Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms remains a central concern in educational research. This qualitative study examines how preservice teachers in Flanders, Belgium experience the ways diversity, equity, and social justice are addressed in their teacher education programs. Drawing on focus groups with 18 preservice teachers and using stimulus materials such as a "cake metaphor" and participant-selected objects, we conducted a thematic analysis of coursework and internship experiences. Findings highlight differences in how diversity is integrated across programs and underscore the importance of structured reflection and community-based placements in supporting more equitable classroom practices.

Global crises are reshaping Western democracies and putting pressure on their foundations. Citizenship education (CE) is increasingly being promoted as part of the solution, as it has the potential to support young people in becoming active, engaged, informed, and responsible democratic citizens. Therefore it is crucial for all teachers to possess the professionalism to address citizenship issues in class. This study aimed to develop a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument to measure pre-service teachers' perceived professional citizenship education (CE) competences, using a sample from Flanders, Belgium. The item development was guided by European policy recommendations. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 1829), five perceived professional CE competences scales were identified: pre-service teachers' (1) willingness to create an open classroom climate, (2) willingness to address political topics, (3) perceived importance of addressing social topics, (4) perceptions of how students' social and economic background influences teaching practices, and (5) perceived preparedness for teaching CE. These scales demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, and both convergent and divergent validity were established. The validated instrument offers several practical applications in the European context. At the pre-service level, it can be employed to assess the effectiveness of initial teacher education programs in developing pre-service teachers' CE competences, and to support institutional accountability and compliance with national and European CE standards. At the in-service level, the instrument can serve as a self-assessment tool to identify professional development needs and evaluate the impact of CE interventions. It also allows teachers' perceived professional CE competences to be compared across different European countries and regions.

Identiteit staat centraal in het maatschappelijke debat van de 21ste eeuw, de ‘eeuw van identiteit’. Het begrip ‘identiteit’ is echter een vlag die vele ladingen dekt. Het wordt op uiteenlopende manieren gebruikt, zowel in het dagelijkse taalgebruik als in het wetenschappelijke discours, waardoor een eenduidige definitie ontbreekt. Bovendien is er een gebrek aan een adequaat begrippenkader om op een accurate manier over identiteit te spreken. Nochtans is daar urgent behoefte aan, zeker in het onderwijs, waar ‘identiteit’ een prominente plaats inneemt binnen de minimumdoelen voor het basis- en secundair onderwijs. Deze publicatie biedt wetenschappelijke inzichten in het concept ‘identiteit’ en vertaalt deze naar de klaspraktijk. Ze is niet bedoeld als een ‘activistisch’ werk, noch om specifieke visies of identiteiten te bevoordelen. Wel reikt ze een instrumentarium en vocabularium aan waarmee leerkrachten en leerlingen op een analytisch scherpe en genuanceerde manier kunnen nadenken over identiteit en hierover in dialoog kunnen gaan.

Educational research has focused increasingly on comparing student civic outcomes across various educational systems. However, the study of non-cognitive, attitudinal measures has assumed a subsidiary role to the study of cognitive measures, despite its potential to shape policy and practice. This article investigates the validity and cross-country measurement equivalence or invariance (ME/I) of political trust measures among adolescents. Drawing on student data from ICCS 2016 covering 15 European educational systems (N = 52,788), the standard test for exact ME/I (i.e., Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis) is juxtaposed with a novel method for approximate ME/I (i.e., Alignment Optimization). The results underscore a two-dimensional structure of political trust, separating trust in order institutions from trust in representative institutions. While MGCFA results suggest configural invariance, rendering correlational analyses and country mean comparisons meaningless, Alignment Optimization yields valid latent means with an acceptable degree of non-invariance (i.e., 16%). Implications for comparative research on political trust among adolescents are discussed.

Educational tracking can lead to different citizenship outcomes. Most studies on the relationship between citizenship and educational track membership applied a variable-centered approach, comparing averages between tracks but not considering differences between students within a track. Person-centered approaches have shown that different citizenship profiles exist, but scholars never investigated the relationship between these profiles and track membership. Using data from the 2016 National Assessment on Civic and Citizenship Education in Flanders (Belgium), the present study combined both approaches to study democratic citizenship norms among Grade 12 students. The variable-centered approach showed that students in general education scored higher on good democratic citizenship items than students in technical and vocational education. However, a person-centered approach found seven distinct good democratic citizenship profiles containing students from each track. Hence, this study challenges stereotypical views of students' views on citizenship in different educational tracks.

Based on a performance test of 819 preservice teachers from six different teacher education programs in Flanders (Belgium), the current study examined the links between preservice learning opportunities and future teachers' ethnocultural diversity knowledge. Multilevel regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between integrating diversity throughout education courses and preservice teachers' diversity knowledge. No relation was found between cultural diversity knowledge and stand-alone cultural diversity courses or field-based teaching experiences. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the implications for teacher education programs.

