Citizenship of young people

Citizenship is considered an important factor in the development of interpersonal and societal competence (i.e. learning to act responsibly and adequately in Western society). The school is part of the daily life context of students and thus ideally a place to accumulate democratic experiences, meet and contact with others, reflect upon interpersonal relationships but also societal issues and both develop and practice citizenship competences. For schools to instil and promote citizenship, a basic understanding of the actual citizenship competences of students is needed in addition to those factors which play a role in the development of these competences - including the citizenship education efforts. In order to understand the concept of citizenship of people, there was a focus on a broad conceptualization of citizenship in the context of the daily lives of young people in which their citizenship is situated. It was assumed that such an understanding is essential for schools to align their educational goals and strategies with the citizenship competences of students. The results of the studies reported on in the thesis provide insight into the citizenship competences of young people and the potential effects of citizenship education. Knowledge about the citizenship orientations and citizenship knowledge of students in addition to the possibilities for their further development can support the schools to explicit and develop a vision and systematic approaches for citizenship education for all students in all levels of education.