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SECONDARY SCHOOL
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TEACHING CITIZENSHIP IN THE
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A Practical Guide to Teaching
Citizenship in the Secondary School

This practical and accessible workbook is designed to support student teachers as they
develop their basic teaching skills, and increase their broader knowledge and understanding
for teaching citizenship. Newly qualified and beginning teachers should also find it useful.
A Practical Guide to Teaching Citizenship in the Secondary School provides a wealth of prac-
tical activities and materials, underpinned by relevant theory, which have been developed
through the author’s experience of working with student teachers. These activities provide
opportunities to analyse learning and performance. The book has been designed to be written
in directly, and so provide a useful record of progress. Case studies are also included, as are
examples of existing good practice and a range of tried-and-tested strategies.
The book has been written to complement Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary
School: A Companion to School Experience (also published by Routledge), and can be used to
reinforce some of the basic teaching skills covered in this textbook. However, the book can
also be used equally successfully as a stand-alone text. It has been designed to be used by
student teachers, on their own or with others, or by school- or university-based tutors with
their student teachers, to develop and/or reinforce their understanding about some of the
important aspects of learning to teach citizenship.

Liam Gearon is Professor of Education at Roehampton University, UK. He is the founder and
former director of the Centre for Research in Human Rights in the School of Education
Studies and Senior Fellow at the Crucible Centre, School of Business and Social Sciences,
also at Roehampton University, UK.
Routledge Teaching Guides
Series Editors: Susan Capel and Marilyn Leask

These Practical Guides are to run alongside the Learning to Teach (subject) in the Secondary
School.

A Practical Guide to Teaching Physical Education in the Secondary School

Edited by Susan Capel, Peter Breckon and Jean O’Neill

A Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School

Edited by Martin Hunt

A Practical Guide to Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School

Edited by Norbert Pachler and Ana Redondo

A Practical Guide to Teaching ICT in the Secondary School

Edited by Steve Kennewell

These Practical Guides have been designed as companions to Learning to Teach (subject)
in the Secondary School. For information on the Routledge Teaching Guides series please
visit our website at www.routledge.com/education
A Practical Guide to
Teaching Citizenship
in the Secondary School

Edited by
Liam Gearon
First published 2007
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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© 2007 Liam Gearon for editorial matter and selection. Individual chapters,
the contributors.
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
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or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
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A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN10: 0–415–36741–7 (pbk)

ISBN10: 0–203–01979–2 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–36741–7 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978–0–203–01979–5 (ebk)
 Contents

Series editors’ introduction vii

List of contributors ix

1 What is citizenship education? 1

IAN DAVIES

2 Values, beliefs and the citizenship teacher 9

JEREMY HAYWARD

3 Subject knowledge in citizenship 20

HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

4 Developing subject knowledge 31

LIZ WEST

5 Lesson planning 48
SANDIE LLEWELLIN

6 Medium- and longer-term planning 62

LEE JEROME

7 Planning, evaluating and auditing the whole-school provision 72

RALPH LEIGHTON

8 Assessment in citizenship 79
MARY RICHARDSON

9 Leading citizenship 88
DARIUS JACKSON AND RUSSELL MANNING

10 Researching citizenship 98
LIAM GEARON

Appendix to Chapter 3 112

Index 116

v
 Series Editors’ Introduction

This practical workbook is part of a series of textbooks for student teachers. It complements
and extends the popular textbook entitled Learning to Teach in the Secondary School: A
Companion to School Experience, as well as the subject-specific textbook Learning to Teach
Citizenship in the Secondary School. We anticipate that you will want to use this book in
conjunction with these other texts.
Teaching is rapidly becoming a more research- and evidence-informed profession. We
have used research and professional evidence about what makes good practice to underpin
the ‘Learning to Teach in the Secondary School’ series and these practical workbooks. Both
the generic and the subject-specific books in the series provide theoretical, research and
professional evidence-based advice and guidance to support you as you focus on developing
aspects of your teaching or your pupils’ learning as you progress through your initial teacher
education course and beyond. Although the generic and subject-specific books include some
case studies and tasks to help you consider the issues, the practical application of material is
not their major focus. That is the role of this book.
This book aims to reinforce your understanding of aspects of your teaching, support you
in aspects of your development as a teacher and your teaching and enable you to analyse your
success as a teacher in maximising pupils’ learning by focusing on practical applications.
The practical activities in this book can be used in a number of ways. Some activities are
designed to be undertaken by you individually, others as a joint task in pairs and yet others
as group work working with, for example, other student teachers or a school- or university-
based tutor. Your tutor may use the activities with a group of student teachers. The book has
been designed so that you can write directly into it.
In England, new ways of working for teachers are being developed through an initiative
remodelling the school workforce. This may mean that you have a range of colleagues to
support in your classroom. They also provide an additional resource on which you can draw.
In any case, you will, of course, need to draw on additional resources to support your devel-
opment and the Learning to Teach in the Secondary School, 4th edition website (http://www.
routledge.com/textbooks/0415363926) lists key websites for Scotland, Wales, Northern
Ireland and England. For example, key websites relevant to teachers in England include the
Teacher Training Resource Bank (www.ttrb.ac.uk). Others include: www.teachernet.gov.uk.
which is part of the DfES schools web initiative; www.becta.org.uk, which has ICT resources;
and www.qca.org.uk. which is the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority website.
We do hope that this practical workbook will be useful in supporting your development
as a teacher.
Susan Capel
Marilyn Leask
April 2006

vii
 Contributors

Hilary Cremin is Director, Centre for Citizenship Studies in Education (CCSE), School of
Education, University of Leicester.
Ian Davies is Reader in Educational Studies at the University of York. He is the author of
numerous articles and books about citizenship education. He is the Deputy Director of
Citized (www.citized.info), which includes a role as the editor of the journal Citizenship
Teaching and Learning. He has extensive international experience in citizenship projects.
Liam Gearon is Professor of Education, School of Education, founder and former Director,
Centre for Research in Human Rights, and Senior Fellow in the Crucible Centre for
Education in Citizenship, Human Rights and Social Justice, School of Business and Social
Sciences, Roehampton University. The author and editor of numerous books in literature,
study of religion and education, he is Chair of the Association of University Lecturers in
Religion and Education (UK) and Regional Vice-President of the International Human
Rights Education Consortium, whose secretariat is based at Utica College in New York.
Jeremy Hayward is Lecturer in Education (Citizenship), Institute of Education, University
of London.
Darius Jackson is Lecturer in History and Citizenship in Education at the School of
Education, University of Birmingham. Prior to this he taught for nineteen years in a range
of comprehensive schools in Gloucestershire and Birmingham. He has been a Head of
History for eleven years as well as working in a number of teams leading whole-school
initiatives in raising pupil attainment, primary-secondary links, literacy and thinking
skills.
Lee Jerome is Course Leader for the History with Citizenship PGCE at Anglia Ruskin
University, where he also teaches about education policy and inclusion. His research
interests include the use of debate in secondary schools, strategies for promoting active
citizenship in schools and the relationship between citizenship education and people’s
ideas about democracy. Before taking up his current post Lee was Education Director at
the Institute for Citizenship, where he managed a variety of projects with schools and
produced a range of resources for teachers. He originally trained as a social studies teacher
and taught history and sociology in London for six years.
Ralph Leighton is Senior Lecturer in Education and subject leader for PGCE Citizenship
at Canterbury Christ Church University. Having had a number of jobs before leaving
Scotland to become a student then a social worker in London, he taught sociology and
other subjects during a twenty-two-year career in Kent schools. A successful head of
department and faculty manager, he had responsibility for curriculum change and for
staff development as a member of his school’s senior management team. He has been
involved in public examination work for over twenty years, most recently as a chief
examiner, as well as teaching part time in further and higher education. His current

ix
CONTRIBUTORS

research interests relate to the processes and experiences involved in making citizenship
teachers, and in the potential for social change inherent in citizenship education.
Sandie Llewellin is Lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol,
where she is responsible for the Secondary PGCE Citizenship course.
Russell Manning is Lecturer in History in Education at the School of Education, University
of Birmingham. Prior to this he taught for eleven years in a comprehensive school in
Dudley. He was Head of History as well as holding a range of academic and pastoral
middle-management posts.
Mary Richardson is studying for a Ph.D. in the Centre for Research in Beliefs, Rights and
Values at Roehampton University and teaches on the BA Education Programme.
Paul Warwick is currently the Deputy Director of the Centre for Citizenship Studies in
Education at the University of Leicester. He has worked in the field of education over the
last 10 years developing participatory approaches to Education for Citizenship and
Sustainable Development. His research interests include: action research as a tool for
change, student voice in education, and approaches towards working with hard to reach
learners.
Liz West is a Senior Lecturer in History and Citizenship at St Martin’s College, Carlisle. Prior
to this she was an Assistant Headteacher in a large city-based comprehensive school where
she led a training school. She has contributed to articles on developing subject knowledge
in citizenship within Citized and is the author of several chapters for a citizenship GCSE
textbook. She is currently involved in a European project developing training materials
on using assessment for teaching and learning.

x
 What is citizenship education?
Chapter 1
IAN DAVIES

INTRODUCTION
What is citizenship education? This could be one of the most difficult questions that teachers
in their role as subject specialists will ever have to face (and certainly a lot more difficult than
‘What is maths education?’ or ‘What is history education?’, where – despite many con-
troversies and uncertainties – there is much greater consensus about what needs to be taught
and learned and long-established processes for encouraging learning). This chapter draws
attention to some of the debates and issues that are raging (and have raged for a very long
time) about citizenship and whether (and, if so, how) it can be taught and learned. A range
of examples will be given of practical activities that could be used in schools and elsewhere
and you will be invited to consider what you think is the essence of ‘real’ citizenship
education. My view about the nature of citizenship and citizenship education will be declared
in this chapter but, of course, this is not the only perspective that is possible. This one brief
chapter is certainly not enough to do any more than begin to scratch the surface of this
complex field.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Understand the key ideas about citizenship.

• Understand the current meaning of citizenship education as part of the National
Curriculum for England.
• Understand the issues in the relationship between citizenship and citizenship
education
• Be able critically to review educational activities for their suitability for use in a
citizenship education programme.