This paper presents findings from a quantitative investigation of preservice teachers' beliefs about using students' home languages as resources in educational environments. The study looked into the relationships between preservice teachers' professional learning opportunities and their home language beliefs, which had been mostly ignored in prior research. An anonymous survey was used to obtain data from five different teacher education institutions (n = 819) in Flanders (Belgium). Multilevel regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between attending multilingual education courses and holding positive beliefs about students' home languages. There was no association between fieldwork and teachers' home language beliefs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications, limitations and recommendations for future research.

Internet y las redes sociales ofrecen oportunidades para el compromiso político, especialmente atractivas para las generaciones más jóvenes. La investigación sobre el compromiso político en línea sigue sin ser concluyente respecto de quién participa y qué impulsa estas actividades. Los estudios suelen limitarse a una muestra de un solo país y se centran en un grupo específico de ciudadanos (por ejemplo, los estudiantes universitarios). Para superar estas limitaciones, utilizando datos de encuestas de alta calidad de 21 países, este estudio evidencia que, ya a los 14 años, los adolescentes participan con frecuencia en actividades políticas en línea. Los análisis multinivel muestran que los padres, así como los colegios, son importantes agentes de socialización que estimulan a los jóvenes a participar políticamente en línea. Asimismo, el interés político de los jóvenes, la eficacia política y las normas de ciudadanía basadas en el deber son fuertes predictores del compromiso político en línea. Aunque el efecto de las características sociodemográficas es limitado, el compromiso en línea tiene el potencial de movilizar a los jóvenes inmigrantes y a los adolescentes con menos conocimientos cívicos hacia la esfera política.

Empirical research on the relationship between political trust and political participation has rarely focused on adolescents. By acknowledging the important role of young people for the sustainability of representative democracies, this study considers a two-dimensional conceptualization of political trust—that is, distinguishing between trust in order institutions (e.g., the police) and trust in representative institutions (e.g., the parliament)—to examine how it relates to several intended acts of legal and illegal political participation among Flemish eight-grade adolescents. Using structural equation modelling on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 ( n = 2,829), we find that Flemish adolescents with lower levels of trust in representative institutions are more likely to withdraw from political life as adults. Those with lower levels of trust in order institutions, however, have a stronger inclination to use a range of political participation modes, including illegal means.

This study builds on a research-practitioner partnership embedded within an education for sustainable development (ESD) project and aims to explore the major potential challenges (i.e., disciplinary boundaries set by subject specialization, especially in secondary education) and success factors (i.e., teacher co-learning experiences in ESD) associated with differences in teachers’ professional action competence (PACesd) in a sample of 557 in-service teachers in primary and secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium. The study employed a recently validated PACesd measurement instrument and involved quantitative data analysis in a structural equation modelling framework. The results show that primary education teachers tend to report higher PACesd levels compared to their peers in secondary education. Moreover, regardless of educational level, gender and teaching experience, all teachers participating in a working group or a learning community in ESD are more likely to show higher levels of PACesd. Implications of the findings, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Based on the concept of action competence, the current study introduces an integrated framework of Professional Action Competence in Education for Sustainable Development (PACesd) described by three defining features: willingness, knowledge of pedagogical approaches, and self-efficacy. To validate this framework, we developed a questionnaire measurement instrument: ‘PACesd-Q’. This questionnaire was administered to a sample of 557 primary and secondary school in-service teachers in Flanders, Belgium. The instrument’s psychometric quality was assessed in terms of its reliability, construct, and criterion-related validity. Results of reliability analysis and hierarchical (second-order) confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of good measurement properties of the instrument in terms of reliability and construct and criterion-related validity. We suggest the instrument can be successfully used to provide educational practitioners with a tool to monitor and eventually identify professional development needs regarding education for sustainable development.

Teachers are key agents in the political socialisation of adolescents. Therefore, knowledge about teachers' beliefs concerning citizenship is essential, as these beliefs likely relate to how educators socialise young people via preferred modes of teaching. Studying the link between teachers' citizenship norms and associated teaching styles can inform us about how to improve citizenship education in schools. The authors use the 2016 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study data, relying on the unique Teacher Survey conducted in Flanders (n = 1983) using multilevel latent class analysis. They identify five profiles of teachers' concepts of good citizenship. These profiles are further correlated with goals of citizenship education emphasised by teachers as well as the sources and activities used to teach civics in the classroom. The results suggest that teachers can be seen as instructional gatekeepers, with teachers supporting more engaged and all-around norms of citizenship more frequently implementing active teaching styles.

Belgium (Flanders) participated in IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009 and 2016. During that period of seven years, the Flemish educational approach to civic and citizenship education evolved, and research into the impact of civic and citizenship education at school played a role in guiding reforms. In this chapter, we give a short overview of the development of civic and citizenship education in Flanders. Furthermore, we discuss research that has monitored and guided this process. In this discussion, we mainly focus on students’ attitudes toward immigrants and on teachers’ beliefs about needs in civic and citizenship-related teaching.

