Introduction

In recent years, curriculum has become a fiercely debated issue in the systems of many countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The rise of so-called culture wars, fuelled by a polarized political climate and the rise of identarian populist parties (Sata and Karolewski, 2022; Zimmerman, 2022), has led to intense scrutiny of the role that school programmes play in shaping the values and beliefs of young people. These conflicts are contoured by a new importance attributed to knowledge for the transmission or disruption of political and cultural repertoires in contemporary societies. The social sciences and especially civic education as a field are traditionally concerned by these pressures (Bobbitt, 2019). Views on what civic values and history should be taught in schools have thus become highly polarized (Carretero, 2011; Taylor and Guyver, 2012; Karolewski, 2019). Haste et al (2017) argue that this is due not only to the modalities of populist politics but also to the expansive inherent dynamics of the field of civic education, which has fanned out in plural ways and therefore encompasses much more than preparing young citizens for conventional democratic participation (Haste et al, 2017). Issues of national identity and history, sexual citizenship, immigration, and secularism/religion and the debates that ensue are salient in many civic education systems. Thus, in numerous societies, civic and citizenship education have emerged as a pivotal battleground, seen in the controversial attempts to delineate which national values and historical narratives should be accentuated or de-emphasized when shaping the minds of young citizens (Evans, 2004).