Murray Print & Dirk Lange 
Civic Education and Competences forEngaging Citizens in Democracies 

Civic Education and Competences for Engaging Citizens in Democracies Murray Print University of Sydney and Dirk Lange Leibniz University of Hannover What competences do young citizens need to be considered as active and engaged in the context of a modern Europe? In 2011 an invited research symposium of leading civic and political educators, social scientists and educational administrators from Europe met in Hannover, Germany to consider this key concern facing Europe today. In examining the above question the symposium addressed two significant issues: 1. Identify key competencies required for active citizenship of young people in Europe of the future. 2. Translate those competencies to school-based activities in the form of curricular and pedagogical strategies. The group addressed these questions through discussion in the symposium and through previously prepared papers. Subsequently the group participated in a modified Delphi Technique to identify the key competences and the final competences are presented in this book. The chapters of this book represent the contribution of the participants before, during and after the symposium with opportunities for review and reflection. Murray Print and Dirk Lange are professors from the University of Sydney and Leibniz University of Hannover respectively and are national leaders in civics and citizenship education in their respective countries. They have brought together a group of leading European civic and citizenship educators from different academic fields to explore the key issue and to identify the competences for young people to become active and engaged European citizens.

Table of Content

Acknowledgement; Introduction; Part I: Competences for Democratic Citizens; 1. Competences for Teaching, Learning and Living Democratic Citizenship; 2. Citizenship and the Civic Realities of Everyday Life; 3. What Does Democracy Need from Its Citizens? Identifying the Qualities; Needed for Active Citizenship and Making the Values Explicit; 4. Competencies for Democratic Citizenship in Europe; 5. Civic Competences: Some Critical Reflections; 6. Political Socialization, Civic Consciousness and Political Interests of Young Adults: Empirical Evidence from Germany and Some Theoretical Implications; Part II: Civic Education Applications and Programs; 7. Learning “How Society Is and Might and Should Be Arranged”: Necessity and Outcome of Interactive and Controversial Teaching Strategies; 8. Teaching for Democratic Learning9. Competences, Stabilization of the Democratic System, and Self-Empowerment; 10. Using Critical Incidents for the Assessment of Citizenship Competence; 11. Conceptualizing Competences for Democratic Citizenship: A Delphi Approach; Contributors.