Towards an ideal model of education for critical citizenship. An analysis of the Spanish curricular change in Social Sciences

1 of 14 European Journal of Education, 2025; 60:e70010 https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70010 European Journal of Education ORIGINAL ARTICLE Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship. An Analysis of the Spanish Curricular Change in Social Sciences ElisaNavarroMedina1 | E.WayneRoss2 | NoeliaPérezRodríguez1 | NicolásDeAlbaFernández1 1Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Seville, Seville, Spain | 2Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Correspondence: Elisa NavarroMedina ([email protected]) Received: 26 April 2024 | Revised: 8 January 2025 | Accepted: 14 January 2025 Funding: This work was supported by Own Research and Transfer Plan. University of Seville (VIPPIT2021EBRV). Keywords: citizenship education| curriculum| ICCS| primary education| secondary education ABSTRACT In this study, we analysed the presence of citizenship education in the new Spanish social sciences curriculum, focusing on both the primary and secondary education stages. The relevance of the study stems from the need to adapt to a new reality, in which it is crucial to develop in children and young people the skills to understand, interpret and make critical decisions. Considering the model outlined as ideal, and being aware of the difficulty involved in achieving it, we took as a reference a possible model to analyse the Spanish curriculum, the ICCS study framework. The research presented is based on a review of policy documents and analyses the curricula of compulsory education stages through a content analysis technique. The results show that in the Spanish curriculum, under the logic of the ICCS framework, cognitive skills and citizen content are more prevalent than those based on attitudes and engagement. This issue prompts us to reflect on the future changes that should be made to approach the model we consider relevant. 1 | Introduction. What Should the Social Sciences Curriculum Be Like in Order to Form A Critical Citizenry? Schools in general and social science curriculum in particular play a crucial role in the socialisation of young people into contemporary society. And while education for socialisation into the dominant culture is widely accepted as appropriate, if the aim of education is to create critical citizens what is required is a curriculum of ‘countersocialisation’, that is, education against uncritical acceptance of the status quo (Chacko2015; OchoaBecker and Engle2007; Hursh and Ross2000; Ross2017). Being a critical citizen requires more than identifying social programs and taking ameliorative actions to improve society. Critical citizenship demands a questioning disposition and constant interrogation of the familiar and unchallenged assumptions and practices that structure our experiences and the meanings we make of them. Being critical is about examining what is considered selfevident and challenging the injustices of the status quo. Citizenship education that strives for critical transformation of—as opposed to reproduction of—society demands we scrutinise the fundamental epistemological assumptions undergirding the curriculum as well as our assumptions about the nature of learning. Epistemologically, education for critical citizenship emphasises that knowledge and meaning are created from the interplay of subject and object—that is, knowledge and meanings are socially constructed. Rather than approaching knowledge acquisition as a deductive, generalisable and valuefree process, social constructionism understands knowledge acquisition as inductive, valueladen and contextually unique and that interpretations of reality are culturally derived and historically This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Education published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2 of 14 European Journal of Education, 2025 situated. In addition, education for critical citizenship aims to be emancipatory and participatory, that is, it focuses on power relations and critiques assumptions and is ever evolving (Crotty1998). It follows that education for critical citizenship must: • provide students opportunities to examine; criticise; and rework on traditions, existing social practices and modes of problem solving. • challenge the injustices of the status quo. • resist knowledge that is generated by and supportive of society's elites; rooted in logical positivism; and consistent with social reproduction and the replication of a society that is classist, sexist and racist. What this kind of education looks like in practice is specific to individual classroom settings and students, but it includes, for example, redressing the needs of the disadvantaged, strengthening human rights and stimulating environmental improvements. Pedagogically, a curriculum of critical citizenship oriented away from lecture and information transmission and towards such processes as reflective thinking and the dialogical method sociocultural criticism, textual analysis, deconstruction, problem solving, critical thinking and social action (Ross2017). Critical citizenship education conceived in these terms has a long history, although it has never been popularly adopted in schools. In the United States, George C. Counts advocated that schools should be the centre for educating student to build a new social order (Counts1932; Hursh and Ross2000). More recently, critical pedagogy, built on the foundation of Paolo Freire's(1970) work and practice, has provided a framework for critical citizenship