Citizenship orientations and knowledge in primary and secondary education

Despite widespread attention to citizenship in educational practice, knowledge of the citizenship of students is still fragmented. We therefore present a comprehensive framework to integrate empirical data and theoretical insights into the citizenship of young people today. To develop and validate t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychology of education 2015-12, Vol.18 (4), p.749-767
Main Authors: Geboers, Ellen, Geijsel, Femke, Admiraal, Wilfried, ten Dam, Geert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assertiveness
Citizenship
Citizenship Education
Competence
Education
Education, Secondary
Educational Objectives
Educational Practices
Elementary education
Foreign Countries
High schools
Instructional Leadership
Interpersonal Competence
Knowledge
Knowledge Level
Middle School Students
Netherlands
Personality and Social Psychology
Primary Education
Prosocial Behavior
Reflection
Secondary education
Secondary School Students
Social aspects
Social Attitudes
Sociology of Education
Student Educational Objectives
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Summary:Despite widespread attention to citizenship in educational practice, knowledge of the citizenship of students is still fragmented. We therefore present a comprehensive framework to integrate empirical data and theoretical insights into the citizenship of young people today. To develop and validate the framework, we conducted exploratory and confirmative factor analyses on measures of citizenship attitudes, skills, reflection and knowledge for a sample of 7,768 students in grades 5–9 from 38 Dutch primary and secondary schools. The results were cross-validated using a different sample of 15,940 students in primary and secondary education. We were able to distinguish four citizenship orientations among students ( societal interest, prosocial ability, reflective thinking and assertiveness ) and two domains of citizenship knowledge ( societal knowledge and interpersonal knowledge ). This framework can help with the large-scale, empirical evaluation of the effects of citizenship education and also guide schools in the formulation of educational goals to support the development of citizenship competences among students.
ISSN:1381-2890
1573-1928
DOI:10.1007/s11218-014-9265-7