Voorbereiden op burgerschapsonderwijs: een onderzoek naar de ontwikkeling van de cognitie voor burgerschapsonderwijs van toekomstige leerkrachten tijdens de initiële lerarenopleiding

"Western democracies are under pressure", a concern that has increasingly framed debates on citizenship education (CE) over the past decade. CE is promoted as a response to this threat, yet it places substantial demands on teachers, who are expected to fulfill a dual demand: acting as explicit CE instructors while also serving as democratic role models. Concerns have been raised by both scholars and teachers regarding the feasibility of meeting the expectation to fulfil this dual demand, particularly in relation to teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and thinking rather than their observable classroom behavior. Understanding the development of teachers' CE teacher cognition, defined as the integrated set of beliefs, knowledge, and thinking about CE, is essential to address these concerns. Initial teacher education (ITE) represents the first formal context in which the dual demand is explicitly addressed, through processes of teacher socialization and citizenship socialization. This dissertation examines the development of pre-service teachers' CE teacher cognition over the course of one year in Flemish ITE institutions. CE teacher cognition is conceptualized as comprising three interconnected mental processes: CE beliefs (normative ideas regarding good democratic citizenship and how CE is or should be taught), CE knowledge (both knowledge and understanding of democratic concepts and pedagogical strategies for CE), and CE thinking (interpreting, reflecting on, and making decisions about situations related to citizenship and CE). Three research questions guided the study: (1) How are pre-service teachers' CE beliefs related to their CE knowledge and thinking? (2) How do pre-service teachers' CE knowledge and CE thinking develop over the course of one year in ITE, when taking into account their CE beliefs? (3) To what extent are specific ITE components (field experiences, stand-alone courses, and integrated approaches) associated with the development of pre-service teachers' CE teacher cognition over the course of one year in ITE? A longitudinal panel design was employed. Survey data were collected from 1 688 pre-service teachers at two time points: the beginning and end of their first ITE year. A total of 426 respondents completed both surveys. The sample included future primary and secondary teachers across multiple subject specializations (Languages and Arts; Social Studies and Health; STEM), enrolled in bachelor's and master's programs. In Chapter 3, four CE belief profiles were identified using latent class analysis: comprehensive (11%), socially-activistic (28%), personal responsibility-oriented (34%), and anomic (28%) CE supporters. Comprehensive CE supporters hold the most holistic view of education's role in fostering good democratic citizenship among students, while anomic supporters hold the most skeptical view. Employing multinomial logistic regression analyses, the results indicated that CE beliefs are primarily related to CE thinking (particularly willingness to address political topics, willingness to create an open classroom climate (OCC), and internal political efficacy) rather than CE knowledge (citizenship knowledge). So, in the context of CE, beliefs are most likely to drive what teachers do through what they think, rather than through what they know. In Chapters 4 and 5, the development of CE thinking and CE knowledge within the citizenship socialization process (political and social interest, citizenship knowledge, internal political efficacy) and teacher socialization process (willingness to create an OCC, willingness to address political topics, perceived preparedness to teach CE), was examined. Analyses were conducted using paired-samples t-tests and linear regression models. Over the course of one year, pre-service teachers' CE thinking unfolds more smoothly within the citizenship socialization process than within the teacher socialization process: pre-service teachers develop a higher interest in political and social issues, higher levels of internal political efficacy, and stronger feelings of preparedness to teach CE. At the same time, their willingness to address political topics remains stable, while their willingness to create an OCC declines. A confidence-intention gap was revealed. CE knowledge remained stable. Within the citizenship socialization process, the development of CE thinking appears independent of educational track, level, and subject specialization. Within the teacher socialization process, subject specialization plays a differentiating role, with future Social Studies and Health secondary teachers showing less favorable growth than future primary and STEM teachers. Concerning the related ITE components, stand-alone courses and, to a more limited extent, field experiences are more consistently associated with favorable developments in both the citizenship and teacher socialization processes than integrated approaches. This dissertation highlights that the most promising way to strengthen pre-service teachers' CE cognition is through stand-alone courses that address both the dual demand of acting as democratic role models and teaching CE explicitly. Moreover, attention to CE across courses and during field experiences should be heightened, and a stronger anchoring of CE knowledge in ITE curricula is recommended. National policy is recommended to provide clear guidance on the CE competences that should be fostered, as well as on the normative role of schools in promoting good democratic citizenship. Finally, sustained support, including reflective activities during ITE and mentoring in the early career phase, is essential to close the confidence-intention gap and enable future teachers to translate their intentions to implement CE into real classroom action.