The purpose of this study is to synthesize Montessori's writings on citizenship education to support the implementation of a Montessorian view. This synthesis demonstrates that Montessori was of the explicit conviction that a better world can be achieved through citizenship education, as it strives for a peaceful and harmonious society. We…

The concepts of citizenship and citizenship education can have different meanings. We analyse changes in concepts, policy and practice of citizenship and citizenship education. In our theoretical and empirical research we conceptualised three different types of national citizenship: adapted, individualised, and critical-democratic. Our research…

Engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) is seen as an important citizenship goal of SSI-based science education. In this experimental study, Dutch students (age 8 to 13) participated in lesson series in which they learned about and discussed SSI, such as issues related to the textile industry and wastewater. Attitudes toward SSI indicating…

The practice of citizenship education has predominantly been studied in general education. This article details an interview study of citizenship education of teachers in prevocational education in the Netherlands. We investigated whether and how vocational teachers reflected on their goals and teaching practices in citizenship education. Teachers…

With approximately 800 schools, alternative education is a substantial part of primary education in the Netherlands. With nearly 400 schools, Dalton education is the largest form of alternative education in the Netherlands. Given the size and popularity of Dalton education, it is rather remarkable that the effects of these schools have hardly been…

Based on the findings of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement notes in 2010 that the development of citizenship education is stagnating. In response to this stagnation, some countries, including the Netherlands, are tempted to act more prescriptively in…

Research shows that teachers and educators struggle to act when conflict appears in the classroom. This article argues that (political) conflict should not be avoided or eradicated. Teachers should enable conflict and attend to their pupils in the process, in order to enable further understanding of each other and their differences, as part of…

This article examines how some schools with ethnically diverse student populations are teaching "about," "for," and "through" human rights. The author conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a multi-site study, which included secondary schools serving students from immigrant backgrounds in four…

This contribution is situated in the discussion on sex education in the Netherlands, in relation to "Islamic Pedagogy," in particular "Islam 'and' Pedagogy," on the one side, and (religious) identity development on the other side. Islamic Pedagogy seems to be the theoretical framework of an example of developed teaching…

Citizenship education is an important part of current debates about future education. In contrast, educational philosopher Gert Biesta calls for a shift "from teaching citizenship to learning democracy". This study wants to contribute to this shift. A Delphi-method is applied on a Dutch case study, presenting a way to collect and analyze…

Purpose: Preparing citizens for participation in pluralist democracies also requires a type of citizenship education that fosters critical democratic citizenship (CDC). This study inquires into an educational activity with a long history in many EU-countries: mock elections. It explores the extent to which elements of CDC-literacy, competences and…

Within the polarised political culture of the 1970s, in which political differences were emphasised instead of being played down, Dutch right-wing politicians frequently accused left-wing politicians and educators of indoctrination in educational settings. In this period of economic stagnation and an ongoing Cold War, peace education -- which was…

Calls for global citizenship education (GCE) in primary education have been making themselves heard in recent literature in different national and international contexts. Primary school teachers must be equipped with the necessary competencies required to carry out this broader task appropriately. This article seeks to understand how experienced…

Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching has gained importance in recent times. Although current work has highlighted the advantages of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) for intercultural development, little is known about its potential for teaching literature in secondary schools. Treating literature itself as an art…

This study examines the construction and meaning of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools as manifested by schools in four locations: Chicago, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. Through analysis of schools' websites, we identify three major approaches towards constructing the schools' image: globally acknowledged quality,…