Despite all the controversy, the answer to the question ‘What is citizenship education?’ is, in
one sense, easy. The National Curriculum for Citizenship in England was developed follow-
ing the Crick Report (DfEE/QCA 1998). That report characterised citizenship education as
consisting of social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy.
The report declared its principal aim in very ambitious terms:

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

1
IAN DAVIES

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.
(DfEE/QCA 1998, pp. 7–8)

The National Curriculum Order for citizenship became compulsory for secondary schools
in England in September 2002. The following indicates the three key aspects of the require-
ments:

Teaching should ensure that knowledge and understanding about becoming informed
citizens are acquired and applied when developing skills of enquiry and communication,
and participation and responsible action.
(DfEE/QCA 1999, p. 14; emphasis added)

The assessment of citizenship education is compulsory but the uncertainty surrounding the
area has meant that for the one attainment target that has been established levels have not
been declared as in other subjects. Instead brief end-of-key-stage descriptions are given for
key stages 3 and 4.
There is support for the implementation of citizenship education. Citizenship teams
have been established within the DfES (Department for Education and Skills) and QCA
(Qualifications and Curriculum Authority). The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT)
has been established, and schemes of work have been produced by the QCA. The Training
and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is funding a project (see www.citized.info)
designed to strengthen action in teacher education for citizenship education. Almost all
educational publishers active in the schools sector have rushed to produce materials for the
new commercial market in citizenship education.
So, if we focus on the practical details of what is required by law to be taught, then a simple
answer can be given to the question ‘What is citizenship education?’ But even in this fairly
straightforward situation the context in real schools and with real teachers and learners is
potentially problematic. It would be wrong to imagine that government policy documents
will tell us what is really being implemented. Early evaluation and inspection reports point
to a range of challenges being faced by schools (Kerr et al. 2003), including the delivery of
citizenship education through Personal and Social Education (PSE) which Crick (2001) had
explicitly warned against, and teacher uncertainty about the implementation process.
In light of controversy over the heart of citizenship education and uncertainty over how
it can be practically implemented, I show below a number of activities that can be used to
consider ways to identify citizenship and citizenship education.

Activity 1.1 What does citizenship mean?

Two quotations about citizenship are shown below. They show very different
perspectives about citizenship. Before you read the quotations and do an activity
related to them, please consider the very clear summary of citizenship that can be
found in Heater (1999). In that book Heater discusses the two main traditions from
which our current understandings about citizenship have been drawn: the liberal
(rights based and often related to individuals who are wary of state power) and the
civic republican (emphasising duties and recognising the need for the power of the
state to ensure that there is some measure of equality). Heater argues (convincingly,
in my view) that it is unnecessary to see these two traditions as being mutually
exclusive:

2
 WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION?

Activity 1.1 continued

. . . by being a virtuous, community-conscious participant in civic affairs (a

republican requirement), a citizen benefits by enhancing his or her own
individual development (a liberal objective). Citizenship does not involve an
either/or choice.
(Heater 1999, p. 177)

However, knowledge of these two traditions does allow us to see where people
are coming from when they discuss citizenship. Now, please think about the ques-
tions shown below in relation to the two quotations that appear after them.
Questions to consider: Who do you think was the author of each of the quota-
tions given below? Can you make an informed guess as to what sort of people they
are? What sort of jobs do they do? What sort of views about citizenship do they
hold? Why do you think they hold those particular views? What sort of traditions
relate most closely to the perspectives given in the quotations? What sort of work
that could be undertaken within or outside school would emerge from the two
different approaches represented in the quotations? Which of the two quotations
(or what sort of blend between the two quotations) do you prefer and why?

Quotation 1
Active citizenship is the free acceptance by individuals of voluntary obligations
to the community of which they are members. It cannot be conjured up by
legislation or by political speeches – although both can help. It arises from
traditions of civic obligations and voluntary service which are central to the
thinking of this government and rooted in our history.

Quotation 2
The practice of citizenship is about ensuring everybody the entitlements neces-
sary to the exercise of their liberty. As a political question welfare is about rights,
not caring, and the history of citizenship has been the struggle to make freedom
real, not to tie us all in the leading strings of therapeutic good intentions.

Sources
The reference for Quotation 1 is D. Hurd (1988) ‘Freedom Will Flourish where Citizens Accept
Responsibility’, Independent, 13 February. Douglas Hurd was a key member of several of Margaret
Thatcher’s governments. At the time he made that statement he was at the Home Office and was
therefore responsible for law and order and immigration. His junior minister at the time, John Patten,
would later become Secretary of State for Education and be closely involved with the attempt to
implement a form of citizenship education in the early 1990s that emphasised the need for young
people to volunteer.
The reference for Quotation 2 is M. Ignatieff (1989) ‘Citizenship and Moral Narcissism’, Political
Quarterly, 60, 1. Michael Ignatieff is a philosopher, writer and politician. One of his recent books is
titled Human Rights (edited by Amy Gutman and published by Princeton University Press in 2001).
Ignatieff has been Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University and is
(2006) a Liberal party member in the Canadian parliament.

One of the key ways of characterising citizenship is to focus on the relationship between
the individual and the state. An obvious way of considering that relationship is by

3
IAN DAVIES

investigating voting patterns in general elections. The following activity allows you to
consider the meaning of citizenship and its relationship with the sorts of things that should
or could be done by teachers and learners.

Activity 1.2 Understanding political participation

(or, ‘Do we live in a democracy?’)

You are about to see some data from recent elections. Please consider this data
and ask yourself three questions (perhaps you could discuss with some colleagues
or friends):

• Do you feel concerned as a result of seeing the information about voting

patterns in elections? Why? Why not?
• Do you feel that this information should be of particular interest to teachers?
Why? Why not?
• Do you think that knowledge of this information should lead to the provision
of a particular sort of citizenship education? Why? Why not?

The 2005 General Election

Party Seats in Parliament Share of total electorate

Labour 356 22%

Conservative 197 20%

Liberal Democrat 62 14%

Others 30 6%

Share of total electorate for winning prime minister and party

Prime Minister Share of total electorate

Churchill 1951 41%

(Conservative)

Wilson 1974 29%

(Labour)

Thatcher 1983 32%

(Conservative)

Major 1992 33%

(Conservative)

Blair 1997 32%

(Labour)

Blair 2001 25%

(Labour)

Blair 2005 22%

(Labour)

4
 WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION?

Activity 1.2 continued

What do the data about voting mean?

When reviewing the information about elections people have very different
reactions. Some suggest that there is a huge crisis in society and that unless we act
now the alienation from constitutional politics will increase to a point where hardly
anyone will bother to vote. Teachers, it is argued, must step in and encourage
young people to vote. Others adopt a different view. They suggest that there is little
to worry about. People may not vote when they are young but as they get older
they will start to vote; not voting when the result of an election seems a foregone
conclusion is simply a sensible action and nothing to worry about; people can
express their dissatisfaction with their preferred political party by not voting (as
opposed to voting for a party that they do not like). Young people and others are
very interested in political issues (although they do not want to see middle-aged
men argue about procedural points in the House of Commons). If teachers
encourage young people to vote, are they allowing themselves to act as the agents
of party politicians and not being educators? What do you think? Remember the
three questions that were given at the beginning of this activity as you develop
your answers to these questions. (You might want to look at more data about
elections. If so, please go to the website of the electoral commission (http://www.
electoralcommission.org.uk).)

There are many debates about citizenship and teachers must think carefully about what they
want to focus on.

Activity 1.3 Where do we draw the boundaries around citizenship

education? How do we know when we are teaching
citizenship?

An argument is made below for a particular approach to citizenship education.

Read the argument and then discuss with others whether you agree or not.
Some argue that citizenship encompasses everything. Audigier (1998, p. 13):

Since the citizen is an informed and responsible person, capable of taking

part in public debate and making choices, nothing of what is human should
be unfamiliar to him [sic], nothing of what is experienced in society should be
foreign to democratic citizenship.

Audigier is asking us to realise the very broad nature of what it means to be a citizen. We
cannot turn away from anything that involves social justice – and that involves just about
everything. But he is also giving a warning to teachers. It would not be helpful if a teacher
were to be presented with a syllabus that asked for everything to be taught! So, there must
be limits. Some people claim that those limits can be achieved by the application of specific
perspectives. Isin and Wood (1999) argue for an identity-based citizenship. Osler and Vincent
(2002) declare that global education is the way forward. Crick (2000) asserts the need for a
political knowledge and activity in everyday life. Arnot and Dillabough (2002) emphasise
feminist perspectives. These perspectives (broad and precise) may all be legitimate but it is

5
IAN DAVIES

important to focus attention on educational issues. It is vitally important to consider the

nature of citizenship (if we did not do this we would have nothing to teach at all) but just as
history teachers have a different role from historians and science teachers have a different
role from scientists, we need to focus on the nature of learning that we think is desirable and
what sort of teaching is required to achieve those outcomes.
In light of the above it is necessary to ask what is it that people need to learn about
citizenship and, more important, what it is they need to know and do in order to be citizens.
Learners should go beyond learning content, and should develop understanding dispositions
and abilities associated with:

• Rationality grounded in a critical appreciation of social and political realities.

• Respect for diversity within the context of a pluralistic democracy.
• Participation arising from an acceptance of one’s social and political responsibilities
and appreciation of one’s own rights and entitlements.

Using this emphasis on procedural matters it would be possible to write classroom resources
that used the ‘content’ of, for example, justice, identity or equality but the key focus would
be to encourage students to act as citizens. So there would be a relationship between the
business of students acting as citizens (explaining, participating, respecting) in ways that
allowed them to understand citizenship (and its key concepts such as justice, equality, etc.),
and this would have meaning in public situations. A lesson that was ‘merely’ about the
private acts of an individual (being kind, living healthily, applying for a job, etc.) would not
count, in my view, as citizenship education. This is not to say that getting a job, being happy,
healthy and living a good life are not important. But citizenship education is not the same as
personal and social and health education. When working on citizenship education in the
way that has been described above, students would need:

• to explain their views, their understandings and their arguments about citizenship;
• to respect others, accommodate and reflect upon opinions and views that may be
different from their own when considering citizenship;
• to participate in the consideration and debate of these ideas in the classroom and
(ideally) use this experience and understanding in their life outside school.

