There has been a strong focus in recent years on the promotion of citizenship education, as a result of the increasing threats to fundamental values such as peace, equality and human rights Europe is faced with, and several countries are making changes to their policies in this area.

But what is citizenship education? How is it taught? How are students evaluated? Can citizenship skills be developed outside the classroom? What training and support do teachers receive?

The report is divided into four chapters, each of which is complemented by a case study on recent policy initiatives:

• Curriculum Organisation and Content
• Teaching, Learning and Active Participation
• Student Assessment and School Evaluation
• Teacher Education, Professional Development and Support

The report is primarily based on qualitative data, and covers 42 education systems. It focuses on the existing regulations and recommendations regarding citizenship education in public sector schools and includes general education and school-based initial vocational education training programmes.

Citizenship Education at School in Europe – 2017 (full report)
Citizenship Education at School in Europe – 2017 (highlights)
Citizenship Education at School in Europe – 2017 (Annexes)

The European Economic and Social Committee calls on the European institutions to promote a positive image of Civil Society Organisations, preserve their independence and strengthen their capacity for action.
Beside a detailed diagnosis of the situation and role of civil society organisations, the EESC presents 26 recommendations for better civil dialogue and access to resources, including ideas for the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. The EESC finds that financing of CSOs is essential for participatory democracy and that the article 11 of the TEU on structured dialogue with civil society must be properly implemented. It calls also for the establishment of an EU Ombudsman on civic space freedoms and of a European fund for democracy, human rights and values within the EU

In an age where learning several languages is a necessity for many people and offers endless opportunities to all, there have been a number of reforms in recent years with regards to foreign language learning.

This new Eurydice Brief on Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe 2017  builds on a comprehensive report on teaching languages at school in Europe and includes information on research works and EU policy documents. It presents a state of play of the existing policies on key aspects of foreign language teaching and concludes with further routes which could be explored to encourage language teaching at primary and secondary level in the future.

This Brief is structured around five key EU and national language policy themes:

• the importance of learning two foreign languages from a very early age;
• the range of foreign languages learnt by students;
• the foreign language teaching itself with a particular focus on teachers and their visits abroad for professional purposes,
• and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) as a teaching approach;
• the expected levels of attainment in foreign languages; language support measures to facilitate the integration of newly arrived migrant students.

As part of EUROCLIO’s project Teaching “Europe” to enhance EU cohesion, the project members have been contributing to a comparative research report that encompasses analysis of two history textbooks of each of the 28 EU member states, and specifically looks into fundamental commonalities and differences in European teaching about the European Union at the final years of compulsory education.

The condensed research presented in this research report and its preliminary conclusions aim to contribute to raising awareness on the importance of history education for young people and societies of the European Union as a whole, hence laying the foundation for establishing a roadmap for the institutional action to be taken in this field.

Report: Teaching Europe to enhance EU cohesion