education. And various critical and radical curricular and pedagogical frameworks for social science and history curricula have been presented by Merchant, Shear and Au(2022) and Ross(2024). As Ross(2018) points out, critical pedagogy did not evolve from a single philosophical source and its core aims and methods are found in the work of Paulo Freire. The core idea of critical pedagogy is to submit received understandings to critical analysis with the aim of increasing human knowledge and freedom. Overall, a curriculum for critical citizenship aims to cultivate critical thinking, contextual understanding and a deeper awareness of social realities and interconnectedness, empowering students to engage with the world in a meaningful and transformative way. To achieve this objective, the various elements of the curriculum should incorporate different issues as central components. Habits of critical thinking for this critical reading and writing skills. The curriculum should foster habits of thought that go beyond surface meaning and challenge dominant narratives, myths and received wisdom. For example, critical citizens assess social, political and economic structures to see beyond surface cause. To this end, it is important to emphasise the development of skills in reading, writing and speaking critically, supporting students to analyse texts, events and discourse in depth. An interdisciplinary approach of curriculum for critical citizenship should draw on multiple disciplines and perspectives to provide a more interconnected understanding of the world, emphasising on hidden facts and unseen connections, challenging students to look beyond the obvious and delve deeper into understanding various phenomena. Contextual understanding from a dialectical thinking perspective. Students should be encouraged to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology and personal consequences of various phenomena, including actions, events, objects, processes, organisations, experiences, texts, subject matter, policies, mass media and discourse. Dialectical thinking should support students to analyse the world in terms of interconnections, considering the ties among existing elements, their historical preconditions and future possibilities. The curriculum should encourage students to engage with social issues and problems, aiming to understand and resolve them at their roots (PérezRodríguez, AlbaFernández, and N a v a r r o - M e d i n a  2021). Including the capacity to question, debate and change established structures and systems that reproduce patterns of injustice over time through participation in social movements and other advocacy activities (Westheimer and Kahne2004). The curriculum should include content based on social engagement and activism that examines histories of resistance to social, political and economic injustice so that students can know and understand democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change. From these histories of resistance, students should be able to understand: (a) centrality of critical analyses of power in movements for social justice; (b) bravery and risks involved in resisting social injustice in public and visible ways; (b) the role of allies, accomplices and solidarity in building broadbased and effective movements for social justice and how social connections help to mitigate risks of social justice activism; (c) that organising protests and demonstrations are valuable and worthwhile form of learning and curriculum itself; (d) how schools and the curriculum can play a role in both oppression and liberation and reimage the role schools play in broader educational change; (e) the importance of connection to broader social movements and understand how their own struggles for justice and liberation are part of a broader, historic traditions of fighting for social, political and economic justice (Au2021, 2024). This would help students to develop dispositions necessary to engage community in healthy functioning democracy spanning individual and collective realms; an appreciation of the value of ‘otherness’; an ability to hold tension in lifegiving ways; a sense of personal voice and agency; a capacity to create community (Palmer2011). 2 | The ICCS Assessment Framework as a Possible Strategy for Curricular Change Towards the Ideal Model of Critical Citizenship The curriculum proposals we have put forward for the development of critical citizenship in the field of social sciences are, from our perspective, an ideal model towards which every educational system should strive. However, social changes, and consequently educational changes, are often not swift, especially when proposing the transformation of a deeply rooted 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 3 of 14 social system. Nonetheless, despite recognising the need to move towards an ideal model, we are aware of the existence of possible models that, with improvements, could help us achieve the ideal model of critical citizenship (Joris and Agirdag2019; McCowan2009). In this regard, the incorporation of critical citizenship education into the curriculum involves, among other things, considering the studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1971 (Torney, Oppenheim, and Farnen 1975) up to the year 2022, with different editions—1999, 2009, 2016 and 2022— (Amadeo etal.2002; Schulz etal.2010, 2017, 2023). The goal of the International Civic and Citizenship young people have regarding civic and citizenship education and, therefore, their performance as citizens. Its ultimate purpose is to provide, for participating countries, an empirical