Citizenship Schools: learning democracy in practice

Citizenship is not just a subject on the curriculum. It is the lifeblood of a democratic society. When people lose their sense of civic duty and engagement, societies become vulnerable to extremism and even dictatorship, as happened in ancient Rome and Weimar Germany.

Although the national curriculum requirement to teach citizenship comes from central government, schools have considerable freedom to decide how it will be taught. This makes citizenship a way of improving schools and society from the bottom-up.

Politicians on all sides of the political spectrum are now calling for participation, empowerment and civic renewal. Local schools have the potential to play a major role in empowering people to take an active part in society. They are one of the few institutions which can connect a large part of local communities, reaching people through children and their families. Extended schools connect even more services are through local schools. This gives schools the opportunity to become foundations of a democratic learning society, through which young people learn how to take part in decision-making and develop a real sense of civic responsibility.

Increasing participation in school also increases attainment and motivation. A study for CSV by Derry Hannan found that “in terms of low exclusions, good attendance, staff and student assessment and exam results” schools with high levels of student participation “performed better than might have been expected” by comparison with schools with a similar intake.

Citizenship is about giving pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in society. The new curriculum explicitly aims to make pupils “more self-confident and responsible both in and beyond the classroom. It encourages pupils to play a helpful part in the life of their schools, neighbourhoods, communities and the wider world. It also teaches them about our economy and democratic institutions and values; encourages respect for different national, religious and ethnic identities; and develops pupils' ability to reflect on issues and take part in discussions.” It would be a mistake, therefore, to see the citizenship as simply another subject to be squeezed into the timetable.

Citizenship has to be practised as well as taught. The citizenship curriculum offers many opportunities to involve staff, pupils and parents in the life of the school and its wider community. As an active process, citizenship offers schools a wide range of opportunities to involve staff, pupils and parents in making schools more responsive to a rapidly changing world.

Increasing participation and democracy in school is not a soft option. It requires reflection, planning, training and implementation to ensure that all members of the school community are involved. They must experience it as a benefit, not a burden. To be effective, people must experience it as a way of making life better for themselves, the school and the local area.

Citizenship requires a shared vision, values and commitment based on fairness, mutual respect, democratic participation, human rights, social justice and diversity. These are values to which the nation aspires in signing the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But they are much easier to agree than to live them in practice.

Every school is a political entity. Charles Handy compared schools with city-states (Handy, 1987), which have every form of governance from dictatorship to the radical democracy of Summerhill. Institutional change and school improvement require political skills to engage and persuade people to do things differently. The citizenship curriculum could give all members of the school community an active part in continuous and democratic school improvement.

Any school in which citizenship is practiced as well as taught could be called a “citizenship school”. A central aim of citizenship is to give young people the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in society. It aims to make pupils “more self-confident and responsible both in and beyond the classroom. It encourages pupils to play a helpful part in the life of their schools, neighbourhoods, communities and the wider world. It also teaches them about our economy and democratic institutions and values; encourages respect for different national, religious and ethnic identities; and develops pupils' ability to reflect on issues and take part in discussions.” If done well, it would equip young people to thrive in a world of constant change –starting with the introduction of the citizenship curriculum itself. It would be a mistake, therefore, to treat citizenship as simply another subject to be squeezed into the timetable.

But the timetable has a vital role in developing citizenship in schools. First of all, subject status is enshrined in the timetable. Citizenship has to be there, alongside maths, English and the rest. Second, the timetable tells pupils and parents that citizenship matters. Third, citizenship requires specialist skills and knowledge which need to be developed with a skilled teacher who knows the subject and how to teach it. This means setting aside time for teaching. Citizenship can enrich other subjects on the curriculum. At least 20%  of the strands in citizenship can be developed through other subjects and a citizenship specialist can also provide issues, concepts and activities that enhance understanding of other subjects. In addition, citizenship has an important place in moral, pastoral, social and extra-curricular activities, such as form-time, assembly, behaviour policies and community links.

The concept of ‘citizenship school’ aims to bring these different aspects together into a whole school approach. It is drawn from schools across the country which give pupils, parents, staff and local communities an active role in school life. It is a practical embodiment of the citizenship curriculum, enabling pupils to “play a helpful part in the life of their schools, neighbourhoods, communities and the wider world.” A citizenship school aims to give every pupil an apprenticeship in active citizenship, by learning how the system works and taking part effectively. For this to happen, schools need to ensure that every member of the school community can be heard, have a say in decisions and influence school life.

A ‘citizenship school’ offers a sophisticated model of democracy, involving activities such as circle time, peer mediation, pupil responsibilities and parents’ councils. But the essential starting point is a commitment to use the citizenship curriculum to transform the way school is run by giving all young people direct experience of decision-making and the issues they face in growing up. These must be real decisions, with real consequences, in which young people have to seek compromise and consensus among themselves as well as with adults.

To be credible, the citizenship curriculum has to pervade all aspects of school life, including its culture and ethos; its approach to learning and teaching; and its decision-making processes. Teaching young people about the structures and processes of democracy without giving them an effective say in the life of their own school is a lesson in cynicism and powerlessness.

Citizenship schools could unleash greater creativity and commitment to learning in schools and their communities. As Derry Hannam’s research shows, involvement in participatory activities enhances learning across the curriculum, leading to higher than expected levels of attendance and attainment at GCSE.

