Suchergebnisse

Schools carry the important task of fostering democratic values like equality and tolerance among students. This study examined to what extent a valid and reliable measurement instrument can be developed to gain insight into students' attitudes towards democratic values and what can be concluded based on this measurement. We constructed the Fundamental Democratic Values Questionnaire (FDVQ) based on existing conceptualisations of democratic values. After that, we conducted two pilot studies ( N = 302 and N = 227) and a first measurement ( N = 3278) among Dutch students in grades 5 and 6 (approximately 10–12 years old), resulting in an impression of the usefulness of the instrument for empirical research and practical use by schools. The results support the FDVQ's validity and reliability to measure students' attitudes towards democratic values. Support for democratic values among students was generally high. These findings and the implications of the FDVQ are further discussed.

In this paper, we develop an open-ended approach to evaluating students' citizenship competences. We aim to give students the opportunity to describe what citizenship means for them in personally relevant contexts. We developed three rubrics relevant to students' citizenship in daily life. Students in grade 10 and 11( Mage = 16) evaluated their competences or completed an assignment which was assessed using rubrics. The results show that for both approaches, the majority of students were able to provide relevant input pertaining to their citizenship competences. However, students' explanations were often brief, limiting the personal context they provided and the extent to which they demonstrated higher levels of proficiency. This study shows that employing rubrics for an open-ended approach to assessing citizenship competences shows promise in allowing students to share and elaborate upon their experiences and viewpoints, but more focus is needed on improving the quantity and quality of student input.

Learning to relate to others that differ from you is one of the central aims of citizenship education. Schools can be understood as practice grounds for citizenship, where students' citizenship is not only influenced by the formal curriculum, but also by their experiences in the context of teacher–student and student–student relations. In this article we therefore investigate how the practice of dealing with difference is enacted in schools. Data were collected through an exploratory multiple case study in four secondary schools, combining interviews and focus groups. Despite the differences between the schools in terms of population and location, in all schools the reflection on the enactment of 'dealing with differences' was limited in scope and depth. 'Being different' was understood primarily in terms of individual characteristics. Furthermore, in all schools there was limited reflection on being different in relation to teachers and the broader community. Finally, relevant differences for citizenship were confined to the category of 'ethnic and cultural diversity'. This article calls for preparing teachers to consider a broader array of differences to practice dealing with differences with their students and to support students in reflecting on the societal implications of being different from each other.

We still have only a limited understanding of the effectiveness of schools in promoting citizenship, the factors explaining this effectiveness and the way in which these aspects interact. Using elaborate cross-sectional data from students, teachers, team leaders and school leaders at 78 Dutch secondary schools, this study empirically examines a school effectiveness model of citizenship education in order to achieve a more comprehensive explanation of citizenship competence acquisition. Using multilevel structural equation models, we analyze direct and indirect school-level predictors of student knowledge, attitudes and self-evaluated skills regarding citizenship. Four aspects of citizenship education are examined: the school's policies regarding citizenship education, its teaching practices, and its professional and pedagogical learning environment (i.e., teaching community and classroom climate). With respect to school policies, positive effects are found for the attention paid to citizenship education in staff meetings. The professional learning environment is related to students' citizenship competences mainly indirectly, via the average classroom climate. Effects of teaching practices vary: more emphasis on monitoring is more frequently found at schools with lower average levels of citizenship competences, whereas schools that let students choose their own topics in class have on average higher levels of citizenship competences.

In preparing generations for the future, schools fulfill a qualification and a civic task: providing youngsters knowledge and skills for the labor market, and equipping them to navigate democracy and society. Little research has considered how schools combine these tasks, particularly in relation to schools' student composition in terms of socioeconomic (dis)advantages across vocational and academic tracks, the focus of this study. By means of a unique, combined dataset, qualification and civic outcome indicators of 101 Dutch secondary schools were examined. Results showed that schools' qualification and civic outcomes were more positively related in academic than in vocational tracks, possibly informed by schools' student composition: the role of student composition was stronger in academic than vocational tracks for both qualification and civic outcomes. This is discussed in relation to schools' role in mitigating versus reproducing societal inequalities.