study that assists them in enhancing their public policies and practices in the field of civic education, even offering trend data for those countries that have participated in multiple editions. The latest report, ICCS 2022 (Schulz etal.2023), is conceived as a product of the changes that concepts of civic and citizenship education have been undergoing in recent years, especially linked to ideas related to globalisation, sustainability, migration, the new world order or identities. It also addresses the increasing importance of digital technologies for civic engagement and new forms of social activism. Alongside these themes, and from a more political perspective, the focus is placed on crises in democratic political systems, marked by notable signs of instability and the emergence of new political movements, in response to some of the issues raised (European Commission 2016; Eurostat2018). The study sample comprises 14yearold students, in complete class groups; teachers delivering classes to the selected students; management personnel from participating educational institutions; and experts from participating national centres regarding the structure of educational systems, their status and their curriculum. The research questions for ICCS 2022 are focused on measuring students' civic knowledge, their willingness to participate and their attitudes towards civic issues. Among the set of subquestions in the study, RQ1.b. is particularly relevant to the research presented. Formulated as: ‘What curricular approaches do participating countries employ for civic and citizenship education?’ (Schulz etal.2023, p. 18), it aims to analyse the different types of civic and citizenship education implemented in the participating countries. Although analysing the results of ICCS is not the focus of this work, the presence of a specific question regarding curriculum issues highlights that, for participating countries, there is a commitment to take into account the results of ICCS to rethink citizenship education in their curricula. The assessment framework of ICCS 2022 is based on the conceptual model of CIVED 1999 (Amadeo etal.2002), developed through two frameworks (Schulz etal.2023). However, in the 2022 edition compared to the previous ICCS frameworks of 2009 and 2016, the conceptual model appears in two separate frameworks, to simplify the structure: civic knowledge framework and civic attitudes and engagement framework. This dual logic stems from the understanding that the acquisition of civic and citizenship knowledge is inseparable from the development of attitudes and dispositions for participation in society, and vice versa. The civic knowledge framework analyses aspects related to students' civic knowledge regarding citizen content and cognitive processes. It is divided into two dimensions: content domain and cognitive domain. Each domain is further subdivided into subdomains. The content domain includes four subdimensions, which evaluate different types of knowledge (factual, procedural, conceptual and metacognitive). These subdimensions in the ICCS 2022 edition include more explicit references to content associated with global citizenship education and education for sustainable development (Schulz etal.2023). The cognitive domain is based on the hierarchy of cognitive processes by Anderson and Krathwohl(2001) and is subdivided into two subdimensions: knowing and reasoning and applying. On the other hand, there is the framework of civic attitudes and engagement, which aims to describe affectivebehavioural constructs. This framework is divided into two dimensions: the attitudes dimension and the engagement dimension. The attitudes dimension includes judgements regarding ideas, people, objects, acts or situations and comprises three subdimensions, corresponding to three of the four described in the content domain. Regarding the engagement dimension, it is linked to students' expectations of civic participation and is structured around three subdimensions, which relate to aspects similar to those included in the content domain. Based on the above, this study aims to analyse the correspondence of the ICCS framework with the new Spanish curriculum (Organic Law2020). Specifically, as detailed below, it examines the subjects related to social sciences in primary and secondary education stages, as the area of citizenship education has traditionally been associated with this field of knowledge (GómezRodríguez and GarcíaRuiz2019; Myoun and Liou2022). The decision to address both educational stages is based on the curricular organisation of the Spanish education system. In the primary and secondary education stages, citizenship education is a mandatory component. 3 | Method The research reported in this article uses a qualitative design based on documentary analysis (Okoko, Tunison, and Walker 2023). Its relevance stems from the latest curricular change approved by the Government of Spain, which has resulted in the approval of Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, amending Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education (known by its acronym, LOMLOE). It is primarily based on a shift in focus regarding the role of minimum and compulsory education for the whole of the Spanish State. It starts from the premise of providing students with a comprehensive education that focuses 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 4 of 14 European Journal of Education, 2025 on the development of competencies enabling them to understand and engage with the world they live in. This is explicitly stated in the profile of outcomes that students are