Elements of a citizenship school

The following outline describes the essential elements of a citizenship school, based on current practices in schools today. Although most of these are being done in some schools, I know of no school that is doing all of them yet.

1. Create a democratic constitution and ethos

Every school has a constitution, usually implicit, which consists of its legal status and obligations; its aims, policies and development plan; and is embedded through the norms, values and decision-making structures that govern the lives of its members while they are at school.

In making its constitution explicit, a citizenship school aims to:

• recognise all members of the school community as learning citizens, with explicit rights and responsibilities;
• build a shared commitment to democratic vision and values;
• involve everyone in creating fair rules or boundaries;
• involve pupils in maintaining peace through peer mediation and conflict resolution;
• develop meaningful responsibilities for all pupils.

This last point is perhaps the most important element of a citizenship school. Citizenship is about taking responsibility as an individual and as a member of society. In many schools, pupils are subjects, in the sense that they have to do what they are told and that things are done for or to them. In a citizenship school, the development of personal responsibility is central, particularly when it comes to learning.

2.  Create an empowering curriculum

There is a tension, if not a contradiction, between a prescriptive national curriculum which all schools are required to follow, and a concept of citizenship which involves people in taking decisions over their own lives. However, everyone is born into a society created by previous generations, in which other people take decisions and have authority over us, so citizenship inevitably involves dealing with contradictions and tensions of this kind. For a citizenship school, this means enabling all members of the school community to develop the ability to take responsibility for their own learning, which includes:

• Active development of a sense of self as a person, learner and agent in the world.
• Equal partnership with parents as a child’s first educator.
• Shared responsibility for learning with pupils.
• Exploration of values and purpose in all subjects.
• Emotional literacy.
• Thinking skills, applied to real as well as hypothetical and historical problems.
• Learning to learn.
• Enquiry skills, including listening, researching, writing and discussing.
• Peer education and mentoring.
• Skills of participation and action, including negotiating, decision-making and planning.
• Participating in a campaign or project for change.
• Political understanding, sustainable development, consumer education and financial literacy.
• Self-assessment and evaluating the work of others.

For a rapidly changing society, in which the total amount of knowledge is growing exponentially, it is particularly important that young people learn how to take responsibility for their own learning.

3.  Develop active participation in decision-making

Citizenship has to be experienced as well as taught. For pupils this means:

• Learning partners and teams to develop mutual support and confidence.
• Circle time to develop empathy, relationships and values as well as resolve problems.
• A pupil council with elected representatives from each class and a meaningful role in all decision-making.
• Pupil representatives on the governing body.
• Local and national representation by young people in decision-making.

For parents, participation takes place through

• Class meetings (or associations) of all parents of children in each class, meeting two or three times a year to discuss the curriculum, concerns about the class and issues affecting the school, as well as to socialise and support the class;
• Parents’ councils consisting of elected representatives from each class;
• Parent representatives on the governing body and a whole school council;
• Parents’ representatives on local education committees.

Staff are involved through staff meetings, joint working groups with pupils, parents and community representatives, the governing body and school meeting or council.  For youth and community groups using the school premises, citizenship schools have a community association or council to run facilities and activities.

Each of these elements takes time and skill to develop, because it is important that they are done well. But however well one prepares, they involve an element of risk, because real learning and real democracy is never risk free. Most of the time, creativity and innovation are stimulated, bringing about greater enjoyment and improvement in their wake.  The Campaign for Learning, UNICEF UK and the Gulbenkian Foundation have published a practical guide by me on how schools can transform themselves into “citizenship schools”, drawing on the experience of schools across the country. Sometimes, however, it is best to start small.

 

Creating a citizenship school

There are many different ways in which a school can become a “citizenship school” by developing the different elements outlined above. Many schools are already doing some of these things, but often they need to be developed further to make the citizenship skills explicit and to deepen the learning process for every pupil. It is not enough to have a student council, particularly if only a minority take part or pupils regard it as a powerless talking shop.

Many schools will be undertaking a ‘citizenship audit’ to find out where the subject is already being taught and where it could be developed. An audit also provides a useful baseline against which to measure progress over the years. Pupils can also be involved in conducting an audit, using appreciative inquiry or the methods developed by Sharnbrook school in Bedfordshire with Michael Fielding, now at Sussex University. This involves groups of pupils, trained in social research methods, undertaking a systematic inquiry into a specific topic and making recommendations for action.

Conclusion

The creation of citizenship schools could bring about the most important constitutional reform since the achievement of universal adult suffrage.. Citizenship schools would give every young person the skills, knowledge, experience and confidence to use the democratic process to improve their lives. It will require, of course, inspired teaching of citizenship in the classroom, but it must rest on foundations of confidence forged through experience in the corridors of school and community. The creation of “citizenship schools” could herald a bottom-up process of change that will bring about both higher levels of attainment and more confident, capable and responsible citizens.

 

References

Titus Alexander, Citizenship Schools, available from Southgate Publishers, The Square, Sandford, Crediton, Devon, EX17 4LW (email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), for £14.95 plus £1.50 p&p. (see reviews)

Handy, Charles, Understanding Schools as Organisations, Pelican, 1987

Hannam, Derry, (2002) CSV Reports on the Impact of Citizenship in Schools