Case Study: Citizenship and Education in Twenty-eight Countries

by Katrin Uhl

Judith Torney-Purta, Rainer Lehmann, Hans Oswald and Wolfram Schulz: "Citizenship and Education in Twenty-eight Countries: Civic Knowledge at Age Fourteen”. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Amsterdam 2001.

How much does civic education matter? A question, those working in the field of civic education – be it inside or outside of schools – have doubtlessly thought about more than once. The last decade of the 20th century has given us ample reasons to renew the discussion about the role of civic education, the two most prominent being the number of young democracies going through transformation processes and a perceived move of the young generation away from politics. Developments that seem to call for a rethinking of old approaches to civic education. However, what exactly are those old approaches and what have their effects been so far?

The Civic Education Project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) deals with that very lack of information about the state of civic education not just in one country, but cross-nationally. The study, initiated in the mid 1990s, aims at identifying and examining the ways in which young people are being prepared for their role as citizens in democracies. As a first step in a two-phased approach, 24 qualitative national case studies provided extensive information on the circumstances, content and process of civic education in participating countries. Based on that information, the second phase of the project tested and surveyed 14 year old students in 28 countries on their knowledge of civic-related content, their concepts of and attitudes towards democracy, and their participation in that area. Covering democracies as diverse as the US, Sweden, Colombia or Estonia, the study focuses on educational programs, the students and the teachers. Based on the assumption that civic education is multi-dimensional and includes cognitive and conceptual strands, students were assessed concerning both, their civic knowledge as well as their skills in interpreting civic-related information.

The results of the study underline the findings earlier national case studies in concluding that young people have a basic understanding of democratic values and institutions but do, however, remain sceptical about traditional forms of political engagement. They are nevertheless open to other types of civic engagement outside the static world of party politics. While the details vary across the 28 participating countries, this tendency seems to be the same cross-nationally. On issues ranging from the students’ concept of democracy to their attitude towards immigrants, the study offers a wealth of detailed information and points out the connection between the extend of civic knowledge and the likelihood for students’ civic engagement.
What implications do the study’s findings have for the future role and course of civic education, especially in schools?

While it does not aim at making a curriculum development effort, the IEA-study certainly offers a lot food for thoughts for policy-makers, curriculum developers and teachers: Civic education, so the study’s conclation, is still largely a matter of knowledge transmission, whereas critical thinking and political engagement receives less attention. The skills necessary to become an active citizen, however, go beyond mere civic knowledge. Teachers in most countries seem to judge the teacher-centred, cognitive approach to civic education that prevails in most schools negatively, however, the teaching methods still remain the same. The study goes no further but remains at pointing out the gap between reality and the vision: it calls for new, innovative, participatory teaching methods to find their way into the classroom. The nature of these methods though is not discussed any further. Future in-depth analysis of the collected data will hopefully provide further insight in that matter.

What conclusions can be drawn for those working in the field of civic education? It has been evident for a few years now that a reform of civic education is long overdue and the IEA study reaffirms that. Civic education has to take into consideration that traditional forms of civic engagement no longer attract most of the younger generation. There is, however, what seems to be an untapped potential within the young generation for civic engagement outside the traditional realm – a potential that civic education should further. The cross-national, comparative study confirms the importance of schools in preparing youth for their role in civic society but points out the shortcomings of schools when it comes to conveying the "civic skills”. It stresses that the current array of methods is not apt to the challenges of civic education today. It is to be hoped, that the study will spark a lively and most of all productive debate about new methods and approaches to teaching what it means to live in a democracy.

Index: Podium

Language Learning, Tolerance and Human Rights
by K. Hugh Starkey

Sub Group "Tolerance Reports"
by Valerie Morgan

Sub Group "Language and Democracy"
by Michael Seberich

Sub Group "Evaluation"
by Katrin Uhl

Portrait
Participa: a Chilean NGO

Case Study: Citizenship and Education in 28 Countries
reviewed by Katrin Uhl

"Linguistic Genocide in Education"
reviewed by Constanze Schellhaas

Carl Bertelsmann Prize
by Sabine Donner