expected to have developed by the end of compulsory education stages. The curriculum proposal is developed in the definition of eight key competencies that each curriculum area or subject must contribute to. For each curriculum area or subject, a series of specific competencies are proposed, which are achieved through the development of a sequence of learning situations where students are required to apply these competencies. Therefore, the learning situations include specifications of specific competencies, evaluation criteria and basic knowledge (Figure 1). The output profile encompasses all the key competencies that students are expected to have developed upon completing the educational stage. Therefore, all the curricular elements described in Figure1 must contribute to the achievement of this profile. Considering the aforementioned curricular change, this study analyses to what extent the law incorporates the development of civic and citizenship competencies among students. To do so, we start from the proposed ICCS framework, considering it provides a possible model for the development of this field. The general problem addressed by the research is: P.1. What is the correspondence of ICCS domains in the social sciences subjects covered in the LOMLOE? This is specified into two specific problems: P1.1. Which domains correspond with the ICCS framework in the general and specific subjects of social sciences in primary education? P1.2. Which domains correspond with the ICCS framework in the general and specific subjects of social sciences in secondary education? 3.1 | Sample Given the distribution of competencies in education matters between the Spanish state and the autonomous communities, regarding the basic contents of minimum education, the Ministry of Education is responsible for determining 40%–50% of these knowledge areas. In this study, we analyse the two Royal Decrees of minimum education, proposed by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training for Primary and Secondary Education stages (Table1). Specifically, we delve into the areas and subjects related to social sciences. Some subjects are considered generic because they address citizenship education in a crosscurricular manner. Others are specific, as they focus centrally on the issue of citizenship education. Environmental, natural, social, and cultural knowledge and education in values, civic and ethical (generic and FIGURE 1 | Curricular framework of the LOMLOE. TABLE 1 | Sample. Document Type Areas/subjects Curricular elements to be analysed Royal Decree 157/2022, of March 1, establishing the organisation and minimum teachings of primary education Generic Environmental, natural, social and cultural knowledge 1. Specific competencies 2. Evaluation criteria 3. Basic knowledge Specific Education in values, civic and ethical Royal Decree 217/2022, of March 29, establishing the organisation and minimum teachings of secondary education Generic Geography and history Specific Education in values, civic and ethical Source: Own elaboration. 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 5 of 14 specific areas for primary education stage, respectively), and geography and history and education in values, civic and ethical (generic and specific subjects for secondary education stage, respectively) (Table1). Therefore, the sampling selection is intentional (Hernández2021), considering that the social sciences area, due to its own idiosyncrasy, is responsible for citizenship education, as mentioned earlier. Within the curricular development of each of the areas/subjects, we analyse the three existing curricular elements: specific competencies, evaluation criteria and basic knowledge, as these constitute the didactic triangle that forms the basis of teaching and learning processes in classrooms (Biggs2014). Additionally, the curriculum elements are presented in this order because the Spanish curriculum organises them this way. 3.2 | Analysis Procedure For the analysis, as detailed above, the knowledge framework and the civic attitudes and engagement framework of ICCS (Schulz etal.2023) have been taken as reference. As we have pointed out above, and taking into account ICCS research question RQ1.b. (Schulz etal.2023), it seems reasonable for participating countries, including Spain, to consider this framework when drafting their educational legislation in this area. Based on the aforementioned premise, this study allows verifying to what extent the dimensions present in this framework, which assess students' civic and citizenship competencies, are taken into account in educational public policies, in this case in the official Spanish curriculum. Considering this issue, the proposed evaluation framework of the ICCS study will be used as the analytical framework in the presented research (Table2). The analysis procedure was conducted in three phases. In the first phase, a textual analysis of the documents was carried out to confirm the feasibility of using the ICCS framework. For this purpose, the curricula were analysed using all dimensions. In the second phase, a member of the research team located explicit references to the ICCS frameworks in various parts of the curriculum, for the areas/subjects related to the teaching of social sciences in primary and secondary education stages. This resulted in a total of 449 references. In the third phase of the analysis, triangulation was conducted by the research team, modifying a total of 34 references for two main reasons: changes in categories related to dimensions and subdimensions (22 changes) and assignment of new citations (12). This resulted in a total of 483 references. In terms of reliability, this represented an interobserver agreement rate between phases 2 and 3 of 99%, with a kappa index of 0.48; thus, the analysis achieved an adequate level of agreement (Abraira2001). 