Activity 1.4 What sort of work with young people can be called
citizenship education?

What, then, would count as a citizenship lesson or activity? The way to answer this
question is to think about the types of concept that are being explored and what
sorts of things students are being asked to do. Look at the list of activities shown
below and after discussion with a friend or colleague give your responses to the
following:

• Is the activity an example of citizenship education – yes? no? possibly? What

are your reasons for your decision?
• Would you want to be involved in the development of this sort of work as
described here? Explain your answer.
• Can you suggest any improvements (especially to those activities that you
deem not to be citizenship education) in order to make it relevant to the work
of a citizenship teacher?

6
 WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION?

Activity 1.4 continued

Activities
• A teacher organises a charity walk by year 10 students to raise money for the
victims of a natural disaster. Students collect sponsorship money. There is an
assembly in which the nature of the disaster is explained and examples are
given of how the money will help. A representative of a charity arrives in the
assembly to receive a cheque and to thank the students for their work. By their
work, she says, the students have helped in a very real way to make the world
a better place.
• A lesson on the dangers of smoking includes a discussion about individual
health risks. Students are invited to prepare questions to put to health workers
who visit their class. The questions focus on the experiences of working with
people who have become seriously ill as a direct consequence of active or
passive smoking. Following the visit of the health workers students develop
ideas for posters that would encourage people to stop smoking.
• A video is shown about sexually transmitted diseases. Students are informed
about the different types of disease and their symptoms. A teacher advises
students to think about their responsibilities in the context of the need for high
moral standards. The teacher uses the phrase ‘the personal is political’ during
the time he is encouraging students to act sensibly. He urges the young people
to think about their future and suggests that life will be easier for them if they
are able to learn important lessons about responsibility.
• A school council is established. The student chair of the council prepares a
proposal to abolish school uniform. The resulting discussion at the council
meeting includes consideration of the likely views of parents, the value of a
school identity gained through uniform, the relationship between using
different types of clothing and discipline in the school. The head makes it
clear that she will not accept abolition of the existing uniform. The chair of
the council resigns. There is some evidence of discontent (largely in the form
of negative comments from students to teachers) about the way this matter
has been handled.
• A local council has decided that it would like to consult local residents about
how part of its budget should be spent in the forthcoming year. A meeting
takes place between a councillor and the citizenship co-ordinator of a local
school. Year 9 pupils are asked to complete a questionnaire in a citizenship
lesson to show their views about how the money should be spent. Small
groups of year 9 students deliver questionnaires to addresses near to the
school. A sample of the completed questionnaires is given to the students to
analyse. They are asked to summarise the responses from different age groups
and from men and women. They are asked to comment on the questionnaire
that was used. Finally, they draw up recommendations to be considered by
the council.

SUMMARY
We will probably never have complete agreement about the nature of citizenship. In
a democracy that is probably no bad thing. We need ongoing debate and redefinition.
However, confusion and lack of conceptual clarity are unhelpful. The activities shown above

7
IAN DAVIES

will help to clear away some of the smoke around the heat of the citizenship debate. We need
people to understand citizenship and to be citizens and more than anything else this involves
direct connection with action that relates to key concepts about social justice in public
contexts.

REFERENCES
Arnot, M. and Dillabough, J.-A. (2002) Challenging Democracy: international perspectives on
gender, education and citizenship. London, Routledge.
Audigier, F. (1998) Basic Concepts and Core Competences of Education for Democratic Citizenship:
an initial consolidated report. Strasbourg, Council of Europe.
Crick, B. (2000) Essays on Citizenship. London, Continuum.
—— (2001) Preface. In Arthur, J., Davies, I., Wrenn, A., Haydn, T. and Kerr, D. (eds),
Citizenship through Secondary History. London, RoutledgeFalmer.
Department for Education and Employment/QCA (1998) Education for Citizenship and the
Teaching of Democracy in Schools. Final report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship. [The Crick
Report]. London, DfEE/QCA.
—— (1999) Citizenship: Key Stages 3–4. London, DfEE/QCA.
Heater, D. (1999) What is Citizenship? Cambridge, Polity Press.
Isin, E. F. and Wood, P. K. (1999) Citizenship and Identity. London, Sage.
Kerr, D., Cleaver, E., Ireland, E. and Blenkinsop, S. (2003) Citizenship Education Longitudinal
Study. First cross-sectional survey 2001–2. Norwich, HMSO.
Osler, A. and Vincent, K. (2002) Citizenship and the Challenge of Global Education. Stoke on
Trent, Trentham.

8
 Values, beliefs and the
Chapter 2 citizenship teacher

JEREMY HAYWARD

INTRODUCTION
Citizenship teaching involves exploring the central political and moral debates of the day.
It also involves promoting key values. It is vital for the citizenship teacher to be clear about
the role of values in teaching. However, this area is itself controversial and clarity is not easily
achieved. This chapter does not attempt to give a definitive account on such issues; it is
simply designed to provoke thought so you may clarify your own position.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Reflect on the nature of values and their role in education.

• Highlight the values underpinning citizenship teaching.
• Identify ways in which values of citizenship can be undermined by the teaching
methods.
• Evaluate different strategies for teaching controversial issues.

VALUES AND BELIEFS

‘Every art and every investigation, and similarly every action and pursuit, is considered
to aim at some good’.
(Aristotle)

The concept of values is not easy to define. The term is used fairly loosely and covers a range
of purposes. Values can refer to those elements of life we consider worth pursuing: for
example, happiness, freedom and justice. The term can also refer to the dispositions and
character traits considered important to develop or maintain, such as courage, honesty and
compassion.
The focus of this chapter will be on the practical relevance of values in relation to education
and in relation to the citizenship classroom in particular. As such, a prolonged theoretical
discussion on the nature of values will be avoided. However, it is worth briefly visiting the
philosophical arena, if only to draw out one or two features of values that will be salient to
future discussion.1
A common distinction drawn is that between statements of fact and statements of values.
Factual statements attempt to describe how the world is. They are descriptive in nature.
Values statements describe how the world ought to be. They are prescriptive in nature. As

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prescriptions, values underpin our answers to the general moral question of How should we
live our lives?
Not all values need be moral, however. You might value humour whereas a friend might
not, neither of you wishing to claim that your liking or otherwise had moral status. In this
chapter I will be concerned only with moral values, noting however that the distinction
between more personal preferences and social and public values is not always clear.
It is claimed that values of some kind underpin our every action. The suggestion, following
Aristotle, is that that all our actions are focused on goals or ends, which in turn will represent
values and value judgements. For example, Ben might find himself walking down the road
with the goal of going to a shop. However, simply arriving at the shop is not Ben’s ultimate
goal. In this case, he entered the shop to buy a razor. Yet even this is still a means to some
other end, namely to shave. Shaving in turn is a means to avoid the itching sometimes created
by a beard. Here perhaps we reach the ultimate end or goal – physical comfort. So Ben’s
walking down the road on that occasion was driven by the fact that one of his values is
physical comfort.
Through analysing our everyday activity it is claimed that we can show that all of our
actions are aimed at something we personally consider worthwhile or that we value.
However, the fact that Ben values physical comfort is unlikely to have been a conscious
thought in his mind as he walked down the street. Only by reflection might he realise the
values that underpinned his action. This raises the question of how we know what our own
values are.
One simple way of finding out might be to ask someone. This would reveal their con-
scious deliberations on the subject. Another way would be to observe a person closely over
a period of time and analyse their actions. Sometimes these two indicators may be at odds.
For example, a person may verbally claim to value the environment, yet fail in their everyday
life to reduce, repair, reuse, recycle or indeed act in any way that would help to achieve their
consciously stated value. Does this person really value the environment as they claim to?
It is a matter of philosophical debate whether behaviour or consciously expressed thought
should act as the ultimate compass of a person’s beliefs. However, the distinction, as will be
discussed below, is of practical relevance to the citizenship classroom.
In many cases moral beliefs will amount to more or less the same thing as moral values.
If you value personal freedom, you are likely to sign up to the corresponding moral belief
that personal freedom is a good thing.
Moral and political beliefs may also have a different function from values. For example,
two people may both value social justice and may agree on the need to reduce global poverty.
However, they may disagree as to how this could be best achieved. One may favour direct
aid; the other may claim this is counter-productive and advocate greater spending on
education. The two share the same value but have different beliefs as to how these values
could be best realised.

RELATIVISM, VALUES AND EDUCATION

History is not short of societies claiming to be in moral crisis. Our present society is no
exception. Citing a range of factors such as the increasing diversity of society, the pluralism
of values and the post-modern suggestion that human thought and language prevent access
to any ultimate truths, some commentators suggest that we now live in a society where moral
truth is impossible and in which all moral beliefs are deemed equally valid.
It is claimed that this modern, ‘relativist’ society has forced schools to play a very different
role in relation to the teaching of values. ‘From being an important mechanism by which
norms and codes were transmitted, they have become the cockpit in which the conflicts [of
values] are first encountered by the young’ (Tomlinson 1995: 310).
If we are to accept that we now live in a new intellectual and social climate where a
plurality of values exists, does this mean schools should no longer promote values?
It certainly appears true that many people are less comfortable with the idea of schools or

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teachers transmitting values than perhaps they were sixty years ago. This concern is
acknowledged in the Crick Report: ‘Parents and the public generally may be worried about
the possibility of bias and indoctrination in teaching about citizenship’ (QCA 1998: 8). It has
also been suggested that the more liberal-minded might prefer a ‘hands-off’ policy in relation
to the transmission of values; as such, a policy would at least avoid this charge of indoc-
trination (Haydon 1997).
Despite these concerns we should be very clear that it is impossible for education to be
value-free. The very fact that schools exist represents a value judgement on behalf of society.
Although the emphasis may change over time, values such as cultural development,
knowledge, personal achievement, social justice and the need for equal opportunity underpin
the whole collective enterprise of education.
Beyond their mere existence, virtually every aspect of school life is governed by values:
from the choice and content of the curriculum subject to the selection of teaching methods;
from classroom rules to the choices on the canteen menu. The nature of each school reflects
value judgements from a range of governments, government agencies, groups and indi-
viduals. Some of these beliefs and values underlying policy will be fairly controversial. Other
beliefs, such as the need for school, are almost universally accepted.2 Either way, schools are
clearly not value-free zones.
This close relationship between schools and values is reflected in the opening page of the
National Curriculum: ‘Education influences and reflects the values of society, and the kind
of society we want to be. It is important, therefore, to recognise a broad set of common values
and purposes that underpin the school curriculum and the work of schools’ (QCA 1999: 10).
Classrooms themselves are also value centres. If we accept the initial premise that all our
actions reflect values, then the act of teaching can be no exception. ‘Values are inherent in
teaching. Teachers are by the nature of their profession “moral agents” who imply values
by the way they address pupils and each other, the way they dress, the language they use
and the effort they put into their work’ (National Curriculum Council 1993: 8). For example,
if one pupil publicly insulted another, the teacher would intervene. In doing so, the teacher
would be promoting the values of respect and human dignity. If pupils are working on
computers and one pupil insisted on having two computers for himself, denying others, then
the teacher would intervene. In doing so they would clearly be promoting the values of
equality and of justice in the allocation of resources. Finally, imagine that a pupil told a
teacher that another boy had annoyed him and that to get his own back he was going to start
a fight after school. How might we want a teacher to respond?

