What’s the problem? Investigation of Dutch policy statements in search of causes of stagnating citizenship education

Based on the findings of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement notes in 2010 that the development of citizenship education is stagnating. In response to this stagnation, some countries, including the Netherlands, are tempted to act more prescriptively in matters of citizenship education. Prior to and in the interest of the search for a solution, we think it is first and foremost important to gain insight into the extent to which the Dutch policy on citizenship education itself contributes to the stagnation. Reconstruction of the policy theory (as a part of document analysis) is used as a method to analyse the various policy statements. Our analysis demonstrates that there are sufficient indications to state that what the Dutch government wants and why is unclear and that there are specific normative beliefs underlying the policy which may conflict with beliefs of the implementers. We assume that the indicators found are not conducive to enable or motivate school leaders to implement the policy as desired by the government.