Citizenship in primary education. Characteristics of schools and pupils' competences

Abstract

This study aims to describe the nature of citizenship education in primary education. It concerns a representative picture of the state of affairs in the year 2020 in the Netherlands. The study involved 2237 group 8 pupils, 117 teachers and 89 school leaders from 94 schools. The results show that primary schools differ in the way they give substance to citizenship education. A latent class analysis indicates a group of schools with more favorable conditions for effective citizenship education. It also shows a relationship with favorable citizenship competences in these schools in terms of attitudes and self-assessed skills. Multilevel analysis shows that the individual characteristics of pupils explain most of the differences in citizenship outcomes. The school has a modest role in promoting citizenship outcomes, but at the same time, this study shows that there are opportunities to further develop citizenship education in schools.