This paper presents a comparison of secondary school social science teachers’ views on citizenship education in three European countries – the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Croatia. The focus is on how teachers deal with the everyday dilemmas of teaching a concept loaded with diverse political meanings. A Q‐methodology study, involving over 60 teachers, revealed variations of four ideal types of views in all three countries: Hierarchical, Individualist, Egalitarian, and Fatalist (grid-group theory of Douglas/Wildavsky). The number of types revealed and the degree of consensus varied per country. Underlying themes across the countries included a shared bottom-line standard of professionalism.
The study demonstrates the importance of looking at the internal diversity of “national contexts” as a way to avoid cultural and political prejudice. The outcomes also shed a light on the complexity of cultural, political, and historical contexts surrounding the introduction and implementation of citizenship education in ‘established’ and ‘postcommunist’ democracies alike.
