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In western democracies, schools are expected to contribute to the establishment and maintenance of democratic citizenship. Through citizenship education, schools aim to stimulate the development of civic knowledge, skills and attitudes. This dissertation aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the different ways in which citizenship education can effectively stimulate civic engagement in adolescence. The dissertation consists of two parts. The first part focusses on discussions in the classroom on political and social issues. In the second part, I investigate how different types of citizenship education relate to the development of democratic attitudes and political participation. This dissertation uses the data of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009 and 2016, a high quality and large-scale dataset consisting of representative samples of 14-year-old students. I apply multilevel regression analyses and (multilevel) structural equation modeling using cross-national data or case studies. In the first part of this dissertation, the focus is on classroom discussions on political and social issues, also referred to as 'open classroom climate'. The research question for this first part of the dissertation is: what determines students' perceptions of an open classroom climate? The main results of the analyses, using data of 22 European countries, is that a school context of mutual respect and responsiveness is important for student perceptions of the classroom climate. When students feel equally and respectfully treated by their teachers, they are more likely to perceive their classroom climate as open. Similarly, when the school is responsive towards student demands, the classroom climate is perceived as more open. When policy and schools want to stimulate classroom discussions, they should not overlook the importance of mutual respect and responsiveness. The importance of the school context was also investigated in relation to political tolerance in a Belgian (Flemish) context. The findings show that when classroom discussions are taken into account as a single predictor, the impression is given that political discourse positively affects political tolerance. However, when a respectful and responsive school context is taken into account, the direct relationship between discussions and tolerance disappears. This means that in a Belgian (Flemish) context, respectful treatment by teachers, and responsiveness of the school towards student demands are more important for political tolerance than the discussions themselves. The second part of this dissertation is dedicated to the overall influence of citizenship education on civic engagement. The research question is as follows: how do different types of citizenship education relate to the development of democratic attitudes and political participation? Three types of citizenship education are investigated: civic learning opportunities, open classroom climate and student participation in school policies. The most important finding is that each type of citizenship education contributes in its own way to students' civic engagement. Consequently, the strength of citizenship education lies in a combination of approaches. Looking at the Belgian (Flemish) data, student participation in school policies is the strongest predictor for non-institutionalized participation. For institutionalized participation, civic learning opportunities seem to matter most. In addition, citizenship education is related to political participation in two ways: in a direct way, as more citizenship education is associated with higher levels of political participation, and in an indirect way, as citizenship education is positively associated with political interest and political efficacy, and such political attitudes are in turn positively related to both types of political participation. When investigating online political participation in 21 countries from different continents, the results indicate that all three types of citizenship education are positively related to political participation, but student participation in school policies seems the most effective. Interestingly, adolescents with a migration background and students with less civic knowledge are more politically active online, whereas they are often participate less frequently in traditional modes of participation. Regarding the effect of citizenship education on political attitudes, the findings indicate that civic learning opportunities are particularly useful for stimulating political interest, whereas student participation at school and classroom discussions seem very effective to stimulate political efficacy. The influence of citizenship education on political trust is rather limited. Only civic learning opportunities have a positive effect on trust in political institutions. However, based on procedural fairness theory, findings show that fair treatment by teachers is strongly related to political trust. When investigating the underlying mechanism, the results indicate that being fairly treated by teachers is positively associated with trust in schools, which is in turn associated with higher levels of political trust. To conclude, the results of this dissertation indicate that schools are able to influence students' civic engagement, but the strength of citizenship education lies in the combination of approaches. Each type contributes to civic engagement in a distinct way. In addition, the importance of the school context should not be overlooked. Feeling fairly and respectfully treated by teachers is positively associated with political trust, as well as with student perceptions of the openness of the classroom climate.

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