Citizenship Competences of Students in Elementary and Secondary School in the Netherlands

• In Event: The Cohort Study on Educational Careers in Primary and Secondary Education (COOL5-18)

Abstract

Introduction
Citizenship has been introduced in the curriculum of many Western countries (Eurydice, 2005; Torney-Purta et al., 2001). It is seen as adding to the development of young people’s competences which enable them to perform their social tasks in everyday life (Ten Dam & Volman, 2007). In a literature review Ten Dam et al. (2010) distinguish four social tasks students need to fulfill to function in a socially accepted manner and make a critical contribution to society: acting democratically, acting in a socially responsible manner, dealing with differences and dealing with conflicts. They emphasize that to fulfill each social task, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and reflection are needed.
The development of citizenship competences is considered to be of importance by researchers, educators and politicians for many reasons: To increase social cohesion in schools and society, to decrease political and social tension, and social inequality (e.g. Leenders & Veugelers, 2004). Young people also acquire their citizenship competences in their family, their neighbourhood, their relationships with friends (Lawy & Biesta, 2006). Not much is known on how big a role the school plays compared to individual background characteristics. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the possible influence of the background characteristics gender, social and ethnic background and school factors on citizenship competences: Social-ethnic composition of the school population, education sector (elementary vs secondary school) and school denomination.
Data and Method
Data from over 11,500 12-year old students in the final grade of elementary school from 550 schools and of over 3800 15-year old students in the third year of secondary school from 35 schools of the first measurement of the COOL5-18 cohort study were used.
Citizenship was measured using the citizenship competences questionnaire for pupils by Ten Dam et al., 2011. The questionnaire consisted of 94 items on citizenship competences, distinguishing the four different social tasks (democratic action, socially responsible behaviour, dealing with conflict and dealing with difference), divided over four components (knowledge, attitude, skills, reflection). Knowledge items (test) were measured using multiple choice questions with three possible answers (dichotomous measurement level). Attitude skills and reflection items (survey) were measured on a four-point Likert scale. The instrument demonstrated good reliability and validity for all of the subcomponents (Ten Dam et al, 2011).
Step-wise multilevel analyses were performed, in which scores on the four components were related with gender, social and ethnic background, social-ethnic school composition, and school denomination.
Results and conclusions
Most of the differences in citizenship competences were on the individual level. For instance, elementary school data showed that 27% of the variance in knowledge of citizenship competences was on the school level. Significant results with school factors were found. Children in elementary schools with a majority of children from ethnic minorities with low-educated parents, had higher scores on attitude, reflection and skills than children in schools with a majority of children from intermediate social backgrounds. As expected, secondary school students had higher scores on knowledge of citizenship competence than students in elementary school.

Authors

• Guuske Ledoux, Universityersiteit van Amsterdam

• Harm Naaijer, University of Groningen

• Jaap Roeleveld, University of Amsterdam

• Ineke van der Veen, University of Amsterdam