英格蘭公民資質教育教學實施之研究：
以伯明罕地區為例
摘 要
英國在 2002年八月開始，將公民資質教育納入國訂課程（National Curriculum），正式成為中等學校的教學科目之一，本研究的目的在探討此 一新課程如何被推動，以及學校如何在他們個別環境中發展有效的教學 實施，換言之，本研究企圖檢視目前的教學實施與確認哪些課程實施策略 有助於公民資質教育在學校的實施。
藉由在英格蘭伯民罕地區選取三所擁有「良好的課程實施」之公立中 等學校，檢驗他們的課程實施策略與評估他們「良好的課程實施」之可轉移 性，選擇這些個案學校的原因是因為他們在課程推動過程中積極的投入，並 且受到地方教育主管機關的推崇。學校觀察與教師訪談所得到之質性資料為 本研究之基礎，研究發現顯示，在影響公民資質教育之推動的課程模式與教 學策略有極大的差異，不過，本研究也能夠辨認一些良好的課程實施之 特徵，以及值得此一新課程在推動上，可供其他學校借鏡的教學策略。
關鍵詞：公民資質教育、課程實施 詹文克
雙福基㈮會㈵約研究員
Abstract
Since August 2002, citizenship education has become a National Curriculum subject in secondary schools in UK. This study explored how this new curriculum can be promoted and how schools can develop effective practices in their own settings. In other words, it aimed to examine current practice and identify what strategies of curriculum practice can help to deliver these aspects of citizenship education in schools.
The project selected three ‘exemplary’ state secondary schools in England for analysis, examining their strategies of implementation and the transferability of their good practices was evaluated. These case-study schools were chosen because of their particular role in the development of policy and their commitment to curriculum management. The research was based on qualitative data from school observation and from interviews with teachers. The findings revealed very different curriculum models and teaching approaches among the schools, but the study was able to identify a number of good practice features, serving as examples for other schools in delivering citizenship education.
Keywords: citizenship education, curriculum practice
Wen-Ko Chan
Research Fellow, Double Bliss Foundation
A Study of the Curriculum Practice of Citizenship Education
in England: the Cases of Birmingham
Introduction
With the rapid change of societies, governments and educators around the world currently share concerns for pupils’ personal and social development. Young people are believed to need more than before to be able to confront their future lives. As Hopson and Scally correctly foresaw: “people will need to be adaptable, flexible, and more personally competent than at any other time in our history” (1981: 6 cited in Popovic, 2002: 13).
Education, therefore, should help pupils understand themselves and their world and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life (Bigger, 1999). Schools seem to be the most suitable places to offer a balanced and comprehensive personal education for the pluralistic and changing society we live in. However, it is not surprising that schools are often more interested in students’ academic achievements and league tables. In the long run, students’ and parents’ success-driven values dominate the direction in which schools develop. Consequently, it is easy to lose sight of where the school curriculum is intended to engage each pupil as a ‘whole person’. In England, government is keen to initiate new curricula into schools in order to offer a more balanced approach. Accordingly, citizenship education in England is part of the mission to broaden and balance schooling for young people.
The aims of this study are to explore how this new curriculum can be promoted and how schools can develop effective practices in their own settings. By selecting three ‘ good practice’ secondary schools in England, the strategies of implementation will be examined and the transferability of good practices will be evaluated. ‘England’ in the title is deliberate because the three case-study schools were all in the Birmingham area, and generalisations to ‘UK’ are inadvisable.
Citizenship Education in England
Since August 2002, Citizenship education has become a National Curriculum subject in secondary schools in England. It is not only regarded as curriculum reform in the education system but also concerned with reflective thinking upon social evolution. When faced by the impact of social, economic and political alteration, the traditional school curriculum cannot meet pupils’ needs in an encounter with complicated situations in the future. Young (1998: 92) has argued that:
Secondary education is not just about access to the basic areas of specialist knowledge and understanding (nor, in its later phase, to learning the skills and knowledge appropriate to specific job); it is also and as fundamentally concerned with the personal and social education of students as future adults and citizens.
The advocacy of citizenship education, in other words, is not considered merely as a state of belonging but rather as a process of self and social awareness and actualization (Lynch, 1992).
In reviewing the history of citizenship education over the last several decades in England, Kerr (1999) argues that it is obvious that approaches to education for citizenship have been affected by two main traditions: the liberal individualist which emphasizes the universality of human rights, and the civic republican which highlights the values of individual responsibility and commitment to the common good. Since the early 1990s, the discussion of citizenship education has been raised in values education and pupils
’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development, and in personal social and health education (PSHE) (ibid.). These initiatives are apparently revealed by the aspiration within the 1988 Education Reform Act to deliver a school curriculum which should promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of modern life.
In the late 1990s, citizenship education reached the top of the political agenda by virtue of the perceived deterioration of social and cultural conditions, the decline of political and voluntary participation, the failure of community networks and the breakdown in social norms. School pupils were believed to lack moral and civic values, to which citizenship education was reconsidered as a possible solution (Arthur and Wright, 2001).
Before the 1997 General Election, the Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that “duty is an essential Labour concept” (Blair, 1995, cited in Davies, I. et al., 1999: 23) and that a “ culture of responsibility” has to be fostered by schools (Crawford, 1998: 110). He went on to emphasise ‘civic morality’ based on the responsibilities of individuals to the state and society (Kerr, 1999). In addition, Tony Blair could not be clearer in setting his educational agenda when speaking to a South African audience in 1996. He alluded to rules and duty, family values, right and wrong and a need to return to a social morality and decency and criticized the bad manners and ignorance of British society in a strikingly reminiscent tone (Crawford, 1998). As a result, when new Labour came to power in 1997 the Advisory Group on Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools was established, and their initial report was published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in 1998. In order to achieve the aims of citizenship education, three core strands of citizenship education were identified (Potter 2002):
● Social and moral responsibility: pupils learn from the very beginning self-confidence and socially and morally responsible behaviour both in and beyond the classroom.