4 | Results The results of the study (P1) show that the ICCS dimensions that are most prevalent in the social sciences curriculum of the LOMLOE are the cognitive domain, followed by the content domain, attitudes and engagement, respectively (Table3). Therefore, the curriculum, overall, places more emphasis on addressing civic and citizenship education through cognitive and content dimensions than through attitudes and engagement dimensions. In this regard, before delving into the two investigated subproblems (P1.1. and P1.2.), it is necessary to mention that the ICCS dimensions do not appear simultaneously in all elements of the Spanish curriculum. Thus, as will be presented below, mentions related to cognitive, attitudes and engagement domains appear in specific competencies and evaluation criteria, TABLE 2 | Frameworks and dimensions of ICCS for curricular analysis. Frameworks Dimension Subdimension Civic knowledge framework Content domains Civic institutions and systems Civic principles Civic participation Civic roles and identities Cognitive domains Knowing Reasoning and applying Civic attitudes and engagement framework Attitudes Attitudes towards civic principles Attitudes towards civic issues and institutions Attitudes towards civic roles and identities Engagement Experiences with engagement Dispositions towards engagement Expected future engagement Source: Schulz etal.(2023). 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 6 of 14 European Journal of Education, 2025 while in basic knowledge, only elements belonging to the content domain are referenced. This occurs both in primary education and secondary education stages. Regarding the primary education stage (P1.1.), we observe that there is a predominance of the cognitive domain in both specific competencies and evaluation criteria, both in the generic and specific areas (Table4). On the other hand, we observe a similar correspondence of the dimension related to attitudes in both specific competencies and evaluation criteria. It is noteworthy that the dimension related to engagement appears in the generic area as a specific competency to be developed, but it is scarcely considered in the evaluation criteria. As we delve into specific competencies, we observe that within the cognitive domain, both in the generic subject area and in the specific subject area (Figure2), more emphasis is placed on the subdimension related to reasoning and application skills than on knowledge. In no case are they developed in an integrated and therefore balanced manner. The reasoning and application skills are more notable in the generic area than in the specific one and, among other issues, aim for students to establish relationships between TABLE 4 | ICCS dimensions in curriculum elements: primary education. Stage Primary education Curriculum elements Specific competences Evaluation criteria Basic knowledge Areas/dimensions Generic F = 49 Specific F = 22 Generic F = 48 Specific F = 15 Generic F = 53 Specific F = 21 Content domains 61.2% 59.1% 66.7% 66.7% Cognitive domains 100.0% 100.0% Attitudes 22.4% 31.8% 29.2% 20.0% Engagement 16.3% 9.1% 4.2% 13.3% Source: Own elaboration. FIGURE 2 | Correspondence of ICCS dimensions in specific competencies of primary education. TABLE 3 | Correspondence of ICCS dimensions in the social sciences curriculum. Dimensions Social sciences curriculum Content domains 45.1% Cognitive domains 34.3% Attitudes 14.4% Engagement 6.1% Source: Own elaboration. 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 7 of 14 the different elements or systems of the social and cultural environment in a meaningful way: Therefore, this competency aims for students not only to know the different elements of the surrounding environment rigorously and systematically but also to establish relationships between them (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 29). Regarding the dimension related to attitudes, the most prominent subdimension is the one related to attitudes towards civic principles compared to the other two subdimensions. It is more present in the specific area of primary education than in the generic one. It refers to the need to develop attitudes in students such as respect for civic norms in favour of social justice and democratic behaviours: Recognizing the richness that coexistence brings, as well as the need to establish and respect ethical and civic norms that exclude all types of arbitrariness, injustice, discrimination, and violence and promote democratic, supportive, inclusive, respectful, peaceful, and nonsexist behavior, implies an adequate development of interaction practices, mutual recognition, and education in values, which generate a meaningful understanding of the importance of ethical and civic norms based on the recognition of our own social nature (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 64). Finally, in the least considered dimension, namely the one linked to engagement, in the case of the generic area, mentions are made of all three subdimensions, whereas in the specific area, only the subdimension related to engagement experiences appears. They refer to the need for students to participate critically in the school environment and in the community: A democratic society demands an engaged and critical citizenship that actively participates in the school environment and in other activities that influence the wellbeing of the community (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 31). Regarding the assessment criteria, we observe a similar trend to that presented regarding the specific competencies (Figure3). In the dimension related to the cognitive domain, in the specific area, the assessment criteria emphasise evaluating reasoning and application skills linked to the critical analysis of reality and its social problems: To contribute to generating a respectful, nonsexist coexistence, committed to achieving effective equality and shared responsibility, and to eradicating genderbased violence, based on the knowledge and critical analysis of the longstanding situation of inequality between women and men (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 65). The dimension related to attitudes stands out again, as it is exclusively linked to the subdimension of attitudes towards civic principles. This dimension has more correspondence in the assessment criteria of the generic area, referring to the evaluation FIGURE 3 | Correspondence of ICCS dimensions in the evaluation criteria of primary education. 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 8 of 14 European Journal of Education, 2025 of attitudes such as the appreciation of diversity, social cohesion and respect for other cultures: Analyzing the geographical, historical, and cultural processes that have shaped presentday society, valuing ethnocultural or affectivesexual diversity and social cohesion, and demonstrating empathy and respect for other cultures and gender equality (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 40). The dimension related to engagement is again the least present. In this case, both the generic and specific areas of social sciences only refer to evaluation criteria related to engagement experiences, especially in the specific area. These, among other things, refer to the need to evaluate the students' critical and active commitment to values such as solidarity, respect for minorities and other identities. Reflecting on and assuming an active and critical commitment to values related to solidarity and respect for minorities and ethnocultural and gender identities, analyzing from an ethical perspective issues related to inequality and poverty, multiculturalism, human diversity, and migratory phenomena (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 65). On the other hand, the basic knowledge of primary education, as mentioned earlier, is exclusively linked to the dimension related to the domain of content (Figure4). In the generic area, reference is made to knowledge related to civic principles and civic roles and identities respectively, with allusions to: Social inequality and access to resources (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 37). Oral sources and collective memory. Local history and family biography; women and men as subjects of history (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 34). In the case of the specific area, in addition to the previous subdimensions, knowledge of civic institutions and systems is considered, with basic knowledge related to the functioning of the State: The contribution of the State and its institutions to peace, security, and international cooperation. The comprehensive security of citizens (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 66). In both areas, there is a lack of correspondence of the subdimension related to civic participation. The few references made are regarding: FIGURE 4 | Correspondence of ICCS dimensions in the basic knowledge of primary education. 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 9 of 14 Social and civic participation (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 42). Democratic decisionmaking (Royal Decree 157/2022a, p. 66). On the other hand, regarding secondary education (P1.2.), the results show that the cognitive domain once again appears prominently compared to the other dimensions (Table5). This is more noticeable in the specific competencies and evaluation criteria of the generic subject. Additionally, the evaluation criteria of the generic subject scarcely assess dimensions related to attitudes and engagement. Deepening into the dimension related to the cognitive domain in the specific competences (Figure5), we observe how the subdimension linked to reasoning and application has a greater correspondence than the one related to knowledge. In the case of the generic subject, it is more noticeable and refers, among others, to issues related to the search, selection and critical treatment of information: Search, select, process, and organize information on relevant topics from the present and the past, critically using historical and geographical sources to acquire knowledge, develop, and express content in various formats (Royal Decree 217/2022b, p. 97). TABLE 5 | ICCS domains in curricular elements: secondary education. Stage Secondary education Curriculum elements Specific competences Evaluation criteria Basic knowledge Subjects/dimensions Generic F = 70 Specific F = 27 Generic F = 73 Specific F = 20 Generic F = 74 Specific F = 27 Content domains 71,4% 66,6% 86,3% 70,0% Cognitive domains 100,0% 100,0% Attitudes 20,1% 22,2% 10,9% 20,0% Engagement 8,5% 11,1% 2,7% 10,0% Source: Own elaboration. FIGURE 5 | Correspondence of ICCS dimensions in the specific competences of secondary education. 14653435, 2025, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70010 by Spanish Cochrane National Provision (Ministerio de Sanidad), Wiley Online Library on [27/06/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License