Teachers' Perspectives on Czech Civic Education: Challenges, Neutrality and Controversies amid Crises

Civic education is essential in preparing individuals for critical, informed, and engaged citizenship, addressing future challenges and promoting critical thinking amidst current crises such as the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the ascent of populism and far-right political movements in Europe. Civic teachers are crucial in transferring political knowledge, awareness, and skills in this rapidly changing socio-political context. However, their perspectives remain under-researched, especially in the new democracies, socio-economically disadvantaged regions and non-elite forms of education. Therefore, the paper aims to fill this gap, focusing on the views of civic education teachers from the Czech Republic. The aim is to capture their perceptions of civic education, its challenges, strengths and limitations. Special attention is paid to their understanding of neutrality and approach to controversial issues (including ethnicity, war, sexual or religious minorities or any other issue they see as sensitive) as well as their use of innovative teaching methods. The Czech Republic represents the case of a former socialist country from Central Europe, typical of Euroscepticism, with a low level of political participation compared to Western democracies, a relatively stable democratic political regime, and high education inequalities. A qualitative research design was applied for data gathering and analysis. The paper draws upon a unique set of qualitative interviews and a focus group with secondary school teachers conducted by the author from April to June 2023. This research was approved by the ethical committee of the Institute of Sociology CAS; interviewees signed an informed consent form, and all the interviewers were pseudonymized. The sample of teachers consisted of pedagogues from secondary technical and secondary vocational schools and purposely omitted "gymnasium", the academic-orientated type of school on which most of the research on secondary education is concentrated. The study focuses on the Karlovy Vary Region and the Ústí nad Labem Region, which are structurally disadvantaged and exhibit the lowest education results in the Czech Republic. The method of applied thematic analysis, through the qualitative software Atlas.ti was used. The paper also aims to offer analytically grounded recommendations for improving civic education policy, focusing on mitigating social polarization and promoting democracy and resilience among young people during multiple crises in security, migration, health, and the environmental spheres. The findings will be put into the broader European perspective by paying attention to similar teacher case studies from Great Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany.