Abstract

This paper presents a brief overview of civic and citizenship education (CCE) in Europe through the analysis of findings from the Eurydice report (2017) and results of the second cycle of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS, 2016) promoted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Both Eurydice and ICCS 2016 data allows to describe CCE contexts in Europe from the national and schools’ perspectives. The paper focuses on five key areas with respect to civic and citizenship education: teaching approaches; objectives and contents; teachers’, students’ and parents’ school engagement; assessment; teacher training (pre- and in-service). Findings from both reports showed the multifaceted characteristics of CCE in the European context, and highlight the gap between national regulations and the schools’ practices. The final section includes a discussion on three open issues in Europe, namely instructional design and assessment, parents’ and students’ engagement at school, and training.