The article considers modern approaches to citizenship education in the context of the didactic process in high school. At present, the citizenship education is prioritized in Ukraine, as it is based upon humanistic concepts of active engaged citizenship, justice, tolerance, trust and respect, as well as striving for peaceful co-existence and interaction within a multi-cultural community. Citizenship education is seen as a conceptual basis of innovative pedagogical practice that forms civic values in high school students, encouraging them to national identity and self-representation as a representative of civil society, a citizen of the state, Europe and the world.The author explores the theoretical views of scholars on the problem of civic values in the scientific literature, identifies the characteristics that relate to the implementation of reforms in civic education in Ukraine. It has been demonstrated that citizenship education is recognized as a priority, as it is based on the normative and legal principles of state social policy, proclaims the principles of civil equality, cultural diversity, justice, honesty, tolerance, etc. Thus, the citizenship education is currently treated as a conceptual basis for the innovative pedagogical practice, which tends to nurture the students’ feel of equality and justice, is also believed to encourage them to continue self-cognition of their own ethnical and cultural identity, as well as perpetual development of their own personality as representing a particular social or ethnical group, citizenship of a European country and the world in general. The system of values acts as a regulator of students’ behavior, which is manifested in all spheres of social society. The main link in the implementation of the system of civic values in society is curricula, the humanitarian component of which has a decisive influence on ensuring the integrity of the individual and human civilization as a whole. In the article the author suggested some effective conditions of successful curricula in the context of citizenship education and gave recommendations for implementation of effective citizenship education in different educational institutions.