1 ‘Go for it.’

2 ‘Do what you feel you have to.’
3 ‘Why don’t we all sit down and talk about it?’

Again, we would expect the teacher to promote positive values, in this case those of non-
violent conflict resolution.
Teachers promote values constantly throughout the day, and this is uncontroversial.
Sometimes, in all this talk of relativism, it is easy to forget that although there is wide differ-
ence in political and moral beliefs among people, there is an almost universal acceptance of
certain moral values. Just because many political beliefs are controversial, not all moral values
are. Indeed, some values are so ubiquitous that often we forget that they represent moral
positions at all. Not hurting others, sharing resources fairly, listening, treating pupils equally,
not being rude, honesty, compassion. Imagine if teachers, en masse, did not promote these
values in the classroom; or, worse, promoted the converse of these values by encouraging
violence, rudeness, dishonesty, harm, lack of compassion, unfair allocation of resources, not
listening. There would rightly be public outcry!
So schools are not value-free zones and teaching involves promoting values. Further, the
idea that schools and teachers might promote values is not nearly as controversial as the idea
that schools and teachers might not.

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VALUES AND THE CURRICULUM

So what are the values that teachers should promote? And specifically, what values should
citizenship teachers promote?
Let us begin by considering teachers in general. As an NQT, you will know that in England,
qualifying to become a teacher involves the evidencing of various standards set out by
government. These standards also cover the professional values expected of teachers. They
include the following:

S1.1 They have high expectations of all pupils; respect their social, cultural, linguistic, religious
and ethnic backgrounds; and are committed to raising their educational achievement.

S1.2 They treat pupils consistently, with respect and consideration, and are concerned for their
development as learners.

S1.3 They demonstrate and promote the positive values, attitudes and behaviour that they expect
from their pupils.
(TTA 2003: 7)

Key professional values of respect, consideration, concern and commitment to education

are listed. Teachers are also expected to demonstrate and promote positive values. The exact
nature of these values is made more explicit in the accompanying handbook, which in turn
is derived from the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum document contains a list
of commonly held values drawn up by the National Forum for Values in Education and the
Community. The forum is at pains to point out that the list is by no means exhaustive nor
are the values necessarily ‘true’. It does however claim that the values are so widely held that:
‘Schools and teachers can have confidence that there is general agreement in society upon
these values. They can therefore expect the support and encouragement of society if they base
their teaching . . . on these values.’ The values include such elements as: ‘truth, freedom,
justice, human rights, the rule of law and collective effort for the common good’ (QCA 1999:
195–6). The position of the document is that society holds many almost ‘background’ moral
values which are so commonly held that teachers should promote them through their
teaching. Indeed, not to promote such values would be highly unusual.
It is interesting that the forum did not wish to make the claim that these values were neces-
sarily true. This could be interpreted as an acknowledgement that many people are relativists
in relation to the truth status of moral beliefs. To claim such values as true would be
controversial if many people believe that moral truth is impossible. However, perhaps such
a claim is also unnecessary. Identifying a range of values as commonly held should be suffi-
cient to suggest that they should inform teaching. Such values do not need to be presented
as objectively true. The claim that they are inter-subjectively held as true is strong enough.
Some writers also suggest that the set of commonly held values underpins the very
existence of society and shapes its particular nature. As such they can be termed ‘public
values’ as opposed to the private values that individuals, or smaller groupings, may possess
(Huddlestone 2003).

Activity 2.1 Aims, objectives and learning outcomes

Examine the list of key values in the National Curriculum document.

Are these values you are happy to promote?
What might promoting such values involve, both in words and actions?
In addition to these values that all teachers should promote, are there any specific
values that citizenship teachers should promote?

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In conclusion, we can see that teaching is not value free and involves the promotion of key
values, sometimes termed public values.
The selection and omission of the various elements of the citizenship programme of study
imply various value judgements about what is important to know and what citizenship
education is trying to achieve. This will be true of all subjects, but is perhaps more closely
scrutinised in citizenship, as the possibility of political indoctrination is stronger. However,
the wording of the programme of study itself is fairly value-neutral in its language. For
example, schools are required to teach the key characteristics of parliamentary and other forms of
government. Teaching in this area might well identify various strengths and weakness of the
different forms of government. There is no suggestion that pupils ought to be taught that
parliamentary democracy is the best format for governance.
Some explicit value terms do appear in the orders. At key stage 3 these are:

• the diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the United
Kingdom and the need for mutual respect and understanding;
• the electoral system and the importance of voting;
• the importance of resolving conflict fairly.

New, value-laden elements are introduced at key stage 4:

• the importance of playing an active part in democratic and electoral processes;

• the importance of a free press, and the media’s role in society, including the internet,
in providing information and affecting opinion.

The wording implies that it is not enough simply to teach about what a free press entails; it
is also required to teach that a free press is important. Likewise for taking an active part in the
democratic process, and so forth.
What emerges from this short analysis is that the citizenship programme of study is
designed, in part, to reinforce the importance and value of liberal democracy. Key features
of such a liberal democracy include: free-press, democratic government and freedom of
religious and cultural practice.

THE CITIZENSHIP CLASSROOM

In citizenship lessons, values education takes place not only through the nature of pupil–
teacher interaction, but directly through the subject matter. For many other subjects only the
former is relevant. This can present an interesting challenge for the teacher. In citizenship
there is clear potential for a wide disparity between what is taught (i.e., the message) and the
process of teaching (i.e., the method).
We saw earlier that it is possible for a person to express one value verbally but not to
behave accordingly, and there is potential for this scenario to be acted out in the citizenship
classroom every day. You might prepare an excellent lesson on the importance of democratic
decision making at all levels of public life. However, you might not, consciously or otherwise,
carry this idea through to the pupil–teacher relationship in the classroom. The same might
also be true in regard to freedom of expression. A teacher may be a passionate advocate of
the principle, yet not construct the class in a way that meaningfully allows pupils to express
their opinions freely. It is not difficult to imagine a teacher uttering sentences such as ‘So we
can see that it’s vitally important for everyone to have their say . . . Put your hand down,
Kylie, we’ll see if there’s time for questions at the end.’
Other examples where there may be discordance between form and content include:

• You might teach about the importance of active citizenship yet promote passive
learning.
• You might teach about the importance of the environment yet not recycle the paper
or reuse resources.

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• You might teach about the importance of resolving conflict fairly yet set a whole class
detention and therefore punish innocent pupils.
• You might teach about valuing diversity yet not appreciate the diversity that exists in
the classroom.
• You might teach about the need to discuss our differences calmly and rationally
yet not model this in the classroom, perhaps getting defensive if your views are
challenged.
• You might present a one-sided lesson on issues of media bias.

If we are genuinely promoting values, then we must model them clearly ourselves. Otherwise
some of the key citizenship learning points will be lost. Pupils may become disillusioned if
a teacher continually talks about the struggle for democracy, yet the school does not have an
effective school council and is a model of a perfect autocracy!

Activity 2.2

Using the list of values in the National Curriculum as well as the citizenship pro-
gramme of study:

1 Highlight those that you feel strongly about, and think of ways there might
be disparity between the message and the method.
2 How could the message and the methods more closely overlap on these
issues?
3 Are there limits to the extent to which this can be achieved? For example, what
would a fully democratic classroom be like? It is possible or even desirable?

Although it is important to marry the message and the method, it is also important to be
realistic. We cannot expect teachers to model public values faultlessly at every moment of
their professional lives. ‘Nor do teachers have to be paragons of virtue in order to deal with
SMSC [Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural] issues. Indeed, some of the most powerful and
meaningful learning experiences occur when pupils realise that the teacher is human too’
(Taylor 1998: 13).

THE TEACHER AND PERSONAL VALUES

So far we have considered values that are commonly held and should be used to inform all
teaching. But this is only part of the story. What about a teacher’s personal values? And what
about those many issues where there is no clear consensus and a range of political and moral
beliefs exists?
Dealing with personal values first, it is certainly true that a citizenship teacher’s personality
and interests come into the equation. The citizenship programme of study is deliberately
loosely framed so as to allow for a great deal of interpretation and flexibility. In addition
teachers are asked that citizenship knowledge be developed, in part, through looking at
topical issues. These two features mean that citizenship teachers have a great deal of freedom
in selecting and shaping the content of the subject around the lives of pupils, as well as around
their own interests and expertise.
In general this is no bad thing. As long as the citizenship programme of study is adequately
covered and lessons are not biased, teaching areas of personal interest should be encouraged,
as it usually means teaching with knowledge and enthusiasm. However, caution should also
be exercised. The freedom of the citizenship programme of study allows teachers to guide

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learning, quite legitimately, in many ways. But what if a teacher holds values and beliefs
that are considered extreme? Perhaps they were once a member of an animal liberation group.
What if they are a paid-up and highly active member of a political party? In these cases the
idea of a teacher shaping the curriculum and teaching classes on certain topics becomes less
publicly acceptable.
This issue is not confined to citizenship teachers. Consider the following case study.