Pupils should be encouraged to develop their understanding of the moral values which will shape and guide their actions within a pluralist and democratic society.
● Community involvement: pupils should learn about and become positively and
helpfully involved in the life and concerns of both the school community and the communities beyond it. Positive involvement is not merely political but reflected in participation in nonpartisan groups, such as voluntary bodies, working with public authorities, and fundraising.
● Political literacy: pupils learn about how to make themselves effective in their life through knowledge, skills and values – what can be called ‘political literacy’. The term ‘political literacy’ is not only to an understanding of political knowledge but including knowledge of and prepare for public life in a more general sense.
Additionally, four essential elements were identified to support education for citizenship: concepts, values and dispositions, skills and attitudes, and knowledge and understanding (QCA, 1998).
Studies have approached citizenship education from different viewpoints. Lynch (1992) has paid attention to the topic of a global context of human rights and social responsibilities that was influenced by an increasing concern about responsibilities for global environment during the 1990s. This issue of human rights has been reiterated by Osler and Starkey (2000), Griffith (1998) and Holden (1998) who emphasized the need for a moral concern and social justice. Osler and Starkey, furthermore, divide citizenship education into “two inter-related components, namely the structural/political and the cultural/personal” (2000: 3). They were not only concerned with the field of citizenship but also took PSHE into account. In reality, it might not be easy to form a new curriculum considering all issues related to citizenship. However, it is important to think about the link with the current situation. As Dixon suggested (2000: 94):
The first step might be to look again at the cyclical pattern of public concern, and consider whether it also conceals other patterns that run alongside, about which the world of education is not necessarily aware but which, even so, have been of influence in the shaping of the new curriculum. For example, peace and feminist studies, conflict resolution and sustainable development have a certain familiarity but actual citizenship as such has not merited so much attention.
In addition to the nature of citizenship education, some studies have drawn attention to the problems and challenges of implementation in schools (Crawford and Forster, 2001;
Davies, I., 1999; Holden, 1998; Beck, 1998). Many studies in 1990s were located in the discussion of the contested concept of citizenship but little is known about the delivery of citizenship education in schools and more rare to be given examples of schools achieving good practice. Consequently, it is essential to explore how citizenship education might be delivered in schools and on issues affecting the development of a new curriculum if we attempt to help pupils become effective citizens.
Methodology
In order to understand what the interpretations are placed on citizenship education in England by different stakeholders and what ‘good practice’ of citizenship education can be established in schools, the comparison of the implementation of citizenship education was addressed through case studies and investigated by means of school observations and individual interviews with curriculum planners, teachers and coordinators in secondary schools in England. Assessment of the possibility of transferring the good practice to other schools was addressed through the analysis and examination of the approaches implemented within the case-study schools.
Case Study Approach
Due to the relatively open-ended nature of my research questions, a case-study approach seemed appropriate. Many researchers favour the case study in the field of education for its flexibility because this approach can be as pre-structured or ‘emergent
’ as is appropriate for the purpose of the study (Robson, 1999). If the main purpose of the research is exploratory, such as my research, then tight pre-structuring is not possible.
Thus the case-study approach was considered particularly relevant to my research. In addition, one of the possible strengths of case studies “lies in their attention to the subtlety and complexity of the case in its own right” (Cohen and Manion, 1994: 123). Walford (2001) also proposes two main types of research question where case studies might be utilized:
First, case studies can be used where the focus of interest is so important that it is sufficient to be able to show that particular events occurred in any school … A second form of research question where case studies can be profitably employed relates to situations where particular cases are vital to understand because of their particular significance within policy formulation and development (p. 156).
The development of comparative education, however, demands that “researchers who use case studies move beyond simple reporting of case studies and take more account of theory in the choice of research sites designed to be part of comparative studies
” (Walford, 2001: 154). Therefore, it is critical to select samples carefully. However, ‘ purposive sampling’ is also necessary, meaning that “researchers build up a sample that is satisfactory to their specific needs” (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000: 103).
Accordingly, it is more important to consider which schools would enable researchers to make comparisons capable of revealing general principles about the strength and significance of the delivery of a particular curriculum. Thus, given the time limit and
need for in-depth research, I planned to conduct case studies in three secondary schools which were from a list of ‘good practice’ schools in Birmingham area recommended by a lead advisor of Birmingham Advisory and Support Service (BASS). These three schools comprise a mixed Roman Catholic comprehensive school, a girls’ comprehensive school and a mixed non-denominational comprehensive school. Having sought permission from headteachers to conduct my research within their schools, a brief outline of the study was presented in a letter that included a description of the data collection methods and a visiting schedule. These three case-study schools are called by pseudonyms (see Table 1), in order to ensure anonymity and confidentiality as required.
Table 1 The pseudonyms of the case-study schools
The Roman Catholic School St. Peter School
The comprehensive girls school Shiny Crown School
The mixed comprehensive school Green Farm School
Following the initial contact with these three schools, I discussed with the citizenship coordinator in each school the nature of my study and how individuals would be involved, i.e. interviews and classroom observations. I also outlined the procedure, i.e. the length of interviews which would be tape-recorded, and I emphasised that all information would be confidential. Interviews with 2 or 3 teachers (comprising headteachers, coordinators and subject teachers) at each school were one of the primary sources of data for teachers
’ views on the delivery of citizenship education (see Table 2). The interviews lasted between 30 and 40 minutes mostly, but some took longer because several interviewees were enthusiastic in telling me about their views.
