Content area
Full Text
Viewpoint
Keywords
Education, Central government Schools
Abstract
Draws on the 1998 Crick Report, Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools, to provide a "viewpoint" on citizenship education in the UK. Summarises the purpose and nature of citizenship education in schools and then explores the implications of this for government, the education sector and schools. Stresses the relationship between emerging political thinking, societal values and citizenship education and that the "challenge" is to nurture a new political consensus with active citizenship at its heart. Assesses the prospects for citizenship education and utilises case study data to illustrate positive developments and encouraging practice, although conclusions as to whether citizenship education can ultimately achieve a change in the political culture of the country remain essentially speculative.
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We aim at no less than a change in the political culture of this country both nationally and locally: for people to think of themselves as active citizens, willing, able and equipped to have an influence in public life and with the critical capacities to weigh evidence before speaking and acting; to build on and to extend radically to young people the best in existing traditions of community involvement and public service, and to make them individually confident in finding new forms of involvement and action among themselves (Crick, 1998, para. 1.5).
Citizenship education is now on the statute book; it is part of the national curriculum and teachers across England are working to make it a daily reality in schools. Behind this recent addition to the national curriculum lies a crucial challenge of our time. The idea is audacious in its apparent simplicity. It is that through education we should aim at "no less than a change in the political culture of this country both nationally and locally: for people to think of themselves as active citizens, willing, able and equipped to have an influence in public life". This challenge stems in the first place from a widespread and growing concern, particularly among the political establishment, for the state of our democracy and the condition of our...