonstrate that past high school sociology courses have focused primarily on examining social problems and current events, and on promoting citizenship education. This remains the case today. I offer several reasons why the courses have looked as they have over the past 95 years, and conclude with four predictions about the future of teaching high school sociology.

Study abroad is believed to be a transformative learning experience for students. However, the extent to which study abroad adds value beyond what is possible on campus needs to be demonstrated. In this paper, we document the learning outcomes assessment undertaken by a faculty-led study-abroad program at a large university in the U.S. Southeast. Specifically, we describe the development of a theory-based pedagogical model of global citizenship for short-term study abroad and efforts to document student learning associated with its constructs. The results of these efforts indicate that when student learning outcomes and study-abroad pedagogy are aligned with theory, and rigorously assessed, the opportunity to demonstrate learning is possible, and opportunities for instructional improvement present themselves.

It has always been acknowledged that a free society is dependent on the knowledge, skills, and virtues of its citizens and those they elect to office. For this reason, civic education has always been regarded as an essential component of any education system. A new enthusiasm for citizenship education has recently seen the revision, or re-introduction of civics programmes into the schools of Western Europe, North America and Australasia. This paper suggests that while facts are undoubtedly an essential ingredient of any civic education programme, formal instruction in civics and government may not be the best way to teach effective citizenship. In a world that demands confident, informed and responsible citizens, citizenship education may be taught best through programmes which develop appropriate skills and encourage appropriate attitudes and values.