What we can call implicit citizenship has antecedents from the 1970s onwards in relatively marginal initiatives in peace education, global studies, human rights education, and political education (Cogan and Derricot, 1998; Halstead and Taylor, 2000). Within England, across Europe and internationally many of the areas previously classified under such titles have shifted towards formal and explicit identification with citizenship as a subject (Gearon, 2003). The educational trend toward making citizenship explicit is a response to dramatic changes in the world in which we live over recent decades. Increased complexity in many aspects of social and cultural, political and educational life has led to educational initiatives like citizenship. Recent international research, for example, on wider factors influencing citizenship education suggests that the last two decades have witnessed a fundamental review of the concept of citizenship and what it involves in communities across the world in the realms of political, economic and social life (Kerr, 2003). A review of citizenship education across countries in response to such dramatic change reveals a common set of issues and challenges that the unprecedented pace of global change was presenting national educational systems, including:the rapid movement of people within and across national boundaries;a growing recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities;the collapse of existing political structures and the fledgling growth of new ones;the changing role and status of women in society;the impact of the global economy and changing patterns of work and trade on social, economic and political ties;the effects of the revolution in information and communications technologies;an increasing global population and the consequences for the environment;the emergence of new forms of community and protest.(Kerr, 2003)Citizenship education, then, is an active - and at present highly transitional - response to these challenges.The Centre for Research in Human Rights has recently conducted commissioned and peer-reviewed work for the British Education Research Association (BERA) for a Professional User Review in Citizenship. This BERA review, aiming to be the benchmark and starting point for future citizenship education research in the UK, is designed to present an accessible map of the field for practitioners and policy-makers. It has already had a central role in developing the rationale for other and international research reviews funded by the UK government's Department for Education and Skills (EPPI, 2004). The BERA review of citizenship research was published in October 2003 and publicly launched at the House of Commons, the UK parliament.The paper 'Citizenship Education Research in the UK' presents an outline of the main findings of the BERA research review. ReferencesCogan, J. and Derricott, R. (1998), Citizenship for the 21st Century, London: Kogan Page.EPPI (2004, in progress) An international Review of Citizenship Education Research The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre, London: EPPI.Gearon, L. (2003) How Do We Learn to Become Good Citizens?: A Professional User Review of UK Research, public launch by the British Educational Research Association in the House of Commons, London: British Educational Research Association, pp. 1- 21.Halstead, M. and Taylor, M. (2000) The Development of Values, Attitudes and Personal Qualities, Slough: NFER. Kerr, D. (2003) 'Citizenship: Local, National and International' in Gearon, L. Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School (London: Routledge), pp. 5-27.