Within Europe, numerous political, economic, social, and cultural changes brought about by globalization and Europeanization have challenged and transformed young people's sense of citizenship and identity. An important aspect of good citizenship is attitudes of tolerance and support for the equal rights of others. Yet, in recent times, there has been a rise in the levels of intolerant and xenophobic attitudes, due, in part, to negative perceptions over increasing flows of migration, immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers. In this chapter, multiple group multinomial logistic regression models are estimated to determine how different profiles of citizenship norms (i.e., comprehensive, socially engaged, duty-based, monitorial, and anomic) relate to European adolescents' political tolerance, i.e., their attitudes towards equal rights of others (immigrants and women). Data from IEA's International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016, including 51,040 grade 8 students (aged 14) across 14 European countries was used. The study reveals two clear patterns. First, students classified within the comprehensive citizenship profile deal well with the ambivalence present in the definition of tolerance, especially regarding equal rights for immigrants. Second, students within the other citizenship profiles (socially engaged, duty-based, monitorial, and anomic) show significantly lower support for equal rights for immigrants than the students classified as comprehensive. The findings contribute toward understanding the mechanisms underpinning citizenship norms profiles and their relationship to attitudes toward others. The results may be used to inform targeted intervention policies for the promotion of tolerance in Europe.

This article examines how different civic learning opportunities relate to students' political knowledge in different school tracks. Existing studies have found that citizenship teaching can not only enhance overall levels of civic outcomes but also mitigate inequalities. However, educational achievement studies emphasize the risk of a tracked school context exacerbating the general knowledge gap. Combining these findings, we do not know whether efforts in the vocational track to enhance civic outcomes can still reduce civic inequalities. This study relies on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 data. It uses multilevel analysis to examine how the civic learning opportunities schools offer (as perceived by students) are related to civic knowledge across different tracks. It finds that cross-track differences in civic knowledge are not smaller in schools rich in civic learning opportunities. We provisionally propose that this is due to differences across tracks in the levels and the nature of the civic learning opportunities provided.

The unprecedented diversity in student populations in Europe resulting from the recent rapid influx of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers is an important challenge to implementing inclusive citizenship education across Europe. Current European policy frameworks in education stress that citizenship education needs to promote common attitudes and values in the entire student population while respecting cultural diversity. Nevertheless, existing research on citizenship education tends to give only a fragmented picture. More research is needed to systematically address potential attitudinal differences between groups of students defined by migration background. To this end, this chapter analyzes potential differences in citizenship norms between 36,197 grade 8 immigrant and native-born students across nine European countries participating in IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. More specifically, using multiple group multinomial logistic regression analyses, it investigates the relationship between immigration status and citizenship norms in the nine European countries, while taking into account other individual level characteristics, such as gender, socioeconomic status, and civic knowledge. The study reveals that in most of the countries native-born and immigrant students tend to endorse similar configurations of citizenship norms. When differences in adherence exist (in four out of the nine European countries), the most solid finding indicates that immigrant students are more likely to hold comprehensive citizenship norms when compared to their native-born peers. The findings contribute toward identifying potential differences in citizenship norms among native-born and immigrant students in several European countries. The results may be used to inform future studies and initiatives aimed at identifying and understanding the motivations behind endorsing different configurations of citizenship norms among different groups of students.

This chapter presents the main findings concerning citizenship norms among young adolescents using IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 data. It discusses the results and their main implications for research. Advice for policy and practice is provided. In general, the analyses show that, internationally, most young people are classified in the comprehensive, socially-engaged, or duty-based profiles, which theoretically are more aligned with democratic systems. The endorsement of certain citizenship norms does not automatically guarantee that comprehensive, socially-engaged, and duty-based young people score high on all democratic outcomes, such as support towards equality of rights for minority groups or anti-authoritarianism. Monitorial and anomic groups are overall less frequently found among young adolescents. Analytically, the use of multigroup latent class models allows us to show that citizenship norms are an international phenomenon and can be investigated regionally. Finally, we discuss the implication of the results for future research. Given current worldwide challenges, what is citizenship in an interconnected world?

Previous work on multicultural teaching competence has mainly focused on teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards ethnocultural diversity. Little attention has been paid to examine the nature of teachers' ethnocultural diversity knowledge. Drawing upon Shulman's model of pedagogical content knowledge, this study presents a novel theoretical framework and a performance-based assessment for examining teachers' ethnocultural diversity knowledge. We collected data from 819 preservice teachers across six teacher education programmes in Belgium, Flanders. Our findings indicate that student teachers in Flanders have limited and low levels of cultural diversity knowledge and there is a significant variation between the mean scores of teacher education programmes. We conclude by arguing that teacher education institutions should make meaningful reforms to develop student teachers' knowledge base regarding ethnocultural diversity.

„ Tolerance is necessary for the functioning of mature democracies where social cohesion is strong. „ Results from IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 show that, on average, European young people tend to be tolerant, but their attitudes towards equal rights for immigrants vary widely within and across European educational systems. „ In each of the ICCS 2016 European educational systems, young people with higher levels of civic knowledge tend to be more tolerant, while, in contrast, young people with low levels of civic knowledge tend to be less tolerant. „ Grade eight ICCS 2016 data indicate that in each of the 14 European educational systems, civic knowledge shows the strongest association with tolerance toward immigrants relative to the impact of individual background variables. IMPLICATIONS