Developing a Multi-Level Approach to Democratic Citizenship Education

Democratic citizenship education is constituted on many levels, from the general value statements in national general education framework curricula and somewhat more elaborate descriptions in framework syllabi for various subjects to teacher training and school practice as experienced by teachers, pupils and others. Thus in order to understand which values and normatives (e.g. Heater 1999, Delanty 2000, Kalev, Sinivee 2017) are practically supported in citizenship education we need to analyse the congruence of various levels. In this paper we will analyse the coherence and contradictions in the citizenship normatives articulated on the various levels of Estonian general education. Estonia serves as a good case for the study as it has relatively developed framework curricula and syllabi, and has experienced the contestation of various normatives in citizenship education (Jakobson et al 2019). Empirically, we will analyse the national framework curricula and syllabi of general education and teacher training as well as focus group interviews carried out with teachers and pupils in schools. This is done by focusing on different emphases in different aspects of the curricula and school practice. We will utilise qualitative content analysis and seek to highlight both the key emphasis and discrepancies and draw broader conclusions. We partly build on our previous research (e.g. Jakobson et al 2019) but will undertake a deeper analysis of the congruence of the levels and aim to add the discourses of the actors in the school practice. In addition to the existing literature we will seek utilise the multi level governance perspective (e.g. Hooghe et al 2001, Bache, Flinders 2005, Enderlein et al 2010) while keeping our focus on the content of citizenship education.