Citizenship education teaches young people about the workings of society and politics, and develops them into active citizens that contribute to the democracy of the society in which they live. Institutionalization of European citizenship introduces European citizenship education, which, with a syllabus on European citizenship, places the individual in the European area and provides the internalization of the idea of a common European identity. Education is not a policy in the exclusive jurisdiction of the EU, consequently the teaching of citizenship education varies among Member States both in terms of the duration of teaching and the involvement of European content. Unsuccessful constitutional reforms in 2005 and poor turnout in the 2009 European Parliament elections led to the growth of the number of EU funded projects in the field of EU citizenship education. In Slovenia citizenship education is taught interdisciplinarily, and as an independent compulsory subject named Homeland and Citizenship Education and Ethics in the 7th and 8th grade of primary school. The master's thesis examines the balance between contents of European and Slovenian citizenship within the subject Homeland and Citizenship Education and Ethics. Further it examines if European projects emphasise more the concept of European than national citizenship and if they promote active citizenship more than the school subject. The curriculum analysis shows that the content of the subject is national oriented and that it promotes the interest for political participation only in Slovenia. EU projects promoting EU citizenship education strengthen the interest and competences for political participation exclusively at the EU level and are more content-oriented towards the EU. In this way, they upgrade civic education from nationally oriented to European-oriented.
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