ICCS 2009 Technical Report - IEA

• The school environment: this section contained questions about school autonomy and theschool as a democratic learning environment;• The local community: this section comprised questions about the resources available tostudents in the local area and about issues of social tension within the local communityand within the school;• Civic and citizenship education at school: this section contained questions about how civic andcitizenship education was implemented at the school;• School size and resources: this section included questions about basic school characteristicssuch as school size, numbers of teachers, and school location.Development and implementation of the national contexts surveyThe ways in which students develop civic dispositions and acquire knowledge andunderstanding in their formation as citizens are strongly influenced by factors at the countryor national context level. These variables include, among others, the historical background, thenature of the political system, the structure of the education system, and the nature of thecurriculum. The national contexts survey was designed to collect relevant data and informationabout both antecedents and processes at the country level. It was also undertaken in two phases:at the outset and toward the conclusion of the study. This procedure was followed so thatthe survey could be used to inform the process of developing instruments and would providecountry- level data on the context for civic and citizenship education.The development, coordination, analyses, verification, and reporting of the national contextssurvey was coordinated by ICCS researchers at the National Foundation for EducationalResearch (NFER) in the UK in liaison with the ISC. These tasks also involved close workingpartnerships with the NRCs from the participating countries.The development process and implementation process consisted of four phases:• Phase 1: during this first phase, agreement was reached on the nature and scope of thecontexts and questions to be included in the survey. The national centers and expertsreviewed first drafts of the survey and the online version of the survey.• Phase 2: during this phase, initial data from the survey were analyzed. Where necessary,national centers were asked to provide any missing data and clarify inconsistencies in thedata.• Phase 3: during this phase, NRCs reviewed the survey data for their country and updatedthe data in the light of any changes in national contexts since the initial completion of thesurvey.• Phase 4: this final phase consisted of final reviews and checks of survey data. This processwas conducted in close dialogue with national centers in order to ensure consistency,completeness, and comparability.Consideration of the contexts and questions to be included in the national contexts survey,required the following criteria to be applied across the four phases:• Relevance with regard to the ICCS assessment framework;• Relevance and additional value in relation to information about the context of the widercommunity for civic and citizenship education that was already in the public domain;• Appropriateness for the national contexts of the participating countries;• Validity in terms of comparability, analysis, and reporting.ICCS questionnaire development41