Teachers beliefs about citizenship
education
Different dimensions and variation
across teachers and schools
Reinhilde Pulinx
Changing migration
• Past decades: diverse and transitory migration
processes in Western-Europe
Acculturation and intergenerational assimilation?
• Pressure on societies regarding social cohesion,
integration, citizenship, identity, and language (Van
Avermaet, 2009)
• National language and knowledge of society:
essential and definable elements of citizenship
(Shohamy, 2006).
Changing integration policies
• Integration policies => Active citizenship (Odé &
Walraven, 2013)
– social involvement and participation
– active participation in public debate, political and
democratic institutions
– active citizenship has to be inclusive of all
members of society
– active citizenship supposes certain cognitive and
social skills
– loyalty towards the society a person lives in
Integration in Flanders
• Active citizenship in Flanders:
“To respect the basic principles of the
democratic rule of law and to actively
participate in society.”
Education in Flanders
• Education: promoting citizenship and social
cohesion
Each individual teacher has to contribute to
preparing students for active participation in
society in later life.
• But: very little is known about (Flemish)
teacher’s beliefs about citizenship education
Education in Flanders
Monlingual language policies
• Tracked education system: general, technical, vocational
• Increasing linguistic diversity
• Persistent socio-ethnic segregation and inequality in
urban school system
International surveys (e.g. PISA): high ranking, BUT
achievement gap beween high and low SES;
immigrant and non-immigrant; Dutch speaking and
non-Dutch speaking
Education in Flanders
• Multilingualism as official policy, BUT only for high status
languages
• Disadvantaged position of low-status linguistic minorities
• Use of L1 seen as main explanatory factor for academic
failure
• Restrictive school policies: L1’s are not welcomed in
schools
 Again, little is known about the extent monolingual
beliefs of teachers interact with their beliefs on
citizenship education
Research questions
• Gain insight in the beliefs of teachers in secondary
schools in Flanders regarding citizenship education.
– RQ1: What are the different dimensions of citizenship
education beliefs among teachers?
– RQ2: Does the prevalence of different dimensions of
citizenship education vary across teachers and schools?
– RQ3: Do teacher or school characteristics have an
influence on the prevalence of different dimensions of
citizenship education?
– RQ4: Are teacher beliefs about monolingualism related to
different dimensions of citizenship education?
Methodology
• Surveyed 674 teachers
• In 48 secondary schools
• Teachers’ beliefs regarding citizenship are measured using fifteen items
– Designed for this survey
• Teachers’ beliefs regarding monolingualism are measured using eight
items.
– Similar items used in a previous research (Pulinx, Van Avermaet and Agirdag,
2015).
• Multilevel regression analysis
Results - preliminary
• RQ1
Three dimensions of citizenship
– Social engagement
– Authoritative citizenship
– Participative citizenship
Results - preliminary
• RQ2
All three dimensions vary significantly across
schools and teachers, while the variation
across schools is much smaller than the
variation across teachers.
Results - preliminary
• RQ3
Both teacher characteristics (experience, gender,
curriculum, track) and school characteristics
(ethnic minority composition) were significantly
related to teachers’ beliefs about citizenship
education.
However, the size and the direction of the
effects was different across dimensions.
Results - preliminary
• RQ4
Social engagement
Only related with gender
Authorative citizenship:
Related with school composition: more ethnic minority
students, more strongly emphasized by teachers
Related with monolingual beliefs: more strongly emphasized
by teachers with strong monolingual beliefs
 Participative citizenship
Not related with school composition
Related with monolingual beliefs: less strongly emphasized
by teachers with strong monolingual beliefs