The IEA Civic Education Study

"The IEA research project on Civic Education is a major and ground-breaking study that for the first time ever, gives us a world-wide view of commonalities and differences in how young people understand citizenship and political issues, and how schools and communities foster this. The study challenges many taken for granted assumptions from past work, which has tended to be based in a US-only framework. It will be an invaluable data source for anyone addressing this field - indeed, no researcher will in future be able to make confident generalisations without consulting it. It will also be an excellent basis for educators and researchers in the individual countries involved, for formulating education policy and research questions for the future."

Helen Haste, Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Bath, England

"As someone who has worked with numerous datasets from many different organizations, the IEA civic education study is world-class….These data will define the study of civic education for a generation."

David Campbell, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

The IEA Civic Education Study is the largest and most rigorous study of civic education ever conducted internationally. Researchers surveyed nearly 90,000 14-year-old students in 28 countries (including the United States) and 50,000 17-19 year olds in 16 countries during the second phase of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Civic Education Study. The content domains covered in the surveys were identified by national case studies conducted in 24 countries during the first phase. These domains include Democracy and Citizenship; National Identity; and Social Cohesion and Diversity.

The IEA Civic Education Reports:
Citizenship and Education in Twenty-eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age Fourteen (first publication from IEA Amsterdam of the study's test and survey results, 2001) by Judith Torney-Purta, Rainer Lehmann, Hans Oswald, and Wolfram Schulz.

Civic Knowledge and Engagement: An IEA Study of Uppersecondary Students in Sixteen Countries, (second publication from IEA Amsterdam of test and survey results, 2002) by Jo-Ann Amadeo, Judith Torney-Purta, Rainer Lehmann, Vera Husfeldt, and Roumiana Nikolova.

Strengthening Democracy in the Americas through Civic Education: An Empirical Analysis Highlighting the Views of Students and Teachers (a publication from the Organization of American States of detailed analysis of four countries including the United States, 2004) by Judith Torney-Purta and Jo-Ann Amadeo.

All of these reports provide cross-national analyses that illustrate what 14-year-old students and 17-19 year students know and believe about democratic institutions and processes. They also give a snapshot of the civic activities young people engage in, and what their intentions are for future participation. Additional publications that have analyzed these data have focused on political discussion and other predictors of participation, media consumption, trust in schools and government, and civic involvement across age levels.

To download a free copy of these reports and instructions for obtaining data sets and additional publications, go to the IEA Civic Education website: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~iea.

The Instrument:
The IEA Civic Education test and survey consisted of five types of items measuring students':

1. knowledge of democratic principles;
2. skills in interpreting political communication;
3. concepts of democracy and citizenship;
4. attitudes related to trust in institutions, the nation, opportunities for immigrants, and women's political rights; and
5. expected participation in civic-related activities.

A final part of the survey assessed students' perceptions of classroom climate and their participation in youth organizations, as well as other background variables. Questionnaires were also administered to teachers and school principals. The instruments (and scales) are available at the IEA Civic Education website, and may be used without cost by researchers.

Support for Ongoing Analysis of the IEA Civic Education Data Base:
CEDARS (Civic Education Data And Researcher Services) will be funded for one year beginning May 2004 by CIRCLE (the Center for Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). This continuing work at the Department of Human Development, University of Maryland is aimed at supporting the efforts of groups such as policy analysts and university faculty seeking cross-national data about civic engagement or adolescents' social and political attitudes, as well as graduate students in psychology, education, political science, communications, and public policy. A small group of faculty and doctoral students at the University of Maryland is also continuing to conduct analysis, prepare publications, make presentations to a variety of national and international audiences, provide workshops on evaluation methods for civic education programs, and assist in making this massive data set accessible for secondary analysis.