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Schools are required to educate students in community and citizenship. This overall aim comprises a number of specific objectives: to communicate a set of contents, to foster certain values and attitudes, and to develop a range of skills. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a survey dealing with issues related to Citizenship Education (CE); 1,557 third-year students in secondary education in the Zaragoza region were surveyed. The paper is structured as follows: first, the international framework within which CE is promoted is described. The issue is then discussed in relation to established Spanish legislation in this regard. Thereafter, the empirical results from a case-study survey carried out among students attending schools in Zaragoza are presented. The focus of the survey was to evaluate student responses to EC as a subject, and its objective was to analyze the views of students both before and after their participation in the subject during academic year 2008-2009, the first year the subject was taught in the Spanish school system. The results show that there is significant improvement in the theoretical knowledge block, which is consistent with student experience on a taught course at school; however, there is no appreciable improvement in the blocks relating to values and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some social and political situations and many educational tasks are today, the historical result of a long process which has been shaping them; and also the current manifestation of aims and practices which have previously had other developments. It is the case of the entails and commitments that have been taking place between the concept and the practice of education, and also of the attempts of advancing or penetrating into a political democratic culture. In this paper we elaborate a historical approach which tries to announce and interpret important ideas which were configured along with decisive and complex moments of our contemporary history. For it we plan the axis of its progressive evolution in Spain, by means of the thought of relevant figures in the intellectual and political order, such as Giner de los Ríos, Rafael Altamira, José Ortega y Gasset, Manuel Azaña and some others. With his analysis we try to clarify from a historical perspective the role that education has in the strengthening of the citizenship, the cohesion and the vitality of the nation, or the genuineness in the political democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moral constitution of society and moral education are two subjects closely linked in Durkheim's writings. The sociologist from Alsace addresses suicide and other anomic actions from the point of view of a moralist, a social scientist reformer and a civic educator. His intention is to present anew a nucleus of values and social norms that, because of their integratory, therapeutic and moralizing value, can be used as a reliable framework for social regulation. This will be the mission of Moral Science: to reconcile science and ethics; ethics and society. The thinking of Durkheim closely links the three aspects emphasized in this paper: morality, sociology as a reformist science with attention to the pathologies, and moral education with secular orientation that is directed towards the citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the very beginning of this new century the university has been living paradigmatic changes. Reflecting on new qualifications that can fulfil the new professional demands is not the only issue on discussion. If the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) really aims to achieve its foundational objectives, it should incorporate in the curriculum some citizenship related subjects. This paper aims to explain what competences should become part of the curriculum so that the university itself contributes in the education of citizens ethically and morally compromised with our society and with the development of a European citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse how textbooks deal with activities which ask students of primary school for working in groups. The sample comprised 24 Social Science, Natural Science and Technology books written for primary school children (6-12 years old). After coding the information it follows a twofold methodological process, in order to offer a qualitative description of groupwork' activities, as well as a quantitative assessment of the frequency with which they appear and their continuity in primary education. The results indicate that prevail individual activities, although there are remarkable efforts for introducing groupwork in the textbooks. The underlying educational approach of each publishing firm determines what frequency, treatment and continuity have group-activities. Nevertheless, there are also common denominators, such as the rare presence of groupwork out of school. On the other hand, textbooks give priority to guidelines of tasks, specifying «what to do» but, on the contrary, almost never give guidelines about «how to do» or «how to behave». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]