Citizenship education has been assuming a central role in educational policies across Europe in recent years and has been the object of international research regarding its guidelines and curricular design, its impact on the lives of schools and on the knowledge, values and skills of students (Amadeo, Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Husfeldt & Nikolova, 2002; Ross, 2008; Wilde, 2005; Menezes, 2003; Araújo, 2008. Even if the predominant rhetoric about CE emphasises active and responsible citizenship, it is important to recognize that it is diversely conceived by different democratic traditions (Eisenstadt, 2000; Heater, 2005) from a minimalist version that reduces citizens to the passive role of being “spectators who vote” (Walzer, 1995:165), to communitarian views that advocate participation should involve many formats in diverse contexts (Benhabib, 2004; Arnot, 2009; Osler & Starkey, 2005).

But even if schools have a consensual role in promoting citizenship, it should be underline that, more than in other areas of the curricula, students learning does not solely occur in schools, as CE involves experiences that take place in many other social contexts and institutions. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can play significant roles in providing CE through non-formal and informal education that complement schools’ provision. Besides, they promote connections between young people, society and schools (Park, Senegačnik & Wango, 2007). The potential of NGOs lays therefore in their capacity “to act as bridges, facilitators, brokers and translators, linking together the institutions, interventions, capacities and levels of actions that are required to lever broader structural changes” (Edwards & Fowler, 2002:8-9).

This study emerges from a research project entitled Participatory Citizenship Education in Transitional Societies that aims to reach a wider understanding about CE across Europe, and particularly whether educational policies, curricula and practices emphasise a political culture that values citizens’ active and critical participation in civic and political issues in different contexts. To accomplish this, an understanding of the visions and roles of NGOs is essential to discern the kind of CE to which they are committed. How do NGOs view their roles as CE providers? How do they perceive current CE practices in schools and how do they envisage their involvement with schools regarding the promotion of CE activities? Certainly, more information is necessary to effectively understand what kind of citizens are schools and NGOs within the civil society advocating for. 

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