Table 2 Interview and observation schedule
School Interviewee position Date of interview Date of observation Green Farm School Assistant Headteacher 20/05/2003 (1st)
21-23/05/2003 Assistant Headteacher 10/06/2003 (2nd)
Head of Citizenship 10/06/2003 Years 8 and 9 students 10/06/2003 St. Peter School Citizenship Coordinator 03/06/2003 (1st)
04-06/06/2003 Citizenship Coordinator 06/06/2003 (2nd)
Head of History 04/06/2003
PE Teacher 04/06/2003
Shiny Crown School Headteacher 11/06/2003
11-13 /06/2003 PSD coordinator 15/05/2003 (1st)
PSD coordinator 11/06/2003 (2nd)
Reliability and validity
Although my study is only based on qualitative data, I adopted a multi-method approach to collect data in order to address problematic issues of bias and validity. Robson recognises these potential difficulties and indicates that “any one way of measuring or gathering data is likely to have shortcomings” (1999: 67) and “similar patterns of findings from different methods of gathering data increasing confidence in their validity” (1999:
68). This method is known as triangulation. In this study, triangulation was achieved through investigating different participants’ viewpoints by using the same method, e.g.
interview, as well as being complemented by the data gathered from observations and documentation.
Context of case-study schools
St. Peter School
St. Peter School is a mixed Catholic secondary school situated in the south of the Birmingham area. The school has 90 teaching staff and 1150 pupils aged 11-16, including about 200 sixth form students. St. Peter School is acknowledged as one of the most successful schools in Birmingham. The school was recognised nationally in 2002 by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector report and having performed well in national tests and examinations. The school values sport achievement highly and has been awarded the highly prestigious Sportsmark Gold in recognition of the exceptional provision of PE and Sport. The specialisation in sport helps not only provide high standards of PE but also deliver citizenship education through various sport activities, such as tennis camp and football club (BASS, 2003).
Green Farm School
Green Farm School is a mixed community secondary school situated in a largely residential area north east of the centre of Birmingham. The school caters for about 1100 pupils aged 11-16. There are significantly more boys than girls. Forty three per cent of the pupils are entitled to free school meals. A quarter of the pupils are identified as having
special educational needs. A special school for deaf pupils has recently been built on the site and there are close links between the schools (BASS, 2003).
Every student at Green Farm School participates in their programme of citizenship lessons. The school was one of the first schools to adopt the Citizenship Programme which is now well established. The school council at Green School is considerately active. As part of this commitment all students are involved in the election of the school council. Students on the school council help make important decisions, such as the choice of company to provide our school meals.
Shiny Crown School
Shiny Crown School is a community comprehensive school educating girls between the ages of 11 and 16 and boys and girls in the sixth form. There are around 1000 pupils on roll, including 150 students in the sixth form. The school is located in the south-west of the Birmingham area where the proportion of adults with higher education and the percentage of children living in high social class backgrounds is well below the national average (BASS, 2003).
Citizenship education is delivered at Shiny Crown School through the teaching of Personal and Social Development (PSD). The school council is an effective influence on school life. Pupils take an active part in school life. Year 9 pupils are trained as peer supporters to help younger pupils with bullying concerns. Year 8 help with reception duties and Year 11 pupils act responsibly as prefects.
Research Findings: the practice of citizenship education
Absolutely, I think the best way to do with citizenship in education is to do with a whole-school approach, because citizenship is about developing a whole person (The head of History, St. Peter School).
Citizenship education is to be a curriculum subject in its own right but it has a unique nature and is different from other subjects. Citizenship education could be linked with other subjects and it is more about participation. Because citizenship education is surely not so much a subject, more a way of life, it needs to be rooted in school ethos and promoted through a whole-school strategy (Potter, 2002). All the participants of the case-study schools agreed that a whole-school approach is the right way to implement citizenship education. However, they all have different levels of commitment to delivering citizenship issues through this whole-school approach1. In the following I look at each of the three schools separately before synthesising.
St. Peter School:
Citizenship education as an integrated part of a broader course
Citizenship passport
We designed a citizenship passport for Year 7, 8, and 9 students. What we’ve done is we broke down strand one which is right and responsibilities. We ask each subject to list the topics and the examples linked with citizenship, for instance, the subject Drama said we do have the play called ‘The Green Children’. This play is looking at racism and prejudice. What the subject promised is whenever they deliver these topics in school. They would tell students this is now a citizenship lesson. It’s not just a drama. (The CE coordinator)
At St. Peter School, each subject has committed itself to delivering certain aspects of the three strands of citizenship. The CE coordinator explained that it is a hard way to slot citizenship into the timetable because they are a catholic school. Five percent of curriculum is Religious Education (RE). “We don’t have the luxury to just put on the citizenship lessons. There is just no time in the curriculum to do that. We have do find more creative ways to do it”. Thus the Citizenship Passport is developed to help students to reflect on what they have learned about citizenship in each subject once a week.
According to a Geography teacher, Geography, History and RE have more to contribute to citizenship than other subjects. Heads of department have outlined exactly where their subjects would deal with citizenship issues. The head of History gave me an example and described how a citizenship passport is used to help students in recording their learning about citizenship issues:
for example, in Year 7, I set in history, we looked at the role of Parliament which is absolutely a citizenship issue fitted with political literacy. In each year group, each subject commits themselves to do something. And each subject teacher within each department knows about the citizenship passport. All students in Year7, 8 and 9 have been issued with this Citizenship Passport. The passport is filled in completely by students in their PSE (Personal and Social Education) lessons. In that lesson they will be going through citizenship passport and fill in where they learn different things in different subjects. And saying what they find out, how these subjects are helping me with more citizenship education.
