The ICCS 2016 study is a continuation and extension of ICCS 2009. The study explored the enduring and the emerging challenges of educating young people in a world where contexts of democracy and civic participation had changed and continue to change. In total, ICCS 2016 is based on test and questionnaire data from more than 94,000 students enrolled in their eighth year of schooling (Grade 8 or equivalent) at more than 3,800 schools in 24 countries. These student data were augmented by contextual questionnaire data from school principals of selected schools and more than 37,000 teachers.
TopBackground, Study Design And Research Questions
Civic and citizenship education aims to provide young people with the knowledge, understanding, and dispositions necessary for successful participation as citizens in society. It is meant to support emerging citizens by promoting their understanding and engagement with society’s principles and institutions, their development and exercise of informed critical judgment, and their learning about and appreciation of citizens’ rights and responsibilities. All these attributes are key to a proper functioning of a democracy, where citizens are thought of as actively involved agents when it comes to decision-making, governance, and change, in contrast to non-democratic regimes where their role is rather one of passive subjects. There has been a long tradition emphasis on the essential relationship between education and democracy in scholarly work on educational policy and practice (see, for example, Dewey, 1916).
ICCS builds on previous IEA studies of civic education and is a response to the challenge of educating young people in changing contexts of democracy and civic participation (see Schulz, Fraillon, Ainley, Losito, & Kerr, 2008). The first IEA study of civic education was conducted as part of the Six Subject Study, with data collected in 1971 (Torney, Oppenheim, & Farnen, 1975; Walker, 1976). The second study, the IEA Civic Education Study (CIVED), was carried out in 1999 (Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Oswald, & Schulz, 2001; Torney-Purta, Schwille, & Amadeo, 1999) followed by an additional survey of upper-secondary students in 2000 (Amadeo, Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Husfeldt, & Nikolova, 2002).