Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE) provides young students with knowledge, understanding, and dispositions to engage in society as informed and active citizens. In 2014, the European Union Education Ministers underscored the significant role of teachers in facilitating students; acquisition of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values essential for realizing their full potential as engaged members of society. Furthermore, the Eurydice 2017 Report recognizes teachers as one of the key players in providing citizenship education in schools. Therefore, teachers’ preparation in civic and citizenship topics, as well as their readiness to implement CCE at school, is crucial for equipping new generations with the necessary means to participate effectively as citizens in society.

The research presented here is part of the PhD research titled Learning to Teach Civic and Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development During Pre-service Teacher Training conducted in collaboration with LUMSA University and Universidade Católica Portuguesa. This study is aimed at investigating how CCE and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are integrated into the pre-service primary and pre-primary teacher training programs of specific higher education institutions. It sheds light on future teachers’ perceived readiness to teach CCE and ESD in their professional practice, and develops a theoretical model aimed at facilitating the integration of CCE and ESD into initial teacher training. The study adopts a multiple-case study approach, analysing the teacher training programs at selected universities in Italy and Portugal. A mixed-methods methodology is employed to achieve the research goals, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. This contribution presents the initial findings of the case study conducted in two Italian universities regarding pre-service primary and pre-primary school teachers’ perceptions of their readiness to teach CCE. Based on the data collected from the questionnaire and the focus group, the initial findings indicate that future primary and early childhood school teachers feel confident in their ability to implement strategies for integrating CCE into their future professional practice. However, they perceive themselves as less prepared with regard to planning and assessing CCE learning pathways.

This article presents a comparison of the two university contexts and analyses the perceptions of pre-service teachers from both universities, examining certain aspects of their perceived preparation for teaching CCE, such as their ability to plan civic education lessons, select appropriate and effective teaching strategies, simplify complex civic education lessons for students to understand, draw connections among civic education related subjects, use a variety of learning resources for teaching civic education, assess civic education.

Keywords: Civic and citizenship education, teacher education, readiness to teach, pre-service teacher, Higher Education.