However, “citizenship is such an important part of the schooling”, The CE coordinator reminded that if we look at the aspects of knowledge and understanding, it is quite technical knowledge that governments want students to have about political literacy, how governments work and how voting works, and etc. He clarified the principle of the passport:
We don’t want subjects to artificially compromise themselves or bend the subjects to one kind of citizenship angle. That’s the tail wagging the dog. We wouldn’t want citizenship telling the curriculum how to be. We don’t believe that citizenship should be determining the nature of the curriculum we put on. What we will say is we do see how our curriculum goes hand in hand deliberately with citizenship and that’s what the passport does.
Here he seems to be referring to the important issue of control of the curriculum, and the dominance of particular versions of citizenship.
In St. Peter School I was recommended to interview a PE teacher who is an AST2 (Advanced Skill Teacher) in citizenship education. He thought somebody should make sure every section has been covered and make sure that it is beneficial to the school.
Because citizenship education is a statutory part of the curriculum for the first time, teachers are finding their ways to go through it. They need somebody to coordinate it but at the same time a team approach will be good, because of how different departments are feeling about the input of citizenship curriculum to their subject area. The PE teacher then told me the reality of the practice:
There is a problem that every department has so much pressure on the exam results and many teachers said ‘I don’t know I have time for talking about citizenship. We will do it, don’t worry’. That’s the problem. That’s the reality.
We have to do it now. All schools have to do it now. It should be done but I think very close talking and understanding between the coordinator and the heads of department is important.
The PE teacher turned to talking about how the whole school could benefit from having the ethos of citizenship because young people are interested in volunteering in community and being involved in the projects. From his experiences, young people are aware that the whole school can benefit because the sprit can start within the school whereby people are more encouraged to help others. He also gave an example:
There were seventeen students going to spend ten days in helping a tennis tournament. Most of them are from one year group. More than happy they came back to school and said that I’m glad to help people and helping people isn’t so difficult. That’s important to the school. Some of students are motivated to be volunteers, probably shared similar motivation in other areas, such as academic work and so on.
The PE teacher emphasized that all these volunteer students are sharing their learning experiences in the school. He also believed that this effect will gradually develop and become stronger and more important around the school although it is from a small parts of pupils’ efforts.
Active citizenship by sport
The PE teacher thought that leadership and taking responsibility in the community can start within the school and the lessons. An approach used was where children were put into a project called Junior Sport Leader Award (JSLA). This teaches young people about age fourteen to fifteen how to be leaders, how to help younger people, and how to help disabled children and primary children. The PE teacher indicated that any students when they help in sporting activities will be taught communication skills and different ideas on how to organize a lesson. When they get to sixteen or seventeen they can learn further skills about how to run a sports programme, such as organizing a tournament or festival for primary children. What will happen in the summer (2003) is that they will have 150 children from primary schools taking part in a sports day. But the day will be run and designed by young people from the school. So the teachers don’t do it, the young people do it. He described the details:
I’ve got two this year. One is being run by fifteen-year-old four girls and the other one is being run from sixth form students about ten or twelve doing it. They will design the day, what sports we will have and decide what timing, what equipment they need. They may even go and try to find financial backing, so they need to find sponsors and make a fund-raising. This is real active citizenship.
Then what followed was that the school moved to another phase whereby teachers tried to encourage young people to volunteer in the school football club. The model teachers tried to use is in connection with a programme called ‘Step into Sport’3. Step in Sport is run by Youth Sport Trust which is a national organization linked closely to central government. So St. Peter School starts in the youngest group and teaches them leadership and mentoring skills, and then move order and so on.
Green Farm School:
Citizenship education as a specific subject
Citizenship education at Green Farm School is provided as a discrete subject in the timetable and runs in conjunction with the existing PSHE programme. The Head of Citizenship specifies that
We have one hour a week for citizenship in each Year group. In that one hour, it covers the Citizenship curriculum, PSHE and some Career input. We also have a map of the other subjects showing what they do. I actually know what part of the citizenship curriculum is taught through History, RE, Geography and Science. So I don’t have to actually teach in my hour the whole of the curriculum. Somebody has taught it for me around the school and I know what has been taught and
where I should go.
The assistant headteacher also elaborates on this one-hour class and highlights the concept of pupil-centred learning:
During that one hour we cover a whole range of citizenship themes. During that one-hour period we can look in particular at some issues in great detail. We might look at democracy, for example, and we might look at human rights. A whole range of these things will be examined. Most lessons of citizenship should be active. Most lessons should be about students talking about the issues and finding what people are thinking and what people are doing about things.
From tutor-led teaching to specialist team
At Green Farm School over 30 tutors are involved in teaching PSHE at Key Stage 3.
The assistant headteacher thinks that one advantage of this method to promote citizenship education is that tutors know their students very well and are the natural people to tackle personal issues with them. The Head of Citizenship also agree with this point and explains that:
We have a tutor programme, because tutors are very important in the sort of attitude side. Each tutor has time to meet their groups twice a day which is about ten minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the afternoon. The tutor actually knows the children better than anybody in the school. In term of, like, what was happening in the school over an academic year, for example, on Red Nose Day4, whole school got involved in fundraising. The tutor is the classic person to promote everybody being involved in that. They can tell the pupils what the meaning is and where the money goes.
