Purpose: Treating Active Citizenship as a sum of behavioral indicators requires certain prerequisites that can be difficult to meet in practice (e.g. structural validity and measurement invariance). We explore a different approach, in which we treat Active Citizenship as a categorical, rather than a linear, construct. Design: Based on longitudinal…

Following the outbreak of the Liberal Revolution, which broke out in Portugal after the revolutionary actions that happened in Porto on 24 August, and in Lisbon on 15 September 1820, a new political regime emerged and, consequently, changes in values as well as in ways of thinking and acting. It is a new conception of sovereignty with the shift of…

This paper makes an empirical contribution to the debate about the pluralism of global citizenship. This is considered a crucial aspect for research, not only because charity and social justice standpoints coexist, but also in the light of growing examples of neoliberal understandings about global citizenship education and the global citizen.…

The intention of this article is to contribute to the debate about whether the voting age should be lowered to the age of 16, by examining quantitative and qualitative data collected in a local participation project with young people in Portugal: questionnaires (N = 961), interviews (N = 3), and focus group discussions (N = 15). Considering the…

Digital Citizenship is essential in today's world, and schools must cultivate these skills in students to help them become active and critical citizens. This idea inspired the ICT Competence Centres at the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal and the University of Aveiro to develop a project for secondary students.…

The time frame of this article covers the Portuguese transition to democracy in the 1970s until the 1990s, when democratic institutions operated fully. The focus lies on the way in which changes in the conceptualization of nature and society and their mutual relationship were reflected in secondary education textbooks. We explore whether and how…

School leadership models emphasize the importance of leadership devoting time to the creation of a shared school mission, as a strategy for school effectiveness. This paper focuses on teachers' and parents' perceptions of the desired and practised school mission, considering the following dimensions: i) scientific and technological; ii) civic;…

Background: In 2009, Portugal ratified the UN CRPD and a turn to a rights-based approach in disability law and policy has intensified since. It thus becomes important to understand whether these legal changes are furthering the social inclusion of adults with intellectual and complex disabilities. Method: Questionnaires were applied to a…

In societies where authoritarian and populist perspectives are on the rise, a focus on the concept of democracy within education can provide a meaningful space to reflect critically on, and disrupt, the status quo. In post-dictatorship Portugal, democracy has become a central symbolic concept within education policy and, in particular, Early…

The current study aims to examine students' and teachers' voices and views on the outcomes of the implementation of a curriculum as relevant and appropriate to enhance students' citizenship skills by engaging them in dialogic and argumentative practices. To achieve the aim an innovative curriculum, consisting of 15 lessons per education level…

Purpose: We intend to bring into debate what seems to be a paradoxical relation between the lack of youth civic and political participation, and the current disinvestment in the effective implementation of citizenship education policies. Design: A comparative framework between four European countries concerning youth civic and political…

This research focuses on the evaluation of the impact on students' attitudes towards the environment, fostered by their involvement in an educational citizen science project related to the monitoring of physicochemical properties and the detection of (micro)plastics in Portuguese coastal waters. We developed an attitude scale, comprising four…

The transition from the 20th to the 21st century has been the stage of contradictory messages regarding youth citizenship. There is a powerful public and academic rhetoric on youth political disengagement and apathy and, concurrently, an assumption that young people are not knowledgeable, competent and responsible enough to be active citizens, and…

Given the fact that countries can differ in their educational policy and practice and that these national contexts are influenced by international developments makes it interesting to do comparative research into policy and practice of different countries. In this article we present the results of a comparative inquiry into citizenship and…

This article will approach issues related to the teaching of the concept of citizenship according to Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Through the analysis of artistic practices, we propose to determine how concepts of culture, heritage, education for development, service learning and human…