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Anu  Toots

Dimokritos  Kavadias

Saskia  De Groof

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Toots, Anu

De Groof, Saskia

Kavadias, Dimokritos

Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)

Volume 11, Number 1, © JSSE 2012 ISSN 1618-5293Anu Toots, Saskia De Groof, Dimokritos KavadiasEditorial: New Citizens for Globalised Societies? Citizenship Education from a Comparative PerspectiveComparative studies on civic and citizenship education have already a solid tradition.  The International  Association for  the Evaluation of  Educational Achievement (IEA) conducted its first study of civic education covering 10 countries  in  1971.  However,  cross  national  education studies  flourished only in turn of the Millennium when the number of studies and countries involved  increased  remarkably.  The  last  IEA  International  Civic  and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS)  in 2009 had already 38 participating countries,  among  them  12  non-European  countries  and  16  emerging democracies.Citizenship education has always been at  the core of  mass schooling in modern nation-states since the 18th century (Boli 1989). As nation states try to  adapt  to  increasing  economic,  political  and  social  interdependence, former  approaches  to  citizenship  education  are  called  to  meet  the challenges  of  globalisation. The  ICCS  survey  offers  the  opportunity  to answer  some  pressing  issues  related  to  questions  of  social  integration, equity and viability of democracies. What are the national approaches to education? How do schools combine educating knowledge, attitudes and values?  Can  schools  reduce  the  impact  of  socio-economic  and  cultural disadvantages?  Are  the  best  educational  practices  transferrable  to other countries? This is only a very short list of common issues in all international educational  surveys. Besides these commonalities there are  some special reasons why comparative studies on citizenship education gain importance today. Firstly,  democracy and democratic governance itself are changing. The quality of governance is shifting and the effect of political institutions on  the  overall  performance  of  contemporary  democracies  is  faltering (Dalton  2004).  Political  representation  –  the  linkage  between  citizens’ demands and political  decisions – is becoming problematic in globalised markets and multilevel political settings (Mair et al. 2009). This is thought to have led to problems of political participation. Citizens tend to be more critical and even to distrust democratic institutions (Milner 2010). Political engagement tends to diversify and citizens tend to adopt new modes of becoming  informed  about  politics  (Norris  2000).  As  political  science literature reveals, established and emerging democracies react differently to these  changes  (Norris  2004;  van  Deth  et  al.  2007).  The  study  of  the mechanisms affecting civic trust  and engagement  can shed light  on the working of democracy and provide a piece of the jigsaw in understanding the linkage between citizens and the government in globalised societies. Secondly, societies have become more dynamic and open. This implies that virtually all developed countries today are multicultural with a notable share of  immigrant  population.  High  migration  combined  with  the  economic 3 Volume 11, Number 1, © JSSE 2012 ISSN 1618-5293recession increase population disparities even further, which may spill over on civic engagement patterns. These fundamental changes in society and democracy also pose higher expectations on citizenship education. Schools are  still  expected  to  prepare  young  people  to  undertake  their  roles  as citizens  in  a  diverse  and mobile  world.  The  IEA  International  Civic  and Citizenship  Education  Study  provides  a  primary  outlook  to  what  extent countries have succeeded in this effort  (Schulz et al. 2010). However, in order to have a real impact on learning practices and education policy, a more in-depth look is needed. This special issue of JSSE seeks to put large-scale survey data into specific national and local contexts. By choosing such an approach we want to stress that the key feature of citizenship education in the era of globalisation is not unification of learning practices but their growing  interdependence.  Although  the  common  core  of  citizenship education  around  the  globe  is  visible,  the  effect  of  global  tendencies remains  context  specific.  Furthermore,  one  of  the  key  lessons  of  past research on political socialisation is that there seems not to be a “one best way”  to  educate  youngsters  into  citizens.  Every  context  forms  a combination of different conditions that influence simultaneously schools, societies  and  outcomes.  Also,  most  concepts  related  to  citizenship  are multifaceted and students as  young citizens hold multiple  identities.  As such, more sophisticated theoretical models are needed in order to better understand what makes citizenship education work better. Our ambition is to discuss new perspectives as well as limitations of large-scale studies of civic  and  citizenship  education.  Such  a  discussion  is  made  possible  by accumulation of  relevant  datasets  and several  initiatives  on comparative research in the field. The articles in this issue cover a wide geography of countries ranging from established democracies such as the US and Western European countries to Slovenia  and  Hong  Kong  which  have  experienced  fundamental  regime change  quite  recently.  Despite  the  different  focus,  all  articles  clearly underscore the central role that democratic attitudes play in contemporary citizenship education. Most articles are based on the IEA ICCS 2009 data, however,  several  of  them (Kennedy,  Huang,  Chow;  Barber,  Torney-Purta) employ also data of the previous IEA CIVED 1999 study in order to examine changes over the time or expand the discussion base by introducing other databases  (Wilkenfeld,  Torney-Purta;  Neubauer).  