The pupils and citizenship education. First results

Elena Arbués Radigales
Charo Reparaz Abaitua y Concepción Naval Durán

Abstract

Schools are required to educate students in community and citizenship. This overall aim comprises a number of specific objectives: to communicate a set of contents, to foster certain values and attitudes, and to develop a range of skills. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a survey dealing with issues related to Citizenship Education (CE); 1,557 third-year students in secondary education in the Zaragoza region were surveyed. The paper is structured as follows: first, the international framework within which CE is promoted is described. The issue is then discussed in relation to established Spanish legislation in this regard. Thereafter, the empirical results from a case-study survey carried out among students attending schools in Zaragoza are presented. The focus of the survey was to evaluate student responses to EC as a subject, and its objective was to analyze the views of students both before and after their participation in the subject during academic year 20082009, the first year the subject was taught in the Spanish school system. The results show that there is significant improvement in the theoretical knowledge block, which is consistent with student experience on a taught course at school; however, there is no appreciable improvement in the blocks relating to values and attitudes.

citizenship education

Citación recomendada | Recommended citation

Radigales, E. A., & Abaitua y Concepción Naval Durán, C. R. (2012) . The pupils and citizenship education. First results. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 70(253). https://www.revistadepedagogia.org/rep/vol70/iss253/16