Differences in Implementation of Civic and Citizenship Education at School

• In Event: A Diversified or Homogenized Landscape in Cross-Cultural Education Systems?

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to compare two approaches in implementing civic and citizenship education in curriculum:
- Separated approach: separate subject related to civic and citizenship education and/or human and social sciences
- Integrated approach: integrated into all subjects
More specifically, this study examines whether there is a significant difference in students’ civic achievement when comparing this two approaches, and what impact has each of the two different designs on student’s expected electoral and political participation. Is it the separated or the integrated approach that positively correlates with students’ civic knowledge and their expected participation?

Recent empirical surveys (Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Kerr, & Losito, 2010) point out that results of pupils achieved in the test of knowledge in civic education, as well as their opinions on public events will be influenced not only by individual characteristics (e.g., gender, interest in public activities), or possibly their family background, but, eventually, also by the overall influence of the school. Civic education lessons constitute a separate factor in that respect. In general, it is held that the curriculum of the civic education is, in most education systems defined vaguely as well as the importance of the subject is, compared to other subjects, rather lower. The fact that declared goals of the civic education and their real teaching divert significantly is another phenomenon. (Torney-Purta et al., 1999).

A correlational analysis followed by an analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparing between the separated and integrated approaches for civic and citizenship education in curriculum will be carried out. These analyses examine the relationship between the aforementioned civic education approaches on students’ civic achievement as well as indirect effects to their expected electoral and political participation between the modes of curriculum.

This paper uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) conducted in 2009. ICCS 2009 survey assessed 140,000 eight-grade students, 60,000 teachers and 5,000 school principals in 38 countries. The data include measures of student’s background, and student’s civic knowledge. Context information about schools was given by teachers and school principals.

It has been observed that different levels civic knowledge influenced by a significant effect of the 76% separate subject approach and 93% integrated subject approach at school. The preliminary analyses observed significant effects of separate and integrated civic and citizenship education curriculum on student’s expected electoral and political participation (p-values <.05, R2separate=.561 and R2integrated=.494).


This work contributes to fill a gap in the literature by using international comparative data and a well-grounded theoretical framework to analyze how different implementations of civic and citizenship education influence students’ development in civic education.
Its findings identify students’ civic knowledge to the relationship with their expected electoral and political participation. We believe that these results can contribute to the design of civic related policies and programs aimed at school level.

Author

• Marta Kostek-Drosihn, IEA Data Processing and Research Center