The assistant headteacher is ambitious and talks confidently about what citizenship lessens might be in the school. However, she also reveals that this new one-hour class is quite frightening, especially for some teachers who qualified a long time ago. They are beyond question not up to date. She told me that:
They are really frightened by this social approach. They don’t really feel that they
’ve got the skills to be able to control this sort of lesson. If they are going to a lesson and every one is silent and they’re looking at the board, teachers feel in control. But if you said to students that I want you to split into group of three or four and discuss what you think about the war in Iraq or what ever it is, it might mean a lot of noise from pupils changing their sites. Some teachers will find this it is quite difficult to cope with.
It actually takes experience and control to be able to get some useful feedback from such a situation. So, in her view, some teachers in the school are not happy about that.
They would far rather have everybody sitting down in front of work sheets and writing
approach needed to tackle some controversial issues, Green Farm School is trying out specialist teams, as in the teaching of Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) at Key Stage 4. Ultimately they hope there will be specialists throughout all years.
Leadership and management
At Green Farm School, the assistant headteacher stressed that one hour a week is not enough to deliver the huge citizenship curriculum. So she hopes all subjects can be linked with citizenship. However, she has to challenge teachers who have a defeatist attitude that one cannot expect much from governments’ policy slogans. She looked back to some years ago when citizenship was introduced to the school; the first thing she did was to carry out an audit. She invited all the heads of department together in a meeting and held a presentation about what citizenship involved. She gave them a challenge after the presentation. The challenge was “tell me how you cannot get citizenship into your teaching”. In other words, the assistant headteacher asked them to try to prove that they could not do it. “When they started thinking about these three strands of citizenship and their teaching, of course they realized structurally that we can apply these to every subject we do”. So she then had written feedback from every department in the school. All the heads of department filled the charts which she produced, telling her how they could slot citizenship in their teaching for Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. The assistant headteacher collected all these data and then she made a second presentation to the staff to summarise what was going on in their school. She described how she tried to encourage the staff to promote this new subject:
I said to them ‘Citizenship is a new subject but actually we’re doing it already’. So what we then did is to look at the schemes of work in different subject areas. And then we picked out from the Citizenship Order the things which could be applied across in different subject areas. We got marks into our schemes of work. We will say yes, we’re doing citizenship here; we are doing citizenship there and so on. We actually did a lot of things and there’s only a little new teaching we need to do.
A problem with the current practice mentioned by the assistant headteacher is ‘ political literacy’ because, in her opinion, everyone assumes that this meant teaching about party politics in terms of Labour and Conservative. For instance, she said:
What we’ve done there is English where students have to learn debating skills.
Then we might use a political example and students research it before debating.
They are doing some political literacy – citizenship work – but that is in an English lesson. Actually, they are practising debating skills but the same time we put it in the political literacy strand of citizenship.
Indeed, for most people, political literacy is usually seen as the knowledge about “ gaining and exercising power in government at whatever level”. However, “the political order in English society is much broader than party politics and involves a greater
spectrum of activities” (Arthur and Wright, 2001: 14). Through the debates of political or social issues, pupils could learn how to engage and participate in public life, not just learn about it.
What the assistant headteacher is concerned about, if the whole school approach is not used, is that group of teachers feel that they have got to do everything themselves. She thinks that this is a mistake. She conceives that it is far better for students if they come across citizenship issues in every subject from the timetable because these are relevant to them.
In addition, the assistant head worries that they do not have enough specialist teachers because the aim of the school in teaching citizenship is to have ‘specialists’ throughout all years. In her view, there needs to be teachers who can teach citizenship properly.
She goes on to explain that, although some teachers will teach very acceptably and they will be active to open approaches, others are uncomfortable. She believes that it will be some years before they become more flexible, because there is a tremendous need for professional development to give teachers the skills to be able to teach in more informal ways.
Citizenship class by themes
The syllabus of citizenship at Green Farm School is planned in half-term blocks.
Usually, in each half term there are about seven or eight weeks. Students explore one theme in detail during each half term. “For example, it might be the issue of bullying and thinking what people need and so on. For eight weeks students will research that subject in detail” (Head of Citizenship, Green Farm School). So during this time, pupils might be looking at the internet, they might be interviewing other pupils around the school to find out if they have been bullied and what was it about, and they might be talking to teachers about what they do if someone is accused of bullying. According to the Head of Citizenship, at Green Farm School pupils are also encouraged to do investigations on the themes, for example, they had a group of pupils engaged in the investigation of bullies.
The Head of Citizenship describes that:
They did the map of the school and they marked where the most bullying took place. Then we realized where teachers didn’t go on duty at lunch time, break time and so on. So using that information we changed the way we did our duty team.
We put teachers in this vulnerable spots. So that pupils didn’t feel there was any body around could help them and so on. We responded to the needs our pupils identified in their survey on bully which is to me what citizenship is all about.
In this approach, it is not about teachers telling the pupils what to do but about teacher giving the pupils the ideas and facilitating pupils’ participation. Then the pupils just set off exploring and discovering things how to report it back and things are changing for the
The school council in action
Both the assistant Headteacher and the Head of Citizenship emphasise that an effective school council empowers pupils with positive attitudes and approaches to their learning, the way they behave in and out of school, and their relationships. Through the school council pupils can take part in making decisions that affect their lives and learning in the school. Due to the time limitation I did not observe their council meetings. The Head of Citizenship, however, arranged another time for me to talk to some students who are the key members of the school council. These students introduced the structure of their council and what they planned to do during the school term respectively:
Each tutor group elects two members to represent their class, a boy and a girl, in the Year council. Two Year group represents will go to the school council meetings. The representatives have to bring other students’ opinions to the council rather than just their own and report back to the tutor group on what the council said. (The Year 9 student A)
Some of our members are involved in the Youth Parliament in Birmingham. They brought our opinions there and reported what they have done to our council. (The Year 9 student B, a senior member of the council)
This year July we set up for raising funds to sponsor the Children’s Hospital and we are going to work with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme5 about community work. Some students of our school will help the community to clean local streets and parks. Some students are going to old people’s house to talk to them. (The Year 8 student)
I asked these students whether their opinion can be heard by the school or whether they have any experience in decision-making process of the school. They told me the example is about voting in deciding which catering company they should have for two school canteens. The catering companies put presentations to the school council at lunchtime and the students were offered by different meals. At the end they voted and decided. They highlight that was not teachers decision but students’, and other students were happy with the result.
