International Civic and
Education Study Citizenship
Draft outline of
ICCS Encyclopaedia
NRC (Feb10)4
CONFIDENTIAL TO ICCS
DO NOT CITE OR QUOTE
National Research Coordinators
Meeting
Madrid
February 2010
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 2
TEMPLATE FOR ENCYCLOPAEDIA NATIONAL CHAPTERS ................................................. 3
GENERAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION................................................................................................ 3
Demographics and language .......................................................................................................... 3
Characteristics of political system .................................................................................................. 3
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM......................................................................................................................... 3
Overview and background .............................................................................................................. 3
Structure of educational system ...................................................................................................... 3
CIVIC AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION .................................................................................................... 4
General approach to CCE .............................................................................................................. 4
CCE in the curriculum .................................................................................................................... 4
CCE activities in schools ................................................................................................................ 4
Current reforms and debates in CCE .............................................................................................. 5
TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATION ................................................................................................. 5
Teacher education in general ......................................................................................................... 5
Teacher education for civic and citizenship education ................................................................... 5
ASSESSMENTS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE ........................................................................................... 6
General assessment and examination standards ............................................................................ 6
Assessment and examinations in CCE-related subjects .................................................................. 6
Quality monitoring of CCE ............................................................................................................. 6
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................... 6
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
INTRODUCTION
1. This document contains information about the development of an ICCS encyclopaedia
that will be published. It will include data on the national context and profiles of civic
and citizenship education in countries participating in ICCS.1
2. It is anticipated that the introduction chapter to the encyclopaedia will contain the
following general information:

An overview of ICCS, it study concept and design

An overview of educational systems and structures

A comparison and typology of how civic and citizenship education is
implemented in different educational systems (accompanied by comparative
tables)

An outline of country profile information provided in subsequent national
chapters.
3. The encyclopaedia will include the following types of information for each
participating educational system:

General background information on each country

Information on the educational system

Approach to and implementation of civic and citizenship education

Teachers and teacher education (in general and with regard to CCE)

