Civic Education in Europe: Comparative Policy Perspectives from the Netherlands, Belgium and France

In recent years, various policy initiatives have been implemented to strengthen the importance of civic education in European countries. The Council of Europe even proclaimed 2005 to be the "European Year of Citizenship through Education," in an effort to harmonize the efforts of its member states. The Council also claimed that European liberal democracies share a specific political culture that would benefit from a harmonized approach to civic education. In reality, however, European countries tend to hold on to their own national legacies and the specific national characteristics of their education system. In general, little attention is given to the process of European unification in the curricula for civic education (Quintelier and Dejaeghere, 2008). In most countries, national political institutions and the specific national culture remain the most important reference frame for civic education. Although various authors have emphasized the need to establish a European form of citizenship and belonging, in practice we see little progress toward this goal in the field of civic education (Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999). © 2009 by Vanderbilt University Press. All rights reserved.status: publishe