This paper analyses how young people's citizenship knowledge is related to the different domains of citizenship in their daily lives. Based on a representative sample of some 5300 students in the third year of 80 Dutch secondary schools, our study relates citizenship knowledge to student background and school characteristics. The knowledge test developed for this study situates citizenship knowledge in the literature and the societal and political context defining the social structure students live in. The contribution of our study lies in this broad conceptualisation of citizenship, which is reflected in fine-grained, more specific results than the outcomes of earlier research. Gender differences are particularly pronounced in the social aspects of citizenship and are small in the political domain. As far as ethnic background is concerned, we see knowledge differences in the domain of "acting democratically". This is also the domain where most of the differences in citizenship knowledge between students of the various schools and tracks occur. School size, public/private school, urbanisation and a more heterogeneous student population cannot explain these differences. To mitigate inequalities in citizenship knowledge between and within schools, which are relatively large in the Netherlands, further research is necessary to investigate micro-level mechanisms within schools.

The goal of this paper was to examine the relation between teachers and students and between students on societal involvement in Dutch secondary schools. As such, we studied the role of parents on adolescents' societal involvement and to what extent positive teacher-student and student-student relationships reduced differences in societal involvement due to parental background differences. To estimate this cross-sectional multilevel analyses, a rich combination of datasets from the Netherlands was used, encompassing 4,128 15-year-old students in 58 schools in 2010/2011. The results showed that teacher-student relations and student-student relations were positively associated with societal involvement. The level of societal involvement differed between students' from households with lower incomes, level of education and employment, even though parenting styles seemed unrelated to societal involvement. Students from higher educated parents were found to benefit more from these positive relationships with teachers. This advantage arguably amplifies the differences in societal involvement between students with lower and higher educated parents. Future studies can give further insight into the role of classroom interrelations using additional longitudinal data or focus on more qualitative observations to explore the role of classroom interrelations and their influence on developing societal involvement.

This study examined the association between teacher-student and student-student relationships on societal involvement in Dutch primary and secondary schools. In addition, it studied differences in the effects of teacher-student relationships and student-student relationships among students from various parental backgrounds on societal involvement, indicating the possibilities of schools to reduce social inequalities between students. In two studies, multilevel Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses on the Cohort Onderzoek Onderwijs Loopbanen(5-18) data were used for students age 12 and age 15 to investigate the relative and lasting association between teacher-student and student-student relationships from primary to secondary school on societal involvement. In analysis A, 9,334 students from 1,036 classes were included in the analyses. In analysis B, 934 students from 667 classes were included. The results showed that teacher-student relationships are positively associated with societal involvement in both primary and secondary school. The association between teacher-student relationships and societal involvement in primary school were also important in secondary school. Moreover, positive teacher-student relationships were more beneficial for societal involvement for students with parents from lower educated backgrounds, indicating that schools can compensate for inequalities between students. Student-student relationships were found to be unrelated to societal involvement in both primary and secondary school.

United or dispersed? Civic competences in a differentiated schooling system . This paper examines whether there are differences in civic competences between secondary school children on the basis of school type, gender, ethnicity and parents' education, and whether such differences
are smaller in schools that devote greater attention to civic education. Using survey data form students and school principals in fifteen secondary schools in the Netherlands, we examine civic competences relating to 'democratic behaviour', 'socially responsible behaviour',
and 'dealing with social differences'. Our analyses show that students differ significantly in how they judge their own competences in these domains. Furthermore, differences in socially responsible behaviour between students of different levels of parental education are smaller
in schools that pay much attention to civic education. No evidence for mitigating effects of a school's attention to civic education emerged for either democratic behaviour or responsible behaviour.

This article examines the role of teachers, parents, and friends in stimulating the development of societal interest among adolescents. It assesses the extent teachers can compensate for societal interest differences among adolescents that arise due to socioeconomic differences. The YeS panel study is used, with 587 students aged 13-18 assessed annually over a six-year period (2010-2015) and uses latent growth curve modeling (LGCM). Our findings indicate that awareness-raising by each of the three groups contributes to the development of societal interest among adolescents, with teachers being the most influential socializing agent. Teachers were more influential societal interest development among adolescents from less privileged homes, confirming our hypothesis that schools can compensate for societal interest differences.

As schools are increasingly expected to develop their students' political and social engagement in order to promote good citizenship, they are struggling to define what good citizenship is. In this article, we put forward a way of formulating perspectives on citizenship that specifies the normative aspects of good citizenship in a systematic manner. In doing so, we distinguish between citizenship education goals which are generally shared and citizenship education goals that are often disputed. Subsequently, an exploratory data analysis is conducted to investigate to which degree educational level in current Western European educational systems is associated with outcomes regarding these consensus and contested citizenship education goals. The findings provide support for our hypothesis that educational level is predominantly associated with general democratic citizenship outcomes, rather than with outcomes that are emphasized by more specific, but contested citizenship perspectives.