Young People and Active Citizenship in Post-soviet Times ─ A Challenge for Citizenship Education

Situated within the context of "post-soviet times", this book explores young people’s citizenship activities and values in three distinct environments: post-soviet union countries, post-soviet union satellites, and countries that were independent of the soviet-union. Its purpose is to investigate the influence of these contexts on the ways young people see their citizenship in what are now emerging democracies.

The future of nations depends to a large extent on whether citizens will continue to support existing values and will engage in activities to support those values. Using a framework designed by Kennedy (2006) and further developed by Zalewska, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz (2011) the study examined the citizenship values of 3794 students aged 11-14-18 from 11 European countries. The main themes of this book include

• exploring similarities and differences in citizenship activities within countries and across countries;
• advancing explanations for these similarities and differences;
• highlighting the importance of contexts that influence citizenship activities and values; and
• assessing the extent to which democratic values are reflected in young people’s citizenship activities.

Beata Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz is Psychologist, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology of Development and Education in University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland.

Anna M. Zalewska is Psychologist, Professor and Dean of the Faculty in Poznan in SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland.

Kerry J Kennedy is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Advisor (Academic Development) at The Education University of Hong Kong. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg.