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The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) studied the ways in which countries prepare their young people to undertake their roles as citizens. It investigated student knowledge and understanding of civics and citizenship as well as student attitudes, perceptions, and activities related to civics and citizenship. It also examined differences among countries in relation to these outcomes of civic and citizenship education, and it explored how differences among countries relate to student characteristics, school and community contexts, and national characteristics. ICCS considered six research questions concerned with the following:

1. Variations in civic knowledge;

2. Changes in content knowledge since 1999;

3. Student interest in engaging in public and political life and their disposition to do so;

4. Perceptions of threats to civil society;

5. Features of education systems, schools, and classrooms related to civic and citizenship education; and

6. Aspects of student background related to the outcomes of civic and citizenship education.

ICCS gathered data from more than 140,000 Grade 8 (or equivalent) students in over 5,300 schools from 38 countries. These student data were augmented by data from more than 62,000 teachers in those schools and by contextual data collected from school principals and the study’s national research centers. Different approaches to provision of civic and citizenship education were evident in the ICCS countries. These approaches included having a specific subject, integrating relevant content into other subjects, and including content as a cross-curricular theme. Twenty-one of the 38 countries in ICCS included a specific subject concerned with civic and citizenship education in their curriculum. Civic and citizenship education covered a wide range of topics, including knowledge and understanding of political institutions and concepts, such as human rights, as well as newer topics covering social and community cohesion, diversity, the environment, communications, and global society.