Cross-national priorities for Civic and Citizenship Education

The ever-changing world we live in has led new challenges for countries in educating their youth to become citizens in the 21st century. This paper explores cross-national priorities for the implementation of civic and citizenship education utilizing data collected across twentyfour countries that participated in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. Information was collected on the main aims and objectives of civic and citizenship education for students at the lower secondary level from educational policy documents as well as how these are perceived at the school level. Results suggest a degree in commonality across countries in the importance of key content areas of Civic and Citizenship education that are incorporated in curriculum, while also yielding some striking differences. Some differences in the conceptualization of civic and citizenship education and perceptions at the school level are explored.