National identities have been challenged by European integration, globalisation, migration and regionalisation. More recently, there has been a resurgence of nationhood and national identity which begs the question how education systems, and curricula in particular, are responding to this. This article explores how national identity is reflected…

Purpose: This study examines whether differences exist in the teaching of Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) across school types: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS), fee-paying and 'other' schools. The study also examines whether such differences are linked to students' cultural capital. Design Methodology: A survey of…

This study examines differences based on school gender in the teaching of Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE), a mandatory subject in the Irish post-primary curriculum. These differences are considered in relation to Westheimer and Kahne's three types of citizens -- personally responsible, participatory and justice-oriented. The article…

Civic, social and political education (CSPE) is a mandatory citizenship education subject taken during the junior cycle in the Irish post-primary curriculum. This article looks at the historical development of the subject from its first incarnation as civics to its recreation as CSPE and then to its recent move into the Wellbeing Programme. The…

Ireland was one of the 38 countries/education systems that participated in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) in 2009. This is the first international comparative study in this area in which Ireland has participated since 1971. The study measured the civic knowledge of 14-year-olds and their attitudes towards, and…

The EU and other European institutions have launched a wide range of educational initiatives over the past 50 years in order to foster European citizenship and bring Europe "closer to the people". However, the efficacy of these efforts is questionable. In the EU, education policy (and in particular, curriculum policy) is governed by…

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the views of the child to be given due weight in accordance with the child's age and maturity. Legislation in Ireland recognizes the rights of children to have a voice in educational matters. Based on a sample of 2838 14-year-olds in Ireland and using questionnaire…

In this article I consider whether there is a process of repression occurring in definitions of citizenship and frameworks of citizenship education, which involves a forgetting of history. By focusing on recently troubled countries I identify how the force of history comes to play, and from that I consider how, in relatively stable liberal…

Prompted by a concern regarding the large numbers of unsupervised children playing on the streets of Dublin in the 1920s and 1930s, the Civics Institute of Ireland (referred to subsequently as the Civics Institute) established 10 playgrounds where children aged between four and 14 years could play after school hours and during school holidays.…