In April 2004 a teaching story gained national media coverage. It concerned Simon
Smith, a maths teacher at a Roman Catholic secondary school, who had chosen to stand
for the British National Party (BNP) in the European elections.
The Local Education Authority (Solihull) decided to suspend the teacher, not citing
his beliefs, but on the grounds that the press coverage had meant that his presence in
schools was disruptive for pupils who were about to enter for exams. The teacher was
only on a one-year contract and subsequently was not employed by the school (Guardian
online).
Phil Edwards, BNP national spokesperson, said: “This is absolutely deplorable and
amounts to unreasonable intimidation and hypocrisy. This is a good teacher who has
done nothing wrong and the head teacher has made it clear she is very happy with him.
This is high-level intimidation to try and stop people using the democratic process.
We’re no longer a free country.” Another BNP member, Simon Darby, stated: “He was
a maths teacher and that [position] did not give him the opportunity to bring his politics
into the classroom” (Teacher TV news).
Chris Keates, NASUWT general secretary, said that police and prison service staff
were banned from being members of such extremist groups, and that the same should
apply to teachers. “Those who support racist and fascist agendas have no place in the
teaching profession” (Scotsman).
Later, a DfES spokesperson added, “Schools are subject to the Race Relations Act
. . . they also have the power to discipline teachers acting outside the ethos and values
of the school” (Independent online).

This case study raises a number of questions about the relationship between teachers and
values – questions that are not always easy to answer.

Activity 2.3

Using the case study above, perhaps supplemented with your own research on the
case, consider the following questions:

• What different values underpin the different positions in this story?

• Should teachers be able to stand for election for any political party?
• Should citizenship teachers be able to stand for election?
• Should teachers who stand for the BNP in elections be allowed to continue
teaching?
• Should teachers who are members of the BNP be allowed to continue
teaching?
• Should teachers who vote for the BNP be able to teach in school?
• Would it be more pro-democracy (in the fullest sense) to allow, or not to allow,
BNP candidates to teach in schools?

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Some people may feel strongly that teachers should not be BNP candidates, while others
may feel that as long as there is no bias in the teaching, it would be unfair not to let the teacher
continue. However, as discussed earlier, values are not only promoted through the content
of lessons, but through the actions and behaviour of teachers. It is clear that some of the
claims of the BNP will go against some of the values outlined in the National Curriculum.
By publicly standing for the party the teacher is promoting a different set of values, even if
his political activities occur outside the school.
Consider a thought experiment involving a less emotive moral value – that of politeness.
Imagine a teacher who in the ordinary course of life is extremely rude, but upon entering the
school building adopts a set of professional values and is perfectly polite. Many people would
find this to be a perfectly acceptable state of affairs, albeit not ideal. However, imagine that
this teacher becomes very passionate about rudeness, to the extent that they decided to front
a media campaign launched by the National Rudeness Society. Would this be acceptable?
The case study serves to show the sensitivities surrounding someone with extreme
political opinions teaching in school. We might imagine the situation to be even more
controversial had the individual been a citizenship teacher. This is not to say that teachers
can’t have political opinions or even share them with pupils. But care must obviously be
taken and opinions should never stand outside the key values prescribed in the curriculum.
With the freedom of the citizenship programme of study comes the responsibility to ensure
a broad curriculum and fair balance in teaching.

TEACHING CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

Citizenship education involves far more than simply reinforcing public values. On a whole
range of issues society, taken as whole, has no single voice. This is particularly true of political
beliefs, although even in the realm of values there can be great divergence as to which values
should be prioritised over others.3 Every day, newspapers are filled with current affairs and
debates that act out these differences, and citizenship asks that we teach about these very
issues. It is inevitable that citizenship teachers will have their own opinions on many of these
matters, but what should you do with your moral and political beliefs when teaching?
There are several different teaching strategies that propose answers to this question.
Whatever strategy is used, though, the teacher must at all times act within the confines of the
law, which can be summarised as follows:
The Education Act 1996 aims to ensure that children are not presented with only one
side of political or controversial issues by their teachers. Section 406 of the Act forbids the
promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in schools . . . Section 407
requires schools to take all reasonable practical steps to ensure that, where political or
controversial issues are taught, pupils are offered a balanced presentation or opposing views
(adapted from QCA/DfES 2001).
The key idea underpinning the legislation is that of balance. The act does not forbid
teachers from giving opinions, but it does forbid their promotion. Promoting would be to
enter a classroom with the intention of changing pupils’ opinions to coincide with your own.
Three of the main strategies in relation to the teaching of controversial issues are: neutral
chair, balance and committed participant (QCA 1998).

Neutral chair
This involves the teacher acting as facilitator for discussion. At no stage should you present
any opinions. Your interventions should be procedural (e.g., to allocate speaking rights)
or educational (e.g., to clarify meanings). You may need to provide stimulus materials,
however.
One key advantage of this method is that it avoids the charge of indoctrination. It has
also been cited as helpful in weaning pupils away from a dependence on the teacher and
encouraging the development of opinion (Bridges 1979). However, we should also note that

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this strategy does not necessarily produce the balance required by legislation. For example,
it may produce unquestioning consensus from the entire class and it is unlikely that all of the
major views will be fairly represented (Stradling et al. 1984).
On a more philosophical note, the very idea of neutral chair can be considered paradoxical:
‘to adopt the strategy of procedural neutrality in discussion itself is to adopt, to demonstrate
and quite possibly promote a specific and substantive set of values’ (Bridges 1979: 124). The
suggestion is that adopting the stance itself involves promoting the values of democracy,
openness, commitment to reason, etc. There may also be occasions when the mask of
neutrality needs to removed: for example, if a pupil makes offensive or insulting remarks,
you should intervene to reduce harm and to promote public values. So the idea of being
neutral is something of a misnomer.
Even when using the neutral chair method it is still possible that your opinion may
unconsciously affect proceedings. Ways in which this may occur include: use of body
language and facial expressions; judging the quality of argument unfairly; favouring certain
speakers; preparing unbalanced stimulus materials.

Balanced approach
This might involve you presenting a range of opinions on the issue, perhaps through resource
selection or by presenting different positions yourself.
One of the advantages of this method is that it is clearly in line with the legislation outlined
above. Being in control of the material means that you can ensure pupils are presented with
a range of opinions. Perfect balance, of course, is not realistically achievable, in part because
there is no clear conception of what balance might involve. For example, in the run-up to an
election should you devote equal time to examining all of the main parties, or devote time
in accordance with their popularity? If the latter, what measure of popularity should you
take? The status quo, opinion polls, the views of the pupils? What about minority parties?
The best solution is to use common sense and make a reasonable judgement of what balance
looks like in each topic.
However, having made every effort to ensure balance, you might still introduce bias by:
misrepresenting the views of different parties; using unbalanced resources, solely relying
on materials from a pressure group; presenting topics as binary oppositions when a range
of divergent opinions exist; using pejorative or positive language – for example, terrorists or
freedom fighters.

Committed participant
You make your position known, either from the outset or later, during a discussion phase.
The idea of teachers sharing their opinions on political and controversial issues is likely
to cause discomfort in some quarters. The fear being that of indoctrination. Even among
educationalists and academics views on this method have been divided. Some have argued
that it is inappropriate: ‘The inescapable authority position of the teacher in the classroom is
such that his view will be given an undue emphasis and regard which will seriously limit
the readiness of the students to consider other views’ (Stenhouse 1970: 7) Others have said
that it is the duty of the teacher to give their opinion: ‘Unless the teacher comes out into the
open and says in what direction he believes that the evidence points he will have failed in
his duty as a teacher’ (Warnock 1975: 107).
My view is that being a committed participant can be a worthwhile teaching strategy, but
only in an appropriate setting. This would involve:

• Presenting opinion only in a context where pupils can both challenge your opinion
and present opinions of their own.
• Ensuring that you are comfortable with your opinion being challenged and not
becoming overly defensive, etc.

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• Pupils being in a suitable intellectual and psychological position to feel able to question
your opinion. This may mean judging pupils are age-appropriate and conducting
necessary research before discussion. Naturally, the older the pupil, the more
comfortable and able they will be to place the teacher’s opinion within a wider
framework, and so question it.
• Ensuring that overall balance is still achieved.
• Making sure you are comfortable giving your opinion. Many teachers would not want
their positions on certain issues to be public knowledge, particularly in a school
context. For example, a liberal teacher’s position on the legalisation of cannabis may
be something they would prefer to keep private.

There is no clear guidance on which of these three strategies should be used. The Crick Report
suggests using common sense, and the relevant QCA guidance leaves it up to the teacher to
decide, although it offers the following words of warning: ‘Teachers need to decide how far
they are prepared to express their own views, bearing in mind that they are in an influential
position and that they have to work within the framework of the school’s values’ (QCA/DfES
2001: 4–6). Whichever strategy is used, one of your key aims must be to ensure that the
teaching, as a whole, represents a balanced approach to the subject.

SUMMARY
The role of values in education is controversial. Two of the key controversies are: the extent
to which values should be taught to pupils; and the role of the teachers’ values and beliefs
in the classroom. The citizenship teacher must confront both of these issues on a daily basis.
This moral maze can be negotiated by being clear about the public values underpinning the
curriculum and by devising suitable strategies to ensure balance is achieved.

NOTES
1 For a detailed theoretical discussion of values in relation to education, see Carr (1991).
2 Education is so universally valued that it is safeguarded in the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child (www.unicef.org.uk).
3 For example, at present there is debate in many Western countries about smoking in public
places. This debate does not seem to be about the most effective method for achieving
agreed goals but rather seems to be a question of ranking values. Nearly everyone in the
world values health to some degree, and most people value personal freedom – the issue
is which value should take precedence when making policy.

FURTHER READING
www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk. The website of the Citizenship Foundation has excellent
guidance on the teaching of controversial issues and also provides free teaching materials
on a range of controversial topics.
Stradling, R., Noctor, M. and Baines, B. (eds) (1984) Teaching Controversial Issues, London:
Edward Arnold. Although over twenty years old, this is still a good place to start for those
wishing to explore this area in more detail.

