Citizenship

1
Citizenship citizenship education

• Mike Johnson
• Estonia, 2003

2
Citizenship education in the UK

• It focuses on
• Increasing political literacy  
• Developing the skills of debate and enquiry
  
• Encouraging active participation

3
Citizenship education in the UK

• Based on three elements
• Children learning self-confidence and socially
  and morally responsible behaviour both in and
  beyond the classroom, both towards those in
  authority and towards each other.

4
Citizenship education in the UK

• 2. Learning about how to become helpfully
  involved in the life and concerns of their
  communities.
• 3. Learning how to make themselves effective in
  public life through knowledge, skills and values.

5
DfEE and QCA

• Four-fold set of values
• the self valuing ourselves as unique human
  beings
• relationships valuing others for themselves and
  relationships as fundamental to the fulfilment of
  ourselves and others

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DfEE and QCA

• society valuing truth, freedom, justice, human
  rights and the rule of law
• the environment valuing this as the basis of
  life

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Deeper, more involving position

• Where pupils learn to take responsibility for
  their own lives and learn how to influence and
  participate.

8
Regular routines of the school

• Opportunities for
• practice in choice making,
• turn taking,
• listening to and respecting others.

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However

• Where and how do pupils learn about
• fairness,
• power,
• conflict, co-operation?
• Where do they experience democracy in action?

10
Citizenship and pupils with SEN

• Doing citizenship implies that
• you are actively involved in issues and feel you
  can make a difference through your participation
• you have the personal confidence and skills to
  organise your ideas, to talk in public, to listen
  and debate rationally.

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Levels of participation

• Manipulation,
• Decoration,
• Tokenism,
• Assigned but informed participation,
• Consulted and informed decisions,
• Adult-initiated shared decisions,
• Child-initiated and directed decisions and
• Child-initiated shared decisions with adults.

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Citizenship is a four-fold entity

• the political entity has to grant the individual
  certain rights
• the individual has to fulfil certain duties
  towards the political entity
• the other individuals have to grant the
  individual certain rights
• the individual has to fulfil certain duties
  towards the other individuals

13
Schools

• Only the school is in a position to ensure that
  everyone acquires a minimum level of knowledge
  about politics, democracy, citizenship the EU.

14
However

• Teachers implicit theories tend to be eclectic
  aggregations of cause - effect propositions from
  many sources, rules of thumb, generalisations
  drawn from personal experience beliefs, values,
  biases and prejudices

15
European element

• Forces students to challenge their preconceptions
  about the minutia of everyday life
• architecture and town planning,
• public transport,
• shopping habits,
• interpersonal relationships and
• professional assumptions.

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Finally

• The most important and interesting aspects of
  community life are by their very nature
  paradoxical.
• This creates a sense of urgency which fuels the
  seeking of continually responsive, creative and
  local solutions rather than becoming locked into
  sterile statements about right and wrong.