Teachers’ perceived professional competences in citizenship education: Developing and validating a survey instrument for pre-service teachers in a European context

Global crises are reshaping Western democracies and putting pressure on their foundations. Citizenship education (CE) is increasingly being promoted as part of the solution, as it has the potential to support young people in becoming active, engaged, informed, and responsible democratic citizens. Therefore it is crucial for all teachers to possess the professionalism to address citizenship issues in class. This study aimed to develop a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument to measure pre-service teachers’ perceived professional citizenship education (CE) competences, using a sample from Flanders, Belgium. The item development was guided by European policy recommendations. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 1829), five perceived professional CE competences scales were identified: pre-service teachers’ (1) willingness to create an open classroom climate, (2) willingness to address political topics, (3) perceived importance of addressing social topics, (4) perceptions of how students’ social and economic background influences teaching practices, and (5) perceived preparedness for teaching CE. These scales demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, and both convergent and divergent validity were established. The validated instrument offers several practical applications in the European context. At the pre-service level, it can be employed to assess the effectiveness of initial teacher education programs in developing pre-service teachers’ CE competences, and to support institutional accountability and compliance with national and European CE standards. At the in-service level, the instrument can serve as a self-assessment tool to identify professional development needs and evaluate the impact of CE interventions. It also allows teachers’ perceived professional CE competences to be compared across different European countries and regions.