The Good Disobedient Citizen? Students’ Perspectives on Good Citizenship in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016

Abstract

Scholars of democratic citizenship and citizenship education have long discussed whether willingness to commit civil disobedience (CD) is an important attribute of citizens to defend and enforce democratic and human rights. In light of the youth protests of recent years, this article examines whether 14-year-old students consider CD important for being a good citizen. Using representative Danish, German, Dutch and Norwegian samples from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016, this study investigates dimensions of students’ concepts of citizenship and their relatedness to civic knowledge and support for equal rights. Confirmatory factor analysis established CD as a distinct dimension of good citizenship whose scale is metrically invariant across countries. However, linear regressions showed a negative impact of civic knowledge and support for equal gender rights on CD attitudes, raising the question if the empirical pattern of students supporting CD fits with theoretical assumptions of critical or transformative citizenship education.