Abstract

The Italian Ministry of Education has established Civic education as a compulsory subject within the Italian school system from the school year 2020/21. Fondazione Intercultura in collaboration with the research institute IPSOS run a study which aimed to explore the perceptions of opinion leaders, headmasters and pupils on this new teaching. The main goals of this study were to understand how much emphasis will be placed on the international dimension of Civic education in upper secondary school, how much time will be devoted to European and international issues, whether pupils will be encouraged to open up to the world and to live in an intercultural and globalised society. The main results highlighted that Civic education represents a key opportunity to develop active global citizens who are aware of being part of a global community, who promote openness, dialogue, cooperation with people with different cultural backgrounds. Among the obstacles that emerged from this study to foster the international dimension of Civic education was the lack of preparation of teachers on international education.