Studies have shown that teacher preparation is one of the most important factors influencing student achievement (see OECD 2009). Regarding civic and citizenship education, the provision of teacher training remains an ongoing challenge for educational policies as in many countries no specific training is provided to teachers in this learning area (Birzea et al., 2004; European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice 2012 & 2017). Following a classification developed by Shulman (1986 & 1987), teacher knowledge may either be related to topics in the area of civic and citizenship education (content knowledge), or to more general teaching methods and approaches (pedagogical knowledge). Furthermore, when studying civic-related instruction it needs to be considered that there are a wide range of teaching approaches in this learning area (Ainley, Schulz & Friedman, 2013; Commission/EACEA/Eurydice 2012 & 2017; Munn et al., 2012).

Results from the first cycle of the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2009) showed that teachers of civic-related subjects tended to be most confident about teaching citizens’ rights and responsibilities, human rights and equal opportunities for men and women, while they were less confident in teaching topics related to the economy, business and legal institutions (Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Kerr, & Losito, 2010). Results from the second cycle of this study (ICCS 2016) illustrated that on average, most teachers felt very well or quite well prepared to teach most of the topics and skills included in the question to measure teachers preparedness in civic and citizenship education (Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Losito, Agrusti, & Friedman, 2018). As in ICCS 2009, the highest percentages recorded across the participating countries were those for “citizens’ rights and responsibilities” and “equal opportunities for men and women”. The lowest percentages were recorded for “the global community and international organizations” and “the constitution and political systems”. The international study report also provided some evidence about substantial variation in preparedness across participating countries.

To provide more in-depth information about teacher’s preparedness to teach civic-related topics, this paper uses data from 17 countries that participated in the recent IEA study ICCS 2016 to explore the following research questions:

1. To which extent feel teachers of civic and citizenship education prepared to teach and received training about a range of civic-related topics? It is expected that similar profiles can be found across countries depending on the national contexts.
2. What factors influence teachers’ perceptions of preparedness to teach civic-related topics? It is expected teacher preparedness is associated with background variables (age, gender, subject area), received training, use of planning sources, and school context.

This paper will be based on data from 17 countries participating in ICCS 2016 (Schulz et al., 2018), which were collected through a student test, international and regional student questionnaires, as well as contextual questionnaires for schools and teachers (Losito, Agrusti & Damiani, 2021; Schulz, Carstens, Losito, & Fraillon, 2018). Teachers participating in this data collection were sampled randomly from each surveyed school including all those who taught at the target grade (typically grade 8). The analyses presented in this paper primarily focus on teacher questionnaire results using data from those participating countries where sample participation rates for the teacher survey met IEA standards. Furthermore, analyses will be limited to teachers who were teaching subjects related to civic and citizenship education. The analyses will consist of two parts. Firstly, the paper will describe country profiles of teachers’ preparedness to teach different civic-related topics in comparison with their report on having received prior training on each of these topics. These results will be discussed in reference to differences across national education system in terms of their curricular priorities. Secondly, the paper will include multivariate models that relate the criterion variable (a scale reflecting teachers’ overall preparedness to teach civic-related topics) with other relevant variables including teacher background characteristics (age, gender, teaching of human/social science subjects), school context variables (student composition, teachers’ perceptions of social problems at school and students’ classroom behaviour) and instruction-related factors (sources for planning lessons, training related to civic-related topics). The paper will use descriptive analyses as well as multi-variate regression model to describe the relationships between dependent and independent variables. For the reporting of any single-level analyses jackknife repeated replication will be used for the calculation of appropriate standard errors.

Preliminary ICCS 2016 results show that in countries where teacher report more training for specific civic-related topics, they tend to also report higher levels of preparedness for teaching them. However, these associations were not consistent and in particular not present for topics like ‘responsible internet use’ or ‘critical and independent thinking’. At the individual level, teacher with higher levels of reported training across all topics also tended to feel better prepared to teach across all of these topics. Further, outcomes indicate that across countries apart from pre- or in-service training on civic-related subjects, use of original source documents for lesson planning and the frequency of civic-related classroom activities were positively associated with teachers’ preparedness. Less consistent associations were found for perceived student behaviour in class (positive), social tensions at school (negative) and the proportions of students expecting university qualifications. Female teachers tended to feel less prepared than their male counterparts and in some countries older teachers felt less prepared. While the international report on ICCS 2016 provided insights into the general extent and variation of teachers’ preparedness to teach civic-related topics, this secondary research paper will provide more in-depth information about country profiles of teaching and training for each topic as well as making use of multivariate analysis methods in order to give a more detailed insights into the relationships with teacher background, school context and instruction-related factors. Furthermore, the paper will aim at setting results into the broader context of differences across the diversity of education systems that participated in this study.

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