Citizenship of students and social desirability: living apart together?

Insight into the citizenship of students is typically gained via surveys. However, social desirability always plays a role in self-reporting. The relationship between social desirability and citizenship is multi-interpretable. In this article, two views on the divergence and convergence of citizenship and social desirability are presented leading to different assumptions regarding the relationship between social desirability and citizenship. These assumptions are then examined empirically with the aid of a large database on the citizenship competences of students in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands. The results show that there is a significant level of convergence that inhibits correction of survey measures for social desirability. The implications of these findings for furthering our understanding of citizenship are discussed.