Assessments and Quality Assurance (in general and with regard to CCE)
4. National centres will be provided with a template that contains information about
what should be reported for each national context. The following sections contain the
draft template that should be discussed at the PAC meeting.
5. The ISC has arranged for draft national chapters for the English and Spanish
educational systems to be prepared and these are included in additional papers.
6. Source materials could include the ICCS National Contexts Survey and other IEA
encyclopaedias (such as those for TIMSS and PIRLS) and the volume one of the
reports from the CIVED study:
Torney-Purta, J., Schwille, J., & Amadeo, J.-A. (Eds.). (1999). Civic Education
Across Countries: Twenty-Four National Case Studies for the IEA Civic
Education Project. Delft: IEA.
1
The ICCS encyclopaedia is envisaged to be similar in scope to the TIMSS or PIRLS encyclopaedias.
2
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
TEMPLATE FOR ENCYCLOPAEDIA NATIONAL CHAPTERS
General background information
(1 page or about 500 words)
Demographics and language
 Indicate the size of the population and its geographic distribution (e.g.
urbanisation)
 Indicate the official language(s) of the country and any other languages
commonly spoken in the country as well as the language(s) of instruction
 Describe any major population sub-groups (e.g. as defined by ethnicity) in the
country
 How wealthy is the country (e.g. in terms of GDP)
Characteristics of political system
 Describe the nature of the political system (e.g. federal parliamentary republic,
presidential republic, constitutional monarchy) and its institutions
 Describe any relevant sub-regional entities and their institutions (in federal
systems or those with autonomous regions).
 Discuss any relevant context factors that could influence civic and citizenship
education (e.g. membership of regional organisations, requirement for
compulsory voting, recent civil conflict or disputes).
Educational system
(1-2 pages or about 1000 words)
Overview and background
 What are the roles of different levels of government in the provision of school
education (e.g. national, state or provincial, local)
 Describe the body or bodies that is/are responsible for the provision of school
education in your country (e.g. ministries, boards, departments)
Structure of educational system
 Describe the levels of organisation in the provision of school education (e.g.
primary, lower secondary, upper secondary).
 State the school years/grades at each level.
 If applicable, state whether different study programmes (e.g. general,
vocational, pre-vocational) are offered at each level.
 Describe the different types of schools and/or policies of tracking/streaming
within schools.
 Indicate the extent of school autonomy in your country and how schools are
governed (e.g. role of school governing boards).
3
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
 Describe the extent to which schools have scope to determine or adapt curricula
at local level
 If applicable, state whether curricula in general are different across study
programmes (e.g. general, vocational, pre-vocational) in your country.
 Outline the essential features of current debates about educational provision in
your country
Civic and Citizenship education
(2-3 pages or about 1500 words)
General approach to CCE
 How is civic and citizenship education defined in official documents in your
country.
o State the general aims of CCE in your country.
o What are the stated purposes of civic and citizenship education
 Describe the general approach to CCE (e.g. cross-curricular approach, delivery
through specific subjects).
CCE in the curriculum
General overview
 State how CCE is implemented at each educational level (e.g. CCE may not yet
be taught at the primary level).
 State how CCE is taught in your country (e.g. specific subject(s), taught as part
of a number of different CCE-related subjects).
 List the subjects/learning areas that contribute to CCE in your country.
CCE in lower secondary schools (ISCED 2)
 Indicate the specific characteristics of CCE in lower secondary schools
(ISCED 2) including:
o Organisation (specific subject or as part of different subjects)
o the nature of the curriculum
o suggested approaches to teaching and assessment and
o the time allocated to the subject (or group of related subjects)
 If applicable, describe whether CCE curricula are different across study
programmes (e.g. general, vocational, pre-vocational) in your country.
 Describe whether there are explicit goals of learning set in the curriculum.
CCE activities in schools
 Indicate the extent to which students are encouraged to be involved in CCErelated activities in schools (e.g. school newspapers, interest groups,
connection with community organisations, debating groups)
 In what ways and to what extent are students involved in school governance
(e.g. school parliaments, membership of governing boards or councils, student
representative councils)
4
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
Current reforms and debates in CCE
 Describe any recent reforms in the area of civic and citizenship education.
 Summarise the recent (e.g. 20 years) history of civic and citizenship education
in your country with a focus on major initiatives.
 Describe the essential features of any current debates about the priority given to
CCE in schools
 Describe the essential features of any debates about the nature and content of
CCE in schools.
 Describe any recent general educational reforms in organisation or curriculum
that have been introduced
Teachers and Teacher Education
(1-2 pages or about 1000 words)
Teacher education in general
 Describe the main features of pre-service teacher education in your country.
 State the duration in years of post-school study and is the qualifications
required for different types of teachers in particular for those teaching in lower
secondary education.
 Describe how professional development is provided for teachers in your
country.
Teacher education for civic and citizenship education
 Is CCE in lower secondary schools (ISCED 2) taught by specialist CCE
teachers, by teachers who specialise in CCE-related subjects (e.g. history,
social studies) or by general classroom teachers
 State the general training and certification requirements for teachers who teach
in lower secondary school (ISCED 2).
 State any specific requirements for teachers who teach CCE in lower secondary
school (ISCED 2).
 Indicate any training and certification requirements of teachers (of all subjects)
in subjects/themes/approaches that could be related to CCE
 State whether there are any shortages in your country of teachers qualified to
teach CCE or CCE-related subjects.
 Describe the way in which professional development for teachers of CCE is
provided and whether participation in in-service teacher education is
compulsory.
5
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
Assessments and Quality Assurance
(1-2 pages or about 1000 words)
General assessment and examination standards
 State the nature of examinations in your country (including consequences for
individuals attached to results).
 Describe grades levels and subjects in which examinations are administered.
 Describe other assessments (regional or national) that are administered and at
which levels.
Assessment and examinations in CCE-related subjects
 How is CCE assessed within schools or at state/national level in your country?
 How are CCE projects, and the knowledge/competences acquired through these
projects, assessed?
 Are there any formal examinations in CCE or CCE-related subjects in your
country?
 Describe whether and how grades, marks, report cards etc. are used to report on
achievement in CCE.
Quality monitoring of CCE
 What procedures (if any) are used to monitor the quality of CCE learning and
teaching in your country?
 What provision is there for evaluating and monitoring programs in CCE?
 What organisations are responsible for monitoring the quality of CCE learning
and teaching?
References
(1/2 page or about 300 words)
 Each chapter needs a separate list with references for information cited in the
text.
 Please ensure that any information cited in the text is included in the reference
and that the reference is clearly documented.
 In preparing to write the “References” section of your chapter, please follow
the guidelines in Section Six (pp. 41-43) of the IEA Style Guide, which can be
found on the web at:
www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/docs/IEA_Style_Guide.pdf
 Please be sure to use the punctuation shown in the IEA Style Guide.
 For references not in English, please supply the English translation of the title
in brackets. For example, a non-English book with a government agency as the
author would be cited as follows: Carlos Fernández. (2004). Educación cívica y
ciudadana en América Latina. [Civic and Citizenship education in Latin
America]. México: Editorial Robles.
 For website links, please remember to include the date of retrieval and please
check that the website link works before submitting your chapter.
6
Draft outline of ICCS Encyclopaedia
 Please do not use Wikipedia as a reference for writing your chapter. The
information may not be accurate or reliable since it can be edited by anyone
and it is created by people with uncertain identities and credentials.
 If you are using Microsoft Word, it has an endnotes function that should be
used for all references in the text. Endnotes will place a superscript number
above and to the right of the text you wish to reference. It will then create a
reference page at the end of the chapter and link that number to the reference
page. To use Endnotes in a Word document, go to the “Insert” menu at the top
of the screen, then click on “Reference” in the drop down menu, then click
“Footnote”. In the “Footnote and Endnote” toolbar, click on “Endnotes”. Make
sure you have chosen the option next to Endnotes” that says “End of
Document”. Also, be sure that the number format is “1, 2, 3...”
 Endnote superscript numbers within the text should be placed AFTER any
punctuation except a dash (then it should be placed before the dash).
7