This study is based on the results of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study – ICCS. The purpose of ICCS is to investigate the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in the participating countries.  Thirty-eight are the countries participating in the survey, including 25 European countries.

In order to catch the influence of characteristic cultural contexts, the study also includes three regional modules: the European, the Asian and the Latin American ones. The target population are students at grade 8. The results of the study will be released in July 2010.

ICCS assesses the student knowledge and understanding of civic and citizenship aspects, and collects data about student dispositions and attitudes related to civic and citizenship education (Torney-Purta, Lehmann,Oswald, Schulz, 2001; Schulz et al., 2008).

Given that civic and citizenship education cannot  be seen only  as a result of the teaching of a single subject but  it can be  seen instead  as the result of a variety of factors (Birzea, 2000;  Birzea et. al., 2004; Council of Europe, 2000; Kerr et. Al., 2004; Schulz et al., 2008)  ICCS collects information on a variety of contextual variables:

•  aspects of student personal and social background, such as gender, socioeconomic background, and language;
• aspects of schools and education systems that are related to achievement in and attitudes to civics and citizenship such as approaches  to civic and citizenship education,  curriculum, and/or program content structure and delivery, aspects of school organization, school culture and classroom climate. 

Contextual data are collected through three questionnaires: student, teacher and school questionnaire.

The school and teachers questionnaires were constructed to collect information on school context understood as a learning environment within which the everyday student experiences take place.

The teacher questionnaire has been administered to teachers of all school subjects, not necessarily linked to the students included in the sample. 

The present study  focuses on the impact of contextual factors (community and school) on  student knowledge and understanding  and on student attitudes and dispositions in the European countries participating in the study.

Precisely, the following variables across the three questionnaires are taken into account:

Civic and citizenship education at school

-          Approaches to civic and citizenship education

-          Aims of civic and citizenship education

-          Assessment in civic and citizenship education

-          Class activities in civic and citizenship education

Community and school contexts

-          Socio-economic-cultural problems occurring in the territory where the school is located that are reflected in the school

-          Participation at school

-          Student  sense of belonging to the school

-          Classroom climate

The purpose is to assess whether and to what extent these context variables  (from which scales and indices were derived) and more in particular those related to school culture (Stoll, 1999; Homana, Barber, Torney-Purta, 2006)  and classroom climate (Ehman, 1980;  Hahn,1999;  Perliger,  Canetti-Nisim, Pedahzur, 2006)  have an influence on the outcome variables - captured through the student questionnaire - and determine their variability. In particular, the student variables considered are the following:

-          Student knowledge and understanding

-          Student participation at a school level

-          Student interests in political and social issues

-          Student influence at school

-          Attitudes toward immigrants, ethnic groups and women

Bîrzéa, C., (2000).Education for Democratic Citizenship: A Lifelong Learning Perspective. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Doc. DGIV7EDU7CIT 820009 21. Bîrzéa, C., Kerr, D., Mikkelsen, R., Pol, M., Froumin, I., Losito, B., & Sardoc, M. (2004). All-European Study on Education for Democratic Citizenship Policies. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Council of Europe (2000). Project on “Education for Democratic Citizenship”: Resolution adopted by the Council of Europe Ministers of Education at their 20th session, Cracow, Poland, 15-17 October 2000. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Doc. DGIV/EDU/CIT (2000) 40. Ehman, L. H. (1980). Change in high school pupils’ political attitudes as a function of social studies classroom climate. American Educational Research Journal, 17, 253–265. Homana, G., Barber, C., & Torney-Purta, J. (2006). Assessing school citizenship education climate: Implications for the social studies (Circle Working Paper 48). Available online at http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP48 Homana.pdf. Hahn, L. (1999). Citizenship education: An empirical study of policy, practices and outcome. Oxford Review of Education, 25, 231–250. Kerr, D., Ireland, E., Lopes, J., & Craig, R., with Cleaver, E. (2004). Making citizenship real: Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study. Second annual report. First longitudinal survey (DfES Research Report 531). London: Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Perliger, A., Canetti-Nisim, D., & Pedahzur, A. (2006). Democratic attitudes among high-school pupils: The role played by perceptions of class climate. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 17(1), 119–140. Schulz, W., Fraillon, J., Ainley, J., Losito, B., Kerr, D. (2008). International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. Assessment Framework. Amsterdam: IEA. Stoll, L. (1999). School culture: Black hole or fertile garden for school improvement? In J. Prosser (Ed.), School culture (British Educational Management series). London: Sage. Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., & Schulz, W. (2001). Citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).