Patterns in the Civic Knowledge, Engagement, and Attitudes of European Adolescents: The IEA Civic Education Study

Civic education and its role in democracy have a new place on the agendas of many European countries. Increasing globalisation economically and politically, along with threats to the traditional bases of citizenship, increasingly complex political issues such as environmental or immigration policy, and the fading of wellaccepted narratives of country or State to which people can relate their own goals are amongst the reasons. The diminishing bonds with traditional social groups have given people more freedom of choice but seem to have led to declining `social capital' in both Europe (van Deth et al., 1999) and North America (Putnam, 2001).The tragic events in the last four months of 2001 brought new challenges to the sense of national security in many countries. Many observers emphasise distinctions between the older and the newer democracies, but there is no compelling reason to think of them as having completely different sets of problems related to civic education. In Eastern and Central Europe, issues relating to citizenship have become more urgent as major political and economic changes have been implemented. The formal and informal political socialisation of previous generations has often been seen as a challenge. Plasser, Ulram and Waldrauch (1998) delineate several tasks as part of democratic consolidation, among them preparing the citizenry for political practices and attitudes, and stabilising and anchoring political institutions in all areas of society. This suggests an important role for civic education. Reforms of education for citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe have often required massive changes in the educational system, including large-scale hiring and preparation of new teachers (Losito & Mintrop, 2001). In Western Europe, the issues are somewhat different but related. The older democracies face diminishing levels of conventional political participation, especially low rates of voting, declining party attachment and political disinterest among young people. They generally want to refresh or rejuvenate democracy and its appreciation by adolescents, usually by targeted rather than massive or systemwide reforms. Although civic education, as it attempts to build civic engagement, is especially important to educators in the older democracies, they also emphasise the role of civic knowledge, which may not be providing an adequate basis for the appreciation of democracy and for engagement. European Journal of Education, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2002