UvA - DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Citizenship of students and social desirability : living apart together ?

Insight into the citizenship of students is typically gained via surveys. However, social desirability always plays a role in self-reporting. The relationship between social desirability and citizenship is multi-interpretable. In this article, two views on the divergence and convergence of citizenship and social desirability are presented leading to different assumptions regarding the relationship between social desirability and citizenship. These assumptions are then examined empirically with the aid of a large database on the citizenship competences of students in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands. The results show that there is a significant level of convergence that inhibits correction of survey measures for social desirability. The implications of these findings for furthering our understanding of citizenship are discussed. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 020 5251590; fax: +31 020 5251290. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G.T.M. Ten Dam), [email protected] (F.P. Geijsel), [email protected] (E. Guuske Ledoux), [email protected] (E. Joost Meijer).