Citizens in a democratic society have a fundamental responsibility to engage in public life. Teachers and students have an obligation to promote equality, justice, respect for others and democratic participation.
These ideals should be integral to cultures of educational institutions and embedded within and beyond the curriculum in schools.
Education for democratic citizenship is a core purpose of teaching and learning in schools, and indeed of teaching as a profession. Since its introduction as a statutory subject for pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 and its non-statutory inclusion in the primary curriculum, citizenship education has enabled pupils to learn about the nature of citizenship in contemporary Britain. This has, amongst other things, included pupils learning about rights, the legal system, parliamentary democracy, and the diverse and global nature of life today.
Connected to this, and of equal importance within citizenship education, is pupils’ investigation and enquiry into ethical, topical and, at times, controversial issues. As the hugely influential Report of the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (The Crick Report [pdf]) made clear, citizenship education aims at active citizenship by proving pupils with the opportunity to take part, in responsible ways, in active and participatory learning experiences.
The education of specialist teachers of citizenship education, through a variety of routes including PGCE, GRTP and Teach First, has been of crucial importance in the development and growing success of citizenship education in schools. Specialist citizenship teachers possess distinctive knowledge, skills and dispositions, and they have a strong sense of the specific potential and importance of their work. Numerous official policy reports, including those from OfSTED and the NFER, have stated and reiterated the crucial role that specialist citizenship teachers play in raising the quality and consistency of citizenship education in schools. Citizenship specialists are more than simply effective teachers – they lead subject co-ordination and support the professional development of colleagues.
Much like citizenship education in schools, the process and quality of citizenship teacher education in England has received a great deal of praise and attention internationally, notably from Japan, Australia and Canada. The existence of citizenship education as a specialist route for teacher education has also opened up the teaching profession to a range of individuals with degree backgrounds in subjects related to politics, law and economics whom previously may have found it difficult to enter the profession. Without specialist teachers of citizenship education, the ability of schools to play their part in producing and educating knowledgeable and responsible citizens will be seriously undermined.
If citizenship education is either to be removed, or is to lose its statutory force, a generation of young people will (or at least may) be deprived of an opportunity to formally learn about, investigate, and actively participate in, the political and social communities within which they live. This aspect of schooling is too important to be left to chance.
It is, for this reason, beholden on government to legislate to ensure that children are educated about citizenship, through citizenship and, most importantly, for citizenship.
Dr Andrew Peterson,
Canterbury Christ Church University
Related
-
Posted in Comment.
-
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
- You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
-
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Entries (RSS)
Email us
Citizenship education is too important to be left to chance
Dr Andrew Peterson
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Citizens in a democratic society have a fundamental responsibility to engage in public life. Teachers and students have an obligation to promote equality, justice, respect for others and democratic participation.
These ideals should be integral to cultures of educational institutions and embedded within and beyond the curriculum in schools.
Education for democratic citizenship is a core purpose of teaching and learning in schools, and indeed of teaching as a profession. Since its introduction as a statutory subject for pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 and its non-statutory inclusion in the primary curriculum, citizenship education has enabled pupils to learn about the nature of citizenship in contemporary Britain. This has, amongst other things, included pupils learning about rights, the legal system, parliamentary democracy, and the diverse and global nature of life today.
Connected to this, and of equal importance within citizenship education, is pupils’ investigation and enquiry into ethical, topical and, at times, controversial issues. As the hugely influential Report of the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (The Crick Report [pdf]) made clear, citizenship education aims at active citizenship by proving pupils with the opportunity to take part, in responsible ways, in active and participatory learning experiences.
The education of specialist teachers of citizenship education, through a variety of routes including PGCE, GRTP and Teach First, has been of crucial importance in the development and growing success of citizenship education in schools. Specialist citizenship teachers possess distinctive knowledge, skills and dispositions, and they have a strong sense of the specific potential and importance of their work. Numerous official policy reports, including those from OfSTED and the NFER, have stated and reiterated the crucial role that specialist citizenship teachers play in raising the quality and consistency of citizenship education in schools. Citizenship specialists are more than simply effective teachers – they lead subject co-ordination and support the professional development of colleagues.
Much like citizenship education in schools, the process and quality of citizenship teacher education in England has received a great deal of praise and attention internationally, notably from Japan, Australia and Canada. The existence of citizenship education as a specialist route for teacher education has also opened up the teaching profession to a range of individuals with degree backgrounds in subjects related to politics, law and economics whom previously may have found it difficult to enter the profession. Without specialist teachers of citizenship education, the ability of schools to play their part in producing and educating knowledgeable and responsible citizens will be seriously undermined.
If citizenship education is either to be removed, or is to lose its statutory force, a generation of young people will (or at least may) be deprived of an opportunity to formally learn about, investigate, and actively participate in, the political and social communities within which they live. This aspect of schooling is too important to be left to chance.
It is, for this reason, beholden on government to legislate to ensure that children are educated about citizenship, through citizenship and, most importantly, for citizenship.
Dr Andrew Peterson,
Canterbury Christ Church University
Related