REFERENCES
Aristotle (1988) Nicomachean Ethics, London: Penguin
Bridges, D. (1979) Education, Democracy and Discussion, Slough: NFER
Carr, D. (1991) ‘Education and Values’, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3,
pp. 244–59
Haydon, G. (1997) Teaching about Values: A New Approach, London: Cassell

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Huddlestone, T. (2003) Teaching Controversial Issues: Guidance for Schools, London: Citizenship
Foundation (available at www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk)
National Curriculum Council (1993) Spiritual and Moral Development: A Discussion Paper,
London: SCAA
QCA (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools [the Crick Report],
London: QCA
—— (1999) The National Curriculum: Handbook for Secondary Teachers in England, London: QCA
QCA/DfES (2001) Schemes of Work for Key Stage 3: Teacher’s Guide, London: QCA/DfES
(QCA/01/776)
Stenhouse, L. (1970) The Humanities Project: An Introduction, London: Heinemann
Stradling, R., Noctor, M. annd Baines, B. (eds) (1984) Teaching Controversial Issues, London:
Edward Arnold
Taylor, M. (1998) Values Education and Values in Education, London: ATL
Tomlinson, J. (1995) ‘Teachers and Values: Courage Mes Braves!’, British Journal of Educational
Studies, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 305–17
TTA (2003) Qualifying to Teach, London: TTA
Verma, G. (ed.) (1980) The Impact of Innovation, Norwich: CARE Occasional Publications No.
9 UEA
Warnock, M. (1975) ‘The Neutral Teacher’, in M. J. Taylor (ed.), Progress and Problems in Moral
Education, Windsor: NFER, pp. 103–12

19
 Subject knowledge in citizenship
Chapter 3
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with an area that can provoke anxiety among trainee citizenship teachers,
notably the development of subject knowledge. This is because the citizenship curriculum
is new, and therefore trainee teachers will not have studied it at school themselves. It is also
because citizenship as a subject is so diverse (from issues of race and identity, to the EU, to
sustainable development, to systems of government, to participation in the local community
and so on). Very few trainees will feel qualified to degree level, or even to advanced level,
in each of these disparate areas. Most teachers of citizenship, however, whether they are
enthusiastic pioneers or reluctant conscripts, are unlikely to have the depth of citizenship
subject knowledge that trainee citizenship teachers possess. The latter are coming into the
profession with degrees in subjects like international relations, politics, communication and
law. These are not degrees that would have enabled a graduate to enter teaching prior to 2001.
Citizenship trainees form part of an essential workforce of specialist citizenship teachers.
These specialist teachers are ground-breakers. The first step towards this pioneering role
for citizenship trainees is to ensure that they are able to fill any gaps in their own existing
knowledge.
This chapter will provide an overview of what constitutes citizenship subject knowledge,
and what trainees can do to find out where there are gaps in their own knowledge. It will
include reflections from some current and past citizenship PGCE trainee teachers. The next
chapter will look at how gaps in knowledge can be filled.
This chapter aims to:

• help citizenship trainees to feel more confident about their subject knowledge;
• offer some ideas about what might constitute an acceptable level of subject knowledge
for citizenship education;
• enable a process of audit and review of trainees’ existing subject knowledge.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should know:

• that citizenship trainees have a strong starting point for the development of subject
knowledge;
• what is (and is not) citizenship subject knowledge under the current English National
Curriculum;
• what is an acceptable level of knowledge for a citizenship trainee teacher;
• what your own gaps in knowledge are.

20
 SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN CITIZENSHIP

You will be able to:

• carry out a process of audit and review of your existing subject knowledge and skills;
• critically review what you feel ought to be taught as part of citizenship education.

CITIZENSHIP SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE: A CONTESTED AREA

The last thing that any new learner wants to hear while developing new knowledge is ‘it all
depends . . .’, but this is the case in citizenship education (CE). Various interest groups and
different individuals have contrasting ideas about what the citizenship curriculum should
look like. Due to the fact that citizenship is a new addition to the National Curriculum, it is
rather vulnerable to being buffeted around as people attempt to shape it to their own pre-
existing policy and practice, and it is still being confused in schools with other subjects, such
as PSHE. Over the next few years, as the subject reaches maturity within the National
Curriculum, and as theory and policy become embedded into practice, more general
agreement about what CE is (and is not) will emerge. At this point citizenship should begin
to share the benefits of other curriculum subjects, where there is a well-established body of
knowledge generally accepted by the relevant professional communities.

MAPPING AND DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE AS A

TRAINEE CITIZENSHIP TEACHER
The rest of this chapter is devoted to activities and readings which will stimulate you to map
and develop your subject knowledge. For the purposes of this chapter, I will mainly limit this
discussion to what actually appears in the National Curriculum at key stages 3 and 4 for
citizenship, with some consideration of a post-16 curriculum for citizenship. First, some
words follow from two ex-citizenship PGCE trainees who are now teaching in schools in
Leicestershire.

MEMOIRS OF SOMEONE WHO LIVED THROUGH IT!

The good news is that I am still learning about citizenship content and improving my
knowledge every day, but now it’s in the classroom. After accepting a place on to the
Leicester University PGCE citizenship course, I received a very long summer reading
list, and a list of all the subject areas I needed to be familiar with before the course began.
I cried. I looked again at what turned out to be the entire knowledge, skills and under-
standing section of the citizenship programme of study; it was quickly apparent I had
many weak areas. I did read newspapers (although only tabloids) and watched the
news, so I had current affairs nailed. [But] the prospect of mastering the criminal justice
system and the political, economic and social implications of globalisation as well as
the role of the European Union, the Commonwealth and the United Nations, during one
summer holiday and read so many books? At this point I seriously considered whether
I was up to teaching, or in fact if I really wanted to be a teacher, but the commitment
that got me to and through the interview drove me on.
I devised an action plan to help break up the huge task ahead. I broke down the
course aims into manageable chunks, ordered the TES, started listening to Radio 5 (a.m.
debates) and looked at the QCA website to see how citizenship was being delivered in
schools. I felt some of the lessons in the QCA Scheme of Work could be made more
exciting and started to look for books to help me get the information across more
interestingly. The Teacher’s Toolkit [Ginnis, P. (2002) Teacher’s Toolkit: Raise Achievement
with Strategies for Every Learner, Camarthen: Crown House Publishing] and Thinking
thorough Geography [Leat, D. (1998) Thinking through Geography, Cambridge: Chris

21
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

Kington Publishing] gave some good examples of activities you could adapt. I also
found voluntary organisations and citizenship organisation websites useful.
Citizenship is different to most National Curriculum subjects: there are facts to learn,
but to have meaning for children they must always be taught in a topical context
which is forever changing. Citizenship is also an active subject: children must be taught
about the mechanics of the area but also have to learn about community involvement
and responsible/effective participation in public life. This is tough. With thirty children
of very diverse backgrounds in terms of personal opinions, how do you get them to
debate without war breaking out? This is where subject knowledge is vital. If students
can access facts and unbiased information, they have a good grounding to develop their
own opinion. They also have to feel safe to express opinions, so creating an inclusive
atmosphere in the classroom based on respect and tolerance is essential.
When you have your school experience become active yourself in the life of the
school, start a debating or an interest club, join in with a school council, watch to get tips
on how they are run, speak to the students about why they joined. You can have fun with
school councils and really inspire children to understand what citizenship is all about.
Citizenship is amazing and allows exploration of interesting concepts and ideas which
you can see capture students’ imagination. Many teachers and schools may not have
taken the subject to heart yet, and you may feel isolated at times. Remember experience
of anything new takes time, a long time; all you need to get through is enthusiasm and
commitment to learning to provide the best experience for the students you teach.

Sera Shortland
Teacher of Citizenship
Hamilton Community College
Leicester

CONCERNS OVER SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE AND HOW TO

OVERCOME THEM
Looking back to the start of the course, it seems so distant. It is amazing how quickly
new routines, new faces and places become so familiar. In my case, the School of
Education, no. 6 University Road, Leicester began as a pixel on my home computer
screen, and ended as a place that I associate with friendship.
Given that the people who began the course with me were all strangers initially, it is
incredible that those nine short months have led to such intense friendships. What has
this got to do with the development of subject knowledge? The point is this: the fears
(or at least concerns) that many of us had in relation to new challenges were overcome
with comparative ease. Where they were not overcome with ease, they were generally
overcome in ways that strengthened us as a group and as individuals. Prior to under-
taking this course, I had numerous A levels, a degree in politics, and I had worked
in the prison service for three years. Yet I was concerned about my lack of subject
knowledge. Subject knowledge audits [see later in this chapter] appear to have this
effect on people, and most of the ‘strangers’ on the course shared such concerns. We
worked together to share our different areas of expertise; we shared our strengths and
weaknesses and we worked together to ensure that we were all as ready as anyone can
be to face the challenges of the citizenship classroom.

Jon Clarkson
Leicester PGCE, 2004–5

22
 SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN CITIZENSHIP

Next, some tasks to help you to reflect on the curriculum for CE.

Activity 3.1 Venn diagram – What I would like to teach

Take a large sheet of paper, preferably A3 or bigger, and draw a Venn diagram
with two overlapping circles. The overlapping section should be quite big.
On the back of the sheet write what you would ideally like to teach, or what you
think should be taught in secondary-level citizenship. Below this write what you
think is in the National Curriculum at key stages 3 and 4.
Now go to the QCA website, National Curriculum Online (www.n-c.gov.uk.net),
and click on ‘Citizenship’. Select the programme of study (not the scheme of work)
for key stages 3 and 4. Fill in any gaps on the back of the sheet.
Next turn the sheet over and write in the circles of the Venn diagram. Where the
circles meet in the middle, you should write both what you want to teach and what
is in the National Curriculum. To the left and the right of this, write in the circles
what you want to teach (but is not in the National Curriculum) and what you do
not want to teach (but is in the National Curriculum).
If possible discuss what you have written with a partner. You could consider:

• What do you think ought to be in the National Curriculum, but is not (e.g.,
disability studies)?
• What is in the National Curriculum that you think ought not to be there?
• What areas are you most looking forward to teaching? Why?
• What areas are you not looking forward to teaching? Why?
• Should teachers always teach what they have been asked to teach or
should they have more opportunities to teach what they themselves think is
important?

