Civic Education in Eastern Europe: Results from the IEA Civic Education Project

Since mid-2004 the European Union (EU) has ten new members. Eight of them are former socialistic countries, and except Slovenia they all were under the sphere of influence of the former Soviet Union. The changes which took place in these countries during the last 10 years affected not only the political and economic system, but also the educational system—especially teaching at schools has undertaken fundamental changes. The changes and reforms were accomplished within the existing civil societies. Many established structures of the former systems still remain, and the majority of teachers has not been replaced after the change of the systems. This raises the question whether the young generation in the former socialistic countries nowadays is really socialized towards a democratic orientation.

This study aims to analyse the situation of civic education students at the age of 14 in East Europe. For this purpose we use the data of the Civic Education Project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) from 1999, which give a broad view at different aspects of civic education. Civic education has three major goals: political knowledge and understanding, democratic attitudes, and a readiness for democratic political action. These aspects result from the requirements of a living democracy.