Active Citizenship in Schools

A Good Practice Guide to Developing a Whole School Policy

John Potter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781135726683
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Community Service Volunteers is known nationally for its high profile citizenship and community learning schemes, including the Barclays New Futures project, National Tutoring scheme and the Millennium Awards. In addition, CSV Education for Citizenship provides a full support and consultancy service for assisting with the development of citizenship and community links by schools, education authorities, organisations and government. This book is based directly on this experience, and will carry their successful and tested approaches across the education sector.

Providing the support needed for schools and other groups to develop citizenship and community learning links as an active part of their curriculum, this book offers point-by-point advice for school leaders and managers backed up by an unrivalled range of national case studies and experiences. Using in-depth analysis, it covers:

* peer learning
* community service
* environmental work.

Furthermore, this book looks at intergenerational projects and initiatives to develop communities and schools through the arts, sciences and sports.

PART I: WHAT—What is education for active citizenship?

1: Citizenship—an entitlement for all

We state a case for citizenship education being a vital and distinct statutory part of the curriculum, an entitlement for all pupils in its own right.

(Crick Report, para 3.1)

Aim: To set out the goals, requirements and key contents of citizenship education with reference to: 1) the Crick Report; and 2) the national curriculum programme of study.

It all happened so quickly. In scarcely more than 24 months after the election of New Labour to power, citizenship education had become a statutory part of the newly revised national curriculum in schools.

The Crick Report

The government had accepted the recommendations of the advisory group set out between the bright red covers of what became popularly known as the Crick Report.¹ Crick had recommended that citizenship education should become an entitlement for all pupils and that it should have statutory force, particularly in secondary schools. The Report had further proposed that as far as possible citizenship education should be left to teachers to develop and deliver against a simple list of learning outcomes for each age group. This was in marked contrast with other statutory subjects where the programmes of study are far more prescriptive and detailed about precisely what should be taught and learnt.

Definition

The definition of citizenship education in the Report drew strongly on the work of an earlier writer. T H Marshall had argued that citizenship comprises three distinct, albeit related dimensions: the civil, the political and the social.² The civil is composed of the rights necessary for individual freedom said Marshall, and went on, ‘By the political element I mean the right to participate in the exercise of political power,’ By the social element he meant ‘the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilised being according to the standards prevailing in the society’. Since the 1950s there has been a growing emphasis upon citizens’ responsibilities as well as their rights. Furthermore, welfare was seen to include what people can do for each other as well as the provision made by the state.³

Three strands

The Report⁴ reinterprets Marshall’s definition and describes citizenship education as comprising ‘three things, related to each other, mutually dependent on each other, but each needing a somewhat different place and treatment in the curriculum: social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy’:

• Social responsibility
  ‘Firstly, children learning from the very beginning self-confidence and socially and morally responsible behaviour both in and beyond the classroom, both towards those in authority and towards each other. This learning should be developed, not only in but also beyond school, whenever and wherever children work or play in groups or participate in the affairs of their communities.
  ‘Some may think this aspect of citizenship hardly needs mentioning; but we believe it to be near the heart of the matter. Here guidance on moral values and personal development are essential preconditions of citizenship. Some might regard the whole of primary school education as precitizenship, certainly pre-political; but this is mistaken. Children are already, through learning and discussion, forming concepts of fairness, and attitudes to the law, to rules, to decision making, to authority, to their local environment and social responsibility, etc. They are also picking up, whether from school, home or elsewhere, some knowledge of whether they are living in a democracy or not, of what social problems affect them and even what the different pressure groups or parties have to say about them. All this can be encouraged, guided and built upon.
• Community involvement
  ‘Secondly, learning about and becoming helpfully involved in the life and concerns of their communities, including learning through community involvement and service to the community. This, of course, like the other two branches of citizenship, is by no means limited to children’s time in school. Even if pupils and adults perceive many of the voluntary groups as non-political, the clearer meaning is probably to say ‘non-partisan’: for voluntary bodies, when exercising persuasion, interacting with public authorities, publicizing, fund-raising, recruiting members and then trying to activate (or placate) them, are plainly using and needing political skills.
• Political literacy
  Thirdly, pupils learning about how to make themselves effective in public life through knowledge, skills and values—what can be called ‘political literacy’, seeking for a term that is wider than political knowledge alone. The term ‘public life’ is used in its broadest sense to encompass realistic knowledge of and preparation for conflict resolution and decision making related to the main economic and social problems of the day, including each individual’s expectations of and preparations for the world of employment, and discussion of the allocation of public resources and the rationale of taxation. Such preparations are needed whether these problems occur in locally, nationally or internationally concerned organizations or at any level of society from formal political institutions to informal groups, both at local and national level.
  ‘So our understanding of citizenship education in a parliamentary democracy finds three heads on one body: social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy. ‘Responsibility’ is an essential political as well as moral virtue, for it implies: 1) care for others; 2) premeditation and calculation about what effect actions are likely to have on others; and 3) understanding and care for the consequences.’

The government moved swiftly following the publication of the Crick Report in September 1998. There was a period of consultation on the proposed general revisions to the national curriculum during the summer of the following year, and by November 1999 it was all done and dusted. Citizenship education became a formal and, in the case of secondary schools, statutory part of the newly revised national curriculum.

‘A light touch Order’

In brief, the government ruled that every child in primary and secondary education should undertake citizenship education. In secondary schools citizenship was to become a foundation subject from September 2002. This meant that the Office of Standards in Education (OFSTED) would formally inspect citizenship. In primary schools citizenship education was immediately incorporated alongside personal and social and health education in a shared curriculum framework. A programme of study was published with learning outcomes for each key stage. These outcomes were defined in terms of young people becoming informed citizens and developing the skills of communication and enquiry through participation and responsible action.

