STUDACT researchers Martyna Elerian, Miri Yemini, and Katarzyna Jasikowska (Jagiellonian University) have published new research in the Journal of Curriculum Studies examining how political shifts directly shape citizenship education. The study “Educational reforms and political polarization: competing visions of citizenship education and youth engagement in Poland” analyzes two contrasting Polish curricula implemented within three years: the nationalist Historia i Teraźniejszość (HiT) introduced by a right-wing government in 2022, and the participatory Edukacja Obywatelska (EO) introduced by a center-left government in 2025. Through content analysis, the research reveals how students entering secondary school in 2022 will experience completely different civic education by their third year, highlighting the vulnerability of citizenship curricula to political manipulation. While grounded in Poland’s context, the findings have broader implications for democracies worldwide, demonstrating that even EU member states use educational reform to advance ideological agendas rather than purely pedagogical improvements, calling for increased attention to how governments may exploit curriculum changes to shape youth political socialization.