Fostering teachers' professional development for citizenship education

• Teachers' professional development for citizenship education is reported.
• Collaborative inquiry-based curriculum development benefits teachers' development.
• Citizenship education has an implicit presence in teachers' practices.
• Enhancing professionalism and practical wisdom takes time and room for experimenting.

This article reports of a research project with eleven schools for primary and secondary education in which teachers were involved in collaborative inquiry-based curriculum development for citizenship education. Its main purpose was to get a better grasp of teachers' understanding of citizenship education, what teachers consider the professionalism needed for citizenship education and how this professionalism could be encouraged. The results show an increase of teachers' awareness of citizenship education and its implicit presence in their practices. According to teachers enhancing pedagogical professionalism and practical wisdom with respect to teaching citizenship education takes time, room for experimenting, and the possibility to collaborate and exchange ideas among colleagues.