It was, in the words of the Secretary of State, David Blunkett, ‘a light touch Order’. The Government would set out the framework of what young people will be expected to learn, but it would be left to teachers to fill in the detail in ways that best meet the needs of their own schools and pupils.

A unique s]ubject

Citizenship education was to be a curriculum subject in its own right, but it was unique and different from other subjects in three key respects:

1. Linked w ith other subjects: Schools were explicitly encouraged to link citizenship education with other subjects across the whole curriculum.
2. A way of life: Citizenship education was—to borrow a phrase from television—‘not so much a subject, more a way of life’. Citizenship education had to be rooted in the ethos and way of life of the whole school.
3. Participation: Citizenship education requires young people to learn through participation and real experience.

These three requirements form a mutually reinforcing cycle. Pupils are expected to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills through participation and responsible action.

It was clear from the start that citizenship education has profound implications for curriculum planning, pedagogy, and the relationships between students and staff, and between schools and their communities.

Notes

1. QCA (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools, Final Report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship, QCA, London.

2. T H Marshall (1950) Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

3. See B. Crick (2000) Essays on Citizenship, p 7, Continuum, London.

4. Crick Report, paras 2.10–2.12.

2: Background to the Order

The Crick Report was not the first attempt to introduce citizenship as a named activity into schools. The failure of the initial attempt is worth recording as it contains instructive lessons about the link between politics, culture and education. It also has something to teach us about getting things right in the future.

Subjects not citizens

Until the mid—to late 1980s the general view in and out of schools was that citizenship, like patriotism, is something that is ‘caught not taught.’¹ In Britain, during the post-war period citizenship was narrowly defined in terms of the rights of the individual. The ‘good citizen’ was someone who enjoyed the protection of the law and the benefits of state provision in return for which he obeyed the law, paid his taxes and, if necessary, performed military service. (The citizen was most often conceived of as male.) The issue was clouded by the fact—of which we were reminded whenever we raised the subject—that the British are ‘subjects’ not citizens. Citizenship is for other people like those in France and the United States. In retrospect it seems extraordinary that such arguments held sway for so long.

Social and political concerns

During the late 1980s, however, the political debate had moved on, as had our understanding of the potential importance of citizenship and citizenship education. Politicians in particular were becoming increasingly worried abouttwo things. Firstly, people, particularly young people, were becoming increasingly alienated from society and democracy. In other words they were less and less interested in voting and more and more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour. Secondly, the networks of trust and personal relationships that bind society together were perceived as wearing thin. Put crudely, there was a growing fear that society is falling apart. These crude fears, which obscured the complexity of the underlying facts, nonetheless proved potent in public debate. (We explore them further in Part II.) They led to fresh talk about the need for citizenship education.

The ‘active citizen’

Douglas Hurd, when he was Home Secretary, talked publicly of the importance of the ‘active citizen’ rather than the ‘good citizen’. Active citizenship would step forward and volunteer to fill the gap between growing personal needs and the necessarily limited provision of the state. In this context active citizenship became an extension of Victorian philanthropy, and voluntarism was seen as the mark of moral citizenship.²

Speaker’s Commission

It was against this backdrop that Bernard Weatherill, Speaker of the House of Commons, was invited to be Patron of the Speaker’s Commission on Citizenship. It was no accident that the Commission arose from a voluntary sector initiative. CSV with support from Esso established a series of consultations with a view to identifying the challenges and opportunities posed by revisiting the notion of active citizenship in the closing years of the 20th century.

The Commission’s report Encouraging Citizenship³ captured the changing mood of the time. The thrust of the report was simple: the bonds of mutual responsibility that make for the good society are, for a variety of reasons, growing weaker and less effective. Therefore something must be done, consciously and deliberately, to remedy the situation.

The authors of the report, drawing on evidence from distinguished academics, lawyers and politicians, called upon all sections of the community to play their part in fostering a more civil, and a more neighbourly, society. There was plenty about volunteering and community service, but there was no mention of political literacy. Politics was the business of the politicians, elected by the citizenry to act on their behalf.

In particularly the report proposed that citizenship education should be taught in schools.

Alienation of young people

At the time that the report was in preparation, however, there was growing concern about the alienation of young people from mainstream society. The poll tax riots had in March spread from Scotland and reached London where there was violence in Trafalgar Square. The riots probably fuelled the Commission’s concern about young people and the importance of leaving politics to the politicians. The Commission had further made use of two pieces of research concerning young people and citizenship education. The first had elicited the views of young people about citizenship and the other surveyed the extent and nature of citizenship education in schools.⁴ The young people for the most part were vague about the notion of citizenship, and when probed many of them thought that citizenship should have been included in their own education. The survey of schools merely underlined the fact that there was little evidence of any systematic citizenship education.

Cross-curricular themes

No sooner had the Commission reported than a further and quite separate document, Education for Citizenship,⁵ was published by the National Curriculum Council. This was the body that had been set up to advise the government on the implementation of the newly created national curriculum. The 1988 Education Reform Act had established something that was quite new in England, a national curriculum. This curriculum is based on subje...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The Big Picture
• Part I: What—What is Education for Active Citizenship?
• Part II: Why—Why is Active Citizenship Important?
• Part III: How—How Schools are Meeting the Challenge
• Part IV: Community Matters
• Endpiece
• Appendix: Resources