The assistant headteacher also confirms this is an explicit example to get students involved in decision-making. She thinks there is political literacy within it because “it is about listening to what’s going on, deciding what you think and trying to persuade people to vote it.” For the strand of political literacy, she emphasizes they did not use the words of the Labour or the Conservative but they have the same thing on what it is going on.
The practice of Shiny Crown School: Citizenship education through Personal Social Development (PSD)
We don’t have a citizenship subject. What we have is to make the curriculum be fitted into… We have to do it on the other way … My first thing to do is to say right, how much Careers do we need, how much RE and Sex relationships do we need, how much citizenship do we need and what else do we need? I refuse to throw out the stuff all already there – it was good. The kids enjoyed it and the kids got a lot of fun. (the PSD/Citizenship Coordinator)
As the coordinator of PSD/Citizenship indicated above, Citizenship is delivered through a one-hour PSD class every week at Shiny Crown School. The form tutors are the main persons to deliver the core in the PSD and the sex education teachers and career education teachers teach some specific and sensitive issues. Apart from PSD, which takes a fifteen-minute slot (11:10 ~ 11: 25 AM) every day, the form period is used to proceed with the relevant activities, such as the review of the whole school assembly and the report by the school council representatives.
The coordinator of PSD at Shiny Crown School used to be a local councillor. He has a good deal of experience in political work and he also shows much enthusiasm for the curriculum of students’ personal and social development. For example, he designed a lesson called ‘Your M.P.’ for the Year 8 PSD curriculum (as shown in Table 3). He wants students to know the views of their local M.P. As a result, he and his colleagues selected some of the questions raised by students and e-mailed them to their local M.P.
He emphasized that in terms of PSD learning, classroom activities should be not only organized to lead pupils to build their personal understanding within the curriculum but some opinions beyond the classroom.
Table 3 Year 8 PSD Lesson Plan
Title: Your M.P.
NC Links: PSHE: 3k, 4e Citizenship: 1c, 1d Learning Objectives:
•To know something of the life & responsibilities of an M.P.
Teaching & Learning:
Give out the sheet "The life of an M.P.". Read through the sheet. In no more than 100 words get the girls to write a summary of an M.P.'s typical day at Westminster.
Get the girls to list 3 issues that they think M.P.'s should be considering at the moment. Get them to justify in a couple of sentences why they think they should be considering these issues.
Have a plenary session and as a group decide what 3 issues Parliament should be considering.
Explain that the current M.P. for Birmingham Edgbaston (the constituency that the school is in) is Ms.
Giesla Stuart. She is a member of the Labour Party.
Get the girls to individually come up with a question they would like to hear Ms Stuart’s opinion on. It might be a question like “Why did you become an M.P.?” or “Is it more difficult to be a female M.P. than a male one?” or it might be about an issue, “What is your view about fox-hunting?” or “What are you doing about the poor bus services in UK?”
Collect together these questions and select (either you or the group) 10 that I can e-mail to her.
Extension Task:
Write a short speech explaining why you would make a good M.P.
Resources:
Sheet "The Life of an MP"
At the school, he plays an important role in the implementation of citizenship education. As the headteacher pointed out:
The Coordinator’s got knowledge and enthusiasm. He took children to the youth parliament. He made them involved. He said I’ve got to take them to see the real things.. This is their life.
During my visits to Shiny Crown School, the coordinator guided me to every classroom where I needed to observe. In one of his Year 9 PSD classes, students were engaged in the discussion of what a community is. Through brainstorming, group work and role play (see Table 4), students seemed to be interested in learning the topic. This topic is related to the strand of ‘community involvement’ in citizenship curriculum guidance. However, in his view, community involvement is a challenge to the formal curriculum. He indicates that “Community involvement always has been taken place in
this school, but it never been codified or structured, or it never been brought together in that sense”. As a result, he designed this unit in the PSD curriculum plan to help young people to understand what a community is and what their roles can be in a community.
Table 4: Year 9 PSD Lesson Plan
Title: A Community is...
NC Links: PSHE: 1b, 1c, 3b, 3h, 3i, 4f. Citizenship: 1c, 1g, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b, 3c.
Learning Objectives:
•To develop groupwork, listening & negotiating skills
•Collect and consider ideas about the meaning of “community”.
•Discuss the roles of different people and groups in the community.
Teaching & Learning:
Distribute sheet "A Community is..." Ask students to complete them on their own.
Brainstorm "What is a community?" See if there is any consensus.
Brainstorm "What are the different groups that make up a community?" Consider the various roles and functions of these groups.
Brainstorm what the idea "community spirit" means.
Distribute sheet "What is a community?" Ask students to read them on their own.
Lead a brief discussion.
Display the "Office Block or Community Centre" map/plan. Divide the class into 6 groups. Distribute the role play cards so that all members of a particular group have the same card. Distribute the sheet
"Planning my role". Ask students to complete tasks 1 and 2 on their own. Ask students to work together as a group to complete task 3, planning, writing & learning their speech. These will need to be kept safe in readiness for unit 937, which may be more than a week away.
Resources:
Class set of sheet: "A Community is..."
