IEA civic education studies in Latin America: Paths of influence and critique in policy and research

Abstract

For the last two decades the international civic education studies of IEA have included a small group of Latin American countries. The results, in terms of learning outcomes in civic knowledge of their 14-year-old students, as well as the patterns of their attitudes and dispositions regarding political participation and coexistence, have been compared to other regions of the world. Describing the contribution of this type of international large-scale assessment to citizenship education and its renewal in the region is the purpose of this chapter, which in its first part addresses the issue of country participation. A second section describes the genesis of a Latin American module for assessing region-specific civic knowledge and attitudes, used both in the 2009 and 2016 cycles of IEA's International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). Its relevance and potential are discussed. Parts three and four describe the evolution of the influence of IEA civic studies upon both the policymaking and research fields of countries of the region using concepts from the policy transfer literature.