Keywords: citizenship education, democratic education, teacher training,
national curricula, social sciences

- Citizenship education is in teacher training in the Netherlands linked to both
the pedagogical and didactic tasks of teachers.
- The task of teachers to stimulate the development of values in students is
addressed a lot less often.
- The idea of democracy and rule of law as a framework for citizenship is not
mentioned in most knowledge bases.
- As a result, some knowledge bases seem to lack direction, as if all opinions
and all ways of ‘dealing with diversity’ are desirable.

Purpose: With this article we aim to provide insight into how citizenship
education receives attention in the formulated national curricula for teacher
education in the Netherlands and to what extent the different domains of
citizenship and the different tasks of teachers with regard to citizenship
education are addressed.

Method: For this study the knowledge base for all teacher training curricula at
Bachelor and Master level in the Netherlands were analysed. We looked at the
extent to which citizenship (education) is addressed in teacher training and the
ways in which this takes place.

Findings: The results of the study show that several domains of citizenship are
mentioned, albeit not often together in one knowledge base. Citizenship
education is linked to both the pedagogical and didactic tasks of teachers. The
task of teachers to stimulate the development of values in students is addressed
a lot less often. The fact that citizenship also involves moral development is only
mentioned in some knowledge base. Also, the idea of democracy and rule of law
as a framework for citizenship is not mentioned in most knowledge bases. As a
result, some knowledge bases seems to lack direction, as if all opinions and all
ways of ‘dealing with diversity’ are desirable.