Hopefully there should be some agreement about what you would like to teach and what
is in the National Curriculum. If there are areas that you do not want to teach because you
do not know much about them, take heart! It is sometimes easier to teach something that you
have only recently learned yourself. It is notoriously difficult to teach something to beginners
where your own knowledge is sophisticated and complex. It is important to be able to break
down everything that we teach into easily digestible, smaller parts.
Another clear way of deciding what your subject knowledge should be is to look at what
your students will be examined on. As a general rule in teaching, your own knowledge
should be at least one level above that of your students. That is, if you are teaching GCSE in
a subject, you should ideally have A level; if you are teaching A level, you should have a
degree; and so on. Although it is important that your subject knowledge goes at least one
stage beyond that of your students, in citizenship teaching this may not always be possible,
so this exercise is particularly useful.

23
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

Activity 3.2 Exam syllabuses

Use the blank table below as a starting point to compare and contrast the syllabi
of two exam boards at GCSE level, and one exam board at Advanced level. The rows
have been grouped into the areas that are covered in the National Curriculum at
key stages 3 and 4, and the areas that are currently on the syllabus at Advanced
level. The columns represent exam boards. Go to the websites of two exam boards,
select the documentation for the GCSE citizenship course (usually downloadable
as a PDF file) and then copy the areas of the syllabus into the grid. Do the same for
another exam board and then for an exam board that offers citizenship at Advanced
level. An example of a completed grid is shown as the Appendix at the end of this
book. When you have done this, consider:

• How similar are the GCSE syllabi of the exam boards that you have chosen?
• What is distinct about each one?
• Can you see clear signs of progression at key stage 5 – post-16?
• What are the implications of this for your subject knowledge?

GCSE syllabus 1 GCSE syllabus 2 A level syllabus

The Nature of Citizenship

Conflict Resolution

Community

Culture and Race

Business and Economics

Human Rights

Crime, Justice and the Law

The Voluntary Sector

Parliament and Democracy

Media in Society

Government and Public Services

The UN and Commonwealth

The Global Community

Europe

ESD (Education for Sustainable

Development)

Active Citizenship

24
 SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN CITIZENSHIP

Activity 3.3 Subject knowledge audit

Now that you are clear about the content of what you will be expected to teach,
you can audit what you already know, and where the gaps in your knowledge
are, against the same areas of expertise. Use the audit tool that is shown below to
begin this process of mapping your knowledge. You can use it again at various
points in the year as you make progress throughout your course.
You should score yourself against the areas of subject knowledge that are set
out in each row of the audit tool. Start with the pre-course (July) column and write
your scores for academic study (1a–1x). personal and professional experience
(2a–2x) and experience (if any) of teaching (3a–3x) in each box. Don’t worry if there
are gaps in your knowledge at the beginning. This is to be expected. Where
appropriate, write in some ideas for action to be taken in order to ensure that you
get the knowledge/experience that you need.
When you come back to this later in the year, you can give yourself a higher score
in the area of academic study (1a–1x) if your independent study has led to increased
knowledge that is roughly the equivalent of the qualifications named below
(degree, A level, GCSE).

Academic Study Personal and Professional Experience of Teaching

(including personal study) Experience

1a High level knowledge/skill 2a Extensive experience in this 3a Taught at A level

at degree level (or equivalent) area

1b Some knowledge/skill at 2b A lot of experience 3b Taught at GCSE level

degree level

1c Studied at A level 2c Some experience/informal 3c Taught in KS4

experience

1d Studied at GCSE level 2d Little experience 3d Taught in KS3

1x Little knowledge/skill 2x No experience 3x Not taught

SECONDARY CITIZENSHIP SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE AUDIT

PRE-COURSE (JULY) OCTOBER JANUARY MAY

The Nature of
Citizenship

Conflict
Resolution

Community

Culture and Race

25
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

Activity 3.3 continued

Business and
Economics

Human Rights

Crime, Justice and

the Law

The Voluntary
Sector

Parliament and
Democracy

Media in Society

Government and
Public Services

The UN and
Commonwealth

The Global
Community

Europe

ESD (Education
for Sustainable
Development)

Active Citizenship

The programmes of study for citizenship not only refer to students developing subject
knowledge and understanding, but to these being acquired and applied when developing
skills of enquiry, communication, participation and responsible action. In teaching such skills
for citizenship, it is therefore important to make sure that you have these skills yourself. One
person who has faced and overcome some of these issues is Paul Warwick, the deputy
director of the Centre for Citizenship Studies in Education at Leicester University. He reflects
here on the importance of filling gaps in citizenship skills as well as gaps in subject knowledge
through his own experiences of teaching citizenship.

26
 SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN CITIZENSHIP

A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE

IN GROUP-BASED COMMUNITY ACTION
For me, one of the exciting aspects of CE is the scope for education to move beyond the
constraints of the classroom. In recent years I have worked with a cluster of secondary
and post-16 education institutions on creating CE programmes that facilitate students’
group-based community action. The projects that have resulted from this skills-based
educational initiative have varied in focus, from students co-ordinating a food collection
for a nearby homeless action centre, to another group exploring the topic of Fair Trade
by creating a series of active learning activities on the topic to run in local primary
schools. Creating the framework for such a CE programme has been a huge learning
curve involving a continual process of mapping my subject knowledge to identify
existing strengths and gaps in how best to support young people through leading
community action from start to finish.
Through experience I have found one of the most effective starting points to be a
consultative approach, where the participating young people are invited to consider and
discuss what their concepts of community are, and where their issues of concern lie. The
methods and skills for facilitating such work were initially a huge gap, and the work of
people such as Jean Ruddock from Cambridge University has proved extremely useful
in this area.
From this base the students on the programme are encouraged to identify a com-
monly shared issue, and envision possible actions that seek to make a difference. During
this stage I have found it tremendously important to provide input around team-
building and the development of communication skills. As the students work together
on developing the design of their community action I have found another key role of
the citizenship educator to be that of providing information. This role involves for
example connecting with existing voluntary and community organisations in their
chosen area of action, so that they can draw from others’ expertise and often form
partnerships and collaborative ventures.
The variety of young people’s ideas for community involvement, however, neces-
sitates extensive local knowledge of relevant service providers. I found it difficult to
keep up to speed on everything, and so again this frequently felt like a personal knowl-
edge gap. A great solution to this is networking with the local voluntary bureau or
council for voluntary service, who often maintain databases of community organisations
that exist locally.
With a common community action agreed upon by the students, the role of the
citizenship educator then becomes that of aiding the students through the process of
leading change. They are supported to work through the stages of initiation, implemen-
tation and continuation of their project. Again the mapping of my personal experiences,
skills and knowledge in this area of project development and enterprise proved a vital
tool for the gradual improvement and refinement of the support I was able to give. Over
time I have found it useful to draw from the example of national organisations working
in the area of young-person-led community action. These include Changemakers,
Envision and the Get Global programme developed by the Department for International
Development (DfID), along with a variety of NGOs, including Oxfam and Action Aid.
Another source of support has been learning from the practice of a variety of youth
service providers and informal educators such as the Weston Spirit, who work in inner-
city areas within the UK.
Finally, one of my common experiences has been that young people in their novice
attempts at leading community action tend to hold a determined preoccupation with
the practicalities of getting their community action completed. They were sometimes
resistant to taking a step back to reflect upon the process of participation, or to look at
the wider political issues underlying their area of concern. A key response has therefore

27
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

been to include a reflective, critical and celebratory space for such learning to take place
when their action has been completed. This once again required me to look at my
existing knowledge areas with regard to assessment for learning, and how to engage
young people in programme evaluation effectively. The net result is that I feel that I have
learned as much as my students through this skills-based CE programme, though the
credit for all the amazing community actions they have been able to complete remains
all theirs, and rightly so.

Activity 3.4 Audit of citizenship skills

Outlined below is an audit tool which will support you to consider the ways in
which your experiences to date have contributed to your acquisition of key skills
for citizenship. As before, it supports you to identify some ideas for future action
to ensure that you develop the skills that you need. Use the same process as before
to record your scores for academic study (1a–1x) personal and professional expe-
rience (2a–2x) and experience (if any) of teaching (3a–3x).

SKILL AREA ABILITY SCORE ACTION FOR

DEVELOPMENT

ICT Skills Carry out internet-based

research, taking account
of different degrees of
reliability and quality of
information

Exchange information
and ideas with others
using ICT

Make a presentation
using ICT
(e.g., PowerPoint)

Thinking/Research Review and critique

Skills multiple information
sources

Analyse and synthesise

numeric and written
information

Interpret data and

statistics

Plan, carry out and

review an enquiry or
investigation

Think about topical

political, spiritual, moral,
social and cultural issues,
problems and events

28
 SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN CITIZENSHIP

Activity 3.4 continued

Communicate Analyse and synthesise

Information numeric and written
information

Interpret data and

statistics

Plan, carry out and

review an investigation

Present findings from a

project or investigation,
explain results and justify
methods

Communicate Express, justify and

Personal Opinions defend personal
opinions orally

Express, justify and

defend personal
opinions in writing

Contribute effectively to
dialogue, discussion and
debate in a group setting

Consider Different Actively listen to the

Perspectives views of others

Engage respectfully with

those who may hold
opposing views

Explain and critically

evaluate the views of
others

Respond to other people

with imagination and
empathy

Active Citizenship Identify an issue of

(Participation at concern
Local, National and/
or International Explore possible
Level) responses creatively and
collaboratively

Create an action plan

with targets, and
time-scales

Consider and respond

to ethical and practical
issues

Carry out the action

plan reflectively and in
collaboration with others

29
HILARY CREMIN AND PAUL WARWICK

Activity 3.4 continued

Engage in a process of
evaluation and review

Reflect on processes of
participation

Problem Solving Solve problems within a

group effectively

Generate and compare

different ways of solving
problems

Seek feedback and

support from others,
and take account of
good advice

SUMMARY
Going back to the aims and learning objectives outlined at the beginning of this chapter, it is
hoped that you will now know that citizenship trainees have a strong starting point for the
development of subject knowledge. You should be clearer about what is (and is not)
citizenship subject knowledge under the current English National Curriculum, and what is
an acceptable level of knowledge for a citizenship trainee teacher. You should be aware of
your own strengths and weaknesses as a citizenship teacher, and you should have been able
to identify what your own gaps in knowledge and skills are. Following on from this, you
should have an action plan for developing citizenship subject knowledge and skills. Although
this may appear a little daunting at first, it should be remembered that citizenship trainees
are at the frontier of a new subject being implemented within schooling. A community of
practice for CE is still in the early stages of being discovered. The exciting opportunity that
CE trainee teachers face is the chance to help shape and form this community.