Class set of sheet: "Planning my role"
Set of Role Play Cards
"Office Block or Community Centre" map/plan
Citizenship through the students’ participation
Shiny Crown School has a good reputation for its work with an active school council and the student involvement is apparently well known in its decision-making. The following are prominent examples of the students’ involvement:
“We had parents, pupils, governors and stuff all working together on reviewing and changing the home-school agreement. We do have our pupils involved in this sort of thing. The other example is that we had an interview with the new assistant headteacher in the holidays. We had ten girls in, then they actually interviewed all the candidates. The questions they asked were absolutely outstanding. The candidates were really put on the spot to answer the questions. In terms of that, the girls are really involved in that sort of thing. (The Headteacher)
The headteacher sees this as a big change for her students. Moreover, through PSD the students can see that they have more opportunities to discuss the issues around them rather than merely to write down what the teacher says all the time. In her view, the most important thing is that there is more pupil participation in the school and the local community. The students are doing much more group work in PSD than in the other subjects.
I think the best thing I’ve done in this issue is to go to Youth Parliament. I think that was very good … They followed it up and it made them much more confident and willing to speak out. One thing I would say that is the best thing we’ve done.
Y9 made Christmas helpers for other people. They went to help handicapped people in their communities during Christmas. They went up by mini bus. People let them in their homes and they handed out these parcels. I must say these girls came back with very different perceptions about these people. I’m glad that these girls are growing up. You know, we have so many lovely letters coming back from these people or from their sons and daughters saying ‘My parents really thrilled the girls came from the school and chatted to them’. Through that is part of citizenship which we didn’t do before. I think they become involved in the community. This is another good thing we’ve done this year. (the Headteacher)
Although it seems that the headteacher was quite satisfied with the students’
performance in the local community and the effects on the students, both the headteacher and the coordinator struggled with the problems of engaging students in the school’s community. “Our children live quite a long way from the school. Their local community is not this community near this school. It is very difficult to see whether they can be involved in their communities” (the Headteacher). The coordinator also stressed that it is not an easy job to manage the activities to involve all pupils in meaningful participation with the community. As a result, they thought that it was difficult to teach and encourage involvement in the students’ own local communities. It is noticed that the problem within community involvement is not only one of fitting it into the timetable but also a challenge of experiential learning.
Discussion
Curriculum Models
While citizenship education has become one of the National Curriculum subjects, the schools face the difficulties in delivering it, such as overcrowding of the curriculum and pressures of time. As the research findings showed, their practice can be summarised in the following aspects:
● Citizenship through integration into other subjects: From the findings, it seems that some social science subjects, such as RE, History and Geography, could easily merge citizenship topics into their teaching. In fact, most of my classroom observations were arranged to see these classes. Much of their teaching emphasised the first two strands of Crick’s citizenship – social and moral responsibility and community involvement. Topics related to the third strand, political literacy, were rarely mentioned in these classes. This might be because the teachers have had little or no specialist training but also because they tried to avoid the criticism of political bias.
● Citizenship through projects: These schools launched a range of projects, including a citizenship passport; bullying research; partnerships with Junior Sport Leader Award (JSLA), Youth Sport Trust, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.
These projects were regarded as effective approaches to cultivate students’ active citizenship in schools and communities. Through these projects teachers thought that students’ participation had increased, and compared with students’ learning in the past, this was a big change.
● Citizenship through the school council: The council was held to empower students to take an active role in schools and offer them an opportunity to be involved in decision-making. Two prominent examples were seen in Green Farm School and Shiny Crown School where the students were seen to practise political skills through discussion and voting to make their own decisions. Teachers generally confirmed that their students gained self-esteem and confidence through the operation of the council.
● Citizenship through PSD: Shiny Crown School combined citizenship education with their existing PSD courses. They thought that PSD/PSHE was little different from this new subject because PSD/PSHE schemes of work pre-dated the citizenship agenda, such as in rights, responsibilities and environmental issues.
Again, the political dimension would be much less emphasised.
Although the QCA consultation provides schools in UK with an outline of the objectives and syllabus for each key stage, the problem with the Crick Report was argued
evidence that the most popular way to carry out this new subject is to integrate it into the existing curriculum. Yet it is likely that when teachers are trying to integrate citizenship into their subject teaching they might be faced with the difficulty of a requirement for expertise in order to connect with such subject teaching. Particularly, as the headteacher of Shiny Crown School alluded, political literacy, among the three strands, might be the most difficult one for teachers. If citizenship education is to equip students with "the critical capacities to weigh evidence before speaking and acting" (QCA, 1998: 7), it would need a conceptual analysis of society based on the social sciences (Harber, 2002).
In order to make citizenship be firmly located in the curriculum and life of schools and be taught coherently and systematically, it is vital to formulate a pedagogical theory for citizenship education which would comprise cognitive, affective and social/political skills.
Teaching Approaches
The delivery of citizenship education was mainly probed through classroom observations and complemented by interviews with the teachers in the case-study schools.
Citizenship was taught in variety of ways by form tutors and subject teachers. This included:
● Discussion and role play: In my classroom observations at the three case-study schools, it is common to see the discussions between pupils and teachers and pupils themselves. Sometimes the discussions were generated from role plays.
The discussions were invariably enlivened by the interaction between teachers and pupils.
● Inviting experts: Some teachers thought that to invite people who are specialist in some areas to schools is welcomed by pupils, for example, local MP, councillors and police officers. This clearly assisted teachers to manage some special issues easily in their teaching, especially political issues and current events. Additionally, this gave pupils more opportunities to practise asking questions with confidence.
