Aims, concepts, and assessment of the citizenship education curriculum in northern Europe
: Ouakrim-Soivio Najat, Löfström Jan
: Desjardins Richard, Wiksten Susan
: 2022
: Handbook of Civic Engagement and Education
: 173
: 181
: 978-1-80037-694-6
: 978-1-80037-695-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800376953.00024
: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800376953.00024
The focus of this chapter is on the aims, central concepts, and the assessment in the citizenship education curricula, mainly in the Nordic countries and in Estonia. The connections between citizenship education, civic education and social studies are clarified, placing civic education as a broader umbrella concept under which citizenship education and social studies are found. The themes addressed in the chapter are cross-disciplinary competences (or transversal competences) and their potentially strained relationship with the concept of powerful knowledge in the context of civic education; the competences of the good citizen as they are visible in the contents and aims in the civic education curriculum; and the challenge of assessing student competences in civic education.