Global citizenship education and civic engagement: a cross-regional analysis of students’ beliefs and practices

Abstract

The article presents the main findings of a cross-regional analysis conducted within the framework of the PRIN GloCivEd project on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and civic engagement in upper secondary schools. The study involved a total of 52 focus groups with fifth-year students: 10 in Foggia, 10 in Bologna, and 32 in Rome. The aim is to triangulate the results concerning the integration of GCE themes and approaches into the Civic Education curriculum and the related everyday teaching practices. The comparison among the three territorial contexts, while not intended as a formal comparison, made it possible to highlight convergences, differences, and enabling or constraining factors in students’ representations, experiences, and forms of civic engagement, offering insights for the design of more coherent and transferable active citizenship pathways.