THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS' CITIZENSHIP ACTIVITIES ON STUDENTS' CIVIC KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

The paradigm of citizenship and citizenship education has changed since Latvia and Estonia regained independence and have become members of international organizations, such as the European Union and NATO. Nowadays, each member of society, including the teacher, is responsible for the development of democratic values. All subject teachers are accountable for citizenship education and the development of school environment. Information for this paper was compiled on the basis of teacher data obtained from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009 (ICCS) in Estonia and Latvia. Data processing was done using the SEM multi-modelling method-forming teachers' civic activities influence model in order to investigate the importance of teacher citizenship activities on student civic knowledge and skills. The results show that in comparison to teachers in Estonia, Latvian teachers' civic and citizenship education aims do not have statistically significant influence on students' civic knowledge and skills.