● Projects: In these case-study schools, it was common to see pupils learning a subject through doing a project. In Green Farm School, for instance, pupils explored the topic of bullying by means of doing a project to investigate this within the school. It was reported that the pupils enjoyed the autonomy of the project learning and the school was also informed as to how improve the problem of bulling within the campus through the results of the pupils’ investigation.
A significant element related to the delivery of citizenship education is teacher-student relationships because "at the heart of education is the relationship between teachers and learners and between learners – young people themselves" (Robinson, 2001 in Inman et al., 2003: 15). Traditionally, teachers are seen as the source of knowledge and students are recognised as the receivers of knowledge. However, much interaction between teachers
and pupils was seen in the classroom in the case-study schools with teachers seemingly better in creating community to enable collective thinking and dialogue.
Conclusion
As discussed above, it is clear that the renewal of citizenship education in England is part of a project intended to create a new form of society by means of a schooling to help young people to "develop an awareness of community and cultural diversity . . . see where and how they fit into the community . . . an awareness of equal opportunities issues, national identity and cultural difference . . . the factors that lead to exclusion from society such as bullying, colour and other forms of ‘difference’" (QCA, 1998: 19). This curriculum is being implemented at an initial stage. However, it is encouraging that the case-study schools have developed some ‘good practices’ for delivering this curriculum.
In terms of aims of this study, it is in fact possible to develop an ideal picture of a whole-school approach through collecting prominent examples in these schools that might be relevant to other schools. These include:
1.Reappraisal of opportunities for citizenship education in other school subjects:
As shown at the practice of Green Farm School by the assistant headteacher, through consultation with heads of other subjects, a possible initiative can be fitted into the existing situation in the school, and these subjects enhanced in the process.
2.Working in partnership: A school cannot develop everything from within its own resources, particularly in the area of active citizenship. The staff and pupils could try to work closely with partners from the wider community, whether in sport, health or NGO activity.
3.School council in action: Some school councils are limited in their focus, not dealing with issues of teaching and learning (Davies, L. 1998). However, the practices of Green Farm School and Shiny Crown School have shown us that the students could contribute to making policy within the schools, and are learning to be ‘active citizens’ within their own community.
4.Whole school events: While actual school council work might be constrained to a few representatives, we have seen that activities that bring together the whole school in an act of citizenship, such as elections, or demonstrating respect for teachers and learners, can be highly relevant in terms of developing the school ethos.
However, in looking at the implementation of citizenship education in the case-study schools, a significant weakness therefore was the lack of rigour and critical edge in their delivery. The complexity of social or political issues often seemed to be reduced to
able to understand and employ concepts such as equality, power and justice as ways of realising the issues and problems that they explore, as does happen in other UK schools.
It is important for young people to develop the knowledge and skills to challenge such thinking and behaviour through exploring these concepts and applying them to real life situations (Inman et al., 2003). If there is only issue-based citizenship education without such rigour it is difficult to see how pupils can understand some critical areas such as bullying and racism and learn to challenge them, still less learn about challenging government. As Cogan and Derricott (2000) argue, the delivery of citizenship education should be ‘deliberation-based’. This is also echoed by Douglas and Hudson who argue that "citizenship education is increasingly recognised as a fertile area for developing thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation" (2003: 201). As a result a conceptual base and the tools of analysis and critical thinking should be central in an effective pedagogy of citizenship.
References
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Notes
1 There are three basic curriculum approaches to citizenship education, comprising (Arthur and Wright, 2001):
● Citizenship through the subject: it is hoped that citizenship will not only support current practice in the teaching of individual subjects but will also add a unique flavour for them. This can be achieved through linking the content of the citizenship order to the particular subject content that is relevant.
● Citizenship through or as a school subject: Here, citizenship can be taught as a distinct subject on the curriculum. It may appear as a distinct element within personal and social education or stand alone as a timetabled subject.
● Citizenship through the whole school: the curriculum in an English school consists of the following elements set within a school ethos: religious education, subjects – both core and foundation, a range of cross-curricular elements and extra-curricular activities.
2 Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) are teachers who have been recognised through external assessment as having excellent classroom practice. They are given additional payment and increased non-contact time in order to share their skills and experience with other teachers, within their own school and from other schools. The role of Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) was devised to reward excellent teachers who wished to remain in the classroom and spend the equivalent of one day a week supporting other teachers in developing their skills and experience through the sharing of best practice ideas and approaches (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/ast).
3 Step into Sport is the one of the eight workstrands within the national school sports strategy. The project is delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England and Sports Leaders UK. It provides a clear framework of coordinated opportunities at a local level to enable young people aged 14 to 19, giving them opportunities to become involved in sports leadership and volunteering and encouraging them to continue this into later life (http://www.youthsporttrust.org.uk).
4 Red Nose Day is a UK-wide fundraising event organised by Comic Relief every 2 years which culminates in a night of extraordinary comedy and moving documentary films.
It's the biggest TV fundraising event in the UK calendar. On Red Nose Day everyone in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is encouraged to cast inhibitions aside, put on a Red Nose, and do something a bit silly to raise money - celebrities included.
It is an event that unites the entire nation in trying to make a difference to the lives of thousands of individuals facing terrible injustice or living in abject poverty (http://www .comicrelief.com).
5 The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a voluntary, non-competitive programme of practical,
cultural and adventurous activities, designed to support the personal and social development of young people aged 14-25, regardless of gender, background or ability.
It offers an individual challenge and encourages young people to undertake exciting, constructive, challenging and enjoyable activities in their free time. It is a four-Section Programme with three progressive levels: Bronze for those aged 14 and over; Silver for those aged 15 and over; Gold for those aged 16 and over (http://www.theawardinedinbu rgh.org/).
