Citizenship and the Constitution in History Textbooks. Fifth Year in Classical High Schools: A Case Study

Abstract

The teaching of citizenship and the Constitution is a valuable indicator of the degree of cultural development in a country. It is an educational issue that is played out in the classroom, in curricula, in curriculum planning, and in everyday teaching. By implementing citizenship and democracy education in schools at all levels, students will be able to acquire the basic civic education that is necessary and indispensable for their participation in social, political and democratic life. In Italy, citizenship education and the study of the Constitution are part of the teaching of contemporary history. This article analyses the six contemporary history textbooks used in the nine fifth-year classes of the three classical high schools in the city of Avellino in the 2019-2020 school year. In each textbook, the presence or absence of a part devoted exclusively to topics related to citizenship and the Constitution was checked. It was found that only two of the six textbooks have such a part. The topics addressed in these textbooks were then listed and their form and contents were analysed. A further critical assessment of the contents and the accompanying teaching activities was conducted in order to evaluate the extent to which the topics were problematized. From this data, it is still evident that these topics still receive little interest and attention.