The  current methodological  sophistication enables researchers  to combine data from various sources to assess the impact of different conditions on aspects of citizenship education.The first two articles try to assess the impact of contextual or aggregate variables  on  attitudes  of  young  people,  over  and  above  the  effect  of individual  level  variables.  The  next  two  articles  try  to  evaluate  the methodological  possibilities  of  studying  attitudes  over  time  in  cross-national research. Finally, the last article tries to review a number of cross-national studies on a content based level. The  opening  article  by  Isac,  Maslowski  and  Van  der  Werf  examines determinants  of  native  students’  attitudes  towards  immigrants  in  18 European countries by focusing on the effect  of immigrant  share  in the classroom. By using multilevel modelling the authors reveal that there is a small positive effect of immigrant share on attitudes towards immigrants of natives  in  most  countries,  which  gives  some  evidence  for  the  contact 4 Volume 11, Number 1, © JSSE 2012 ISSN 1618-5293hypothesis. However, some countries significantly differ from this overall pattern. These findings demonstrate how influential contextual factors can be and thus “one cannot take for granted that the opportunity for contact in classroom  setting  is  enough  to  foster  positive  attitudes  towards immigrants.”While also focusing on the role of schools and neighbourhood contexts, the second article takes us to the US case. Wilkenfeld and Torney-Purta study how family, peers, schools and neighbourhood contexts are related to the civic  empowerment  gap.  The  authors  found  that  a  positive  democratic environment  in  schools  is  more  beneficial  for  students  in  poor neighbourhoods than in rich neighbourhoods.  Less advantaged students experience more benefits from democratic and civic learning opportunities than more  privileged students.  Authors  also  stress  that  features  of  the contexts are at least partly responsible for the civic empowerment gap. The practical  significance  of this  finding can’t  be underestimated –  societies should  consider  different  approaches  to  the  citizenship  education depending on varieties of community characteristics. The  third  article  is  devoted  to  political  trust.  What  makes  this  study interesting is that Kennedy, Huang and Chow investigate patterns in trust in a transition period in which Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty. In the  course  of  regime  change  some  institutions  were  more  strongly endorsed by adolescents in 2009 than in 1999 (the courts and the United Nations),  while  others  registered declining support  (district  councils  and political  parties).  Also,  they found that  levels of trust  towards particular institutions have a different impact on civic engagement. Trust in socio-legal institutions goes in pair with a higher willingness to vote, but inhibits other forms of political  action. The direction taken by Hong Kong might indicate  a  shift  towards  a  more  “conservative”  realisation  of  civic participation.  The authors however warn us for an indiscriminate use of institutional trust. By using confirmatory factor analysis they come to the conclusion that political trust is a multidimensional construct in the context of Hong Kong.The article by Barber and Torney-Purta continues the methodological issue raised by Kennedy Huang and Chow about possibilities and pitfalls in using the IEA CIVED and ICCS in comparative research. They note that despite visible similarities between the two surveys, they have been constructed as independent  studies  and  therefore  special  care  must  be  taken  when comparing the two datasets. Barber and Torney-Purta illustrate how this can be done with the example of attitudes towards immigrants and political trust  in five  Nordic countries and point  to the limits in interpreting the results. The final article takes a critical look at various international initiatives on citizenship  education  research  conducted  in  2001-2010.  Based  on  an extensive literature review, Neubauer argues that the conceptualization of citizenship has a significant effect on citizenship education research and educational practices. The dominant approach in both research and practice has been the narrow/liberal understanding of citizenship, which – according to the author – does not correspond to contemporary democracy. Looking for  a  “one  best  way”  seems  to  reduce  the  diversity  of  contemporary societies  at  absurdum.  Although  the  liberal  concept  has  been modestly 5 Volume 11, Number 1, © JSSE 2012 ISSN 1618-5293revised  and  the  “good  citizen”  is  becoming  replaced  by  the “active”  or “critical citizen” it does not solve the crucial issue – the lack of research on global and multilayered forms of citizenship. References Boli, John. 1989. New Citizens for a New Society: The Institutional Origins of Mass Schooling in Sweden. Oxford.Dalton, Russell J. 2004. Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. New York.Mair, Peter; Müller C. Wolfgang; Plasser, Fritz. 2009. Political Parties and Electoral Change: Party Responses to Electoral Markets. London.Milner, Henry. 2010. The Internet Generation. Engaged Citizens or Political Dropouts. Boston.Norris, Pippa. 2000. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies. Cambridge, New York.Norris, Pippa. 2004. Electoral Engineering:Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge.Schulz, Wolfram; Ainley, John; Fraillon, Julian; Kerr, David; Losito, Bruno. 2010. ICCS 2009 International Report: Civic Knowledge, Attitudes, an Engagement among Lower-secondary School Students in 38 Countries. Amsterdam: IEA.Van Deth, Jan W.; Montero, Jose R.; Westholm, Anders, eds. 2007. Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies: A Comparative Analysis. London. 6 

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New Citizens for Globalised Societies? Citizenship Education from a Comparative Perspective

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New Citizens for Globalised Societies? Citizenship Education from a Comparative Perspective

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