CELS is based around two interlinked surveys, a set of case studies and a literature review.
Surveys of students, teachers and school senior managers
CELS administers two survey strands which are distinct, but linked.
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A longitudinal survey. This tracks the cohort of young people who entered secondary school in 2002 and are therefore the first to have a continuous entitlement to citizenship education. Tracking runs between ages 11 and 18, in years 7, 9, 11 and 13 and is based on a complete cohort from a sample of 75 schools (approximately 11,250 students currently). Participants were contacted for the final wave in early 2009 and the results of this survey will be published in 2010.
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A cross-sectional survey. This strand is now complete. Each wave was based on a sample of 300 schools and colleges (approximately 2500 students in each of years 8, 10 and 12). The cross-sectional survey provides data that can be cross-referenced with the data from the longitudinal survey in order to provide a broader context for the results from the longitudinal survey cohort. The latest findings from this survey can be found in the 7th annual report from CELS.
In all of the participating schools and colleges, one senior manager and five teachers were also asked to complete questionnaires.
Case studies
CELS also includes 12 longitudinal case studies. The case-study schools were selected from the sample of schools taking part in the surveys, with around half being from the longitudinal survey sample. School visits include student discussion groups and in-depth interviews with senior leaders, co-ordinators and teachers.
Literature review
An on-going literature review is taking place, which will culminate in a publication in 2010.
Future availability of data
The survey data sets will be made available to researchers after the study ends in 2010. The data will be anonymised to protect the privacy of the participants.
Timeline of activities and publications | How we are using the data