Introduction

Civic education and civic competencies have been repeatedly emphasized as key features of democratic societies.1 In 2001, the European Commission included active citizenship among four aims of education; a 2006 Recommendation included social and civic competencies as one of the eight key competencies for lifelong learning, recommending their development beginning in preschool through higher education, and a Declaration in 2015 again repeated the importance of education in raising youth as responsible, open, active, and tolerant citizens (European Commission, 2001, 2006; and the 2015 Paris Declaration2). The importance of including civic education courses in compulsory education curricula in order to achieve these aims has been repeatedly demonstrated (Kennedy, 2019). Fostering a democratic culture relies on instilling broader values of ‘democratic commitment, social inclusion, tolerance, and the need for more equitable societies’ (Holle, 2022, p 51) as well as developing skills such as analysis, critical thinking, consideration of alternatives, multi-perspectivity, ability to transcend own options, conflict resolution skills, and applying these concepts in practice (Bergan, 2013).

In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) specifically, scholars have paid attention to the issue of civic education because of its potential in democratic consolidation and the democratic (re)socialization of citizens (Torney-Purta, 2002; see also Kolleck and Karolewski, Chapter 1, this volume). However, these countries are generally seen as lagging behind other European states in adequate policy responses (EECEA, 2017). To examine these issues, several strands of research have proliferated since the early 2000s.