30
 Developing subject knowledge
Chapter 4
LIZ WEST

INTRODUCTION
Subject knowledge underpins effective teaching and learning. If a teacher is deficient in
subject knowledge then lesson planning, evaluation of teaching resources and activities and
assessment of pupil learning are deeply flawed. Lesson planning and teaching will be poorly
rooted as there is little understanding of how this lesson fits into the ‘bigger picture’. A teacher
cannot share with pupils how the knowledge, skills and issues explored in that lesson echo
and build upon prior learning or link to future learning. At worst, there are inaccuracies in
teaching which confuse and misinform pupils.
Surface understanding may lead to a heavy reliance upon the pupils’ textbook without a
critical reflection on its sufficiency, accuracy and ‘fitness for purpose’. Inadequate subject
knowledge and understanding leads to a fragile model of progression or ‘what getting better
at citizenship really means’. A teacher cannot effectively guide pupils forward as there is
scant understanding of what progress in citizenship ‘looks like’. Therefore, secure subject
knowledge supports a teacher’s ability to:

• Describe and explain the factual detail, themes, concepts and topical debates explored
in citizenship education.
• Answer pupils’ questions fully and accurately.
• Identify and correct pupils’ misconceptions.
• Plan lessons that are relevant, well informed and structured to promote pupils’
understanding of citizenship.
• Understand how an individual lesson fits into a wider sequence of learning and the
citizenship curriculum.
• Select and use appropriate case studies which exemplify a broader theme or issue.
• Draw upon and share with pupils a range of evidence to secure rigour in discussion.
• Evaluate resources, including pupils’ textbooks, media reports and relevant websites
for sufficiency, accuracy and ‘fitness for purpose’.
• Develop a secure model of progression within citizenship.

Developing secure subject knowledge is a continuous process, particularly in a dynamic

subject such as citizenship, where the themes explored will be influenced and informed by
changes within society, politics and the law.

31
LIZ WEST

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Identify the different elements of subject knowledge that you need in order to teach
citizenship effectively.
• Identify strategies to develop and consolidate your subject knowledge.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER

OF CITIZENSHIP?
Standards for Qualifying to Teach (Teacher Training Agency 2002) devotes a section to subject
knowledge and understanding. The definitions include:

• They have a secure knowledge and understanding of the subject they are trained to
teach.
• For key stage 3, they know and understand the relevant programmes of study.
• They are aware of the pathways for progression through the 14–19 phase in school,
college and work-based settings . . . they know the progression within and from their
subject and the range of qualifications to which their subject contributes.

The standards quoted above describe subject knowledge in terms of knowledge and under-
standing of the topics and skills named within the National Curriculum programmes of
study for citizenship as well as an understanding of how citizenship ‘works’, for example by
understanding models of progression within citizenship.
In teaching and learning, these elements are blended so that the exploration of concepts
and terms is grounded in appropriate contexts and the examination of a case study will draw
upon pupils’ prior knowledge of the overarching themes. However, it is sometimes helpful
to break down subject knowledge into manageable and distinct elements and to build
understanding of these elements step by step. These elements might include:

• Substantive knowledge of each of the aspects of KSU1 within the programmes of

study for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4. For example, the key characteristics of
parliamentary and other forms of government (KSU1d at key stage 3). This includes:
factual knowledge relating to this aspect, the specialist terms and substantive concepts
which underpin an examination of the aspect, such as democracy, power, authority
and the key debates central to this area of study.
• A sound grasp of topical debates and issues relating to the KSU1 aspects. For example:
‘Is it time for a national identity card system to be introduced?’ Citizenship teachers
need a secure understanding of the main viewpoints held by those involved. They also
need to evaluate critically the evidence used to support these viewpoints. This is
essential if citizenship education is to secure an informed, deeper understanding of
topical debates as stipulated in KSU2 and KSU3.
• The requirements for GCSE and post-16 options in citizenship studies: assessment
objectives, examination formats and criteria for different grades. This includes course-
work requirements as well as the substantive knowledge required to teach the
different sections and options of the examination.
• An understanding of the main frameworks and models for the teaching and learning
of citizenship within schools. This can include an understanding of how different
subjects within the curriculum contribute to and inform citizenship education.

The training activities in this chapter will focus upon each of the above elements in turn.
Standards for Qualifying to Teach notes that subject knowledge includes an understanding of
progression within the subject. Given the specific brief of this chapter, the approach is to use

32
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

the summative activity to foreground thinking about progression. However, progression

within citizenship will be explored in later chapters. Some of the activities may be completed
at different stages of a training course to take advantage of developments in understanding
of progression that greater teaching experience can support.

DEVELOPMENT OF SUBSTANTIVE KNOWLEDGE

The first element of subject knowledge that will be examined is the substantive knowledge
required to teach each of the KSU 1 aspects of the National Curriculum. One approach is to
pinpoint your subject knowledge ‘gaps’. These are the areas of the curriculum where your
subject knowledge is insecure.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY YOUR SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE ‘GAPS’?

An initial audit of existing subject knowledge can be a useful first step towards identifying
those areas of the National Curriculum programmes of study where subject knowledge is
secure and those areas that require more immediate attention. These then form individual
subject knowledge training targets.

Activity 4.1

Below is one possible audit tool. It follows a three step approach.

Step 1
The first step is to use the level descriptors below to define where you are. The
comments are for self-assessment purposes and define subject knowledge in terms
of application to planning and teaching. Complete the first box on the grid (Figure
4.1a) that highlights prior learning and experience. Use this to decide which level
best describes your existing subject knowledge of this KSU1 theme. A blank grid
has been included so that you can copy out sufficient grids to audit your knowledge
across all of the KSU1 themes. A worked example has also been included (Figure
4.1b). Using this overview, set short- and longer-term targets for developing your
subject knowledge.

LEVEL 1
You will have studied this topic at degree level/have an in-depth knowledge due
to past experience. This will be an area where you think that you have a distinctive
expertise (e.g., it may have been a research focus/was central to previous expe-
rience). You could make an ‘expert’ contribution to a department – for example,
creating a new unit of work on this topic. You will be able to identify opportunities
to develop the full range of knowledge, skills and understanding and can frame
meaningful, relevant and engaging enquiry questions without recourse to further
reading. You can easily identify the concepts that frame rigorous examination of
this theme and have a sound understanding of the main institutions, debates,
topical issues and viewpoints related to this area. You will be familiar with the
main protagonists/pressure groups associated with these topical debates. You
could identify telling case studies which would illuminate central themes and
can identify a range of ways in which pupils could demonstrate informed and

33
Activity 4.1 continued

A Placement B Placement

Topic: Topic:

Evidence of prior Action following

learning/experience 1st placement
e.g., degree/work during 2nd HEI
training phase

Can I apply my 1 2 3 4 Revised self-evaluation 1 2 3 4

knowledge?

Topics to be taught Topics to be taught

Action taken: Action taken:

Self-assessment 1 2 3 4 Self-assessment 1 2 3 4

Targets at end of 1st placement:

Figure 4.1a
Activity 4.1 continued

A Placement B Placement

Topic: The electoral system and the importance of voting Topic:

Evidence of prior Overview degree module on comparison of voting systems. Action following Research on comparative systems: schools education
learning/experience Experience as returning officer in student union elections 1st placement programme.
e.g., degree/work (aware of strategies for secret ballots). during 2nd HEI
training phase

Can I apply my 1 2 3 4 Revised self-evaluation 1 2 3 4

knowledge?

Topics to be taught KS4: ‘Why bother to vote?’ Is it time for the voting age to be Topics to be taught KS3 year 9: Should voting be compulsory?
reduced to 16?
KS3: When and how do we vote? School Council campaigns
– how do we run an election?

Action taken: Wider reading: notes and reading from: Young Citizen’s Action taken: Wider reading using pupils’ texts/A-level texts on and using
Passport: Citizenship Foundation/AS Politics text. module notes from university, e.g.:
Research using materials from ‘votes @16 campaign’; Plan a sequence of lessons on arguments over compulsory
exploreparliament.uk; citizen21.orgschoolcouncils.org. voting (give specific emphasis to the development of
Precis and creation of a learning activity for KS4 on BBC KSU2b and KSU3a).
documentary (21/4/05). Design an ICT webpage learning activity for pupils to
Planned sequence of learning on key questions above. propose ‘Isn’t it time you were heard? Increasing voting
Included display activity; election guideline pack for school participation in school council vote campaign.’
council elections in year 8.Trained 6 pupils to act as returning
officers for elections and be jointly responsible for running of
election day.

Self-assessment 1 2 3 4 Self-assessment 1 2 3 4

Targets at end of 1st placement: Plan learning activity to explore different voting systems

Figure 4.1b
LIZ WEST

Activity 4.1 continued

responsible participation/activate their learning related to this area. You have a

depth of understanding of the topic as well as being able to identify how it links
to other topic areas within citizenship.

LEVEL 2
It is likely that you will have studied this topic at degree level and you feel reasonably
confident in identifying the key themes, factual information debates, concepts and
viewpoints central to debates. You would be able to plan relevant key questions/
enquiries and can demonstrate how key concepts are explored through these
enquiries. You can identify relevant case studies to illustrate the key ideas although
you might need to do further research on the breadth of viewpoints involved.
However, you are familiar with the main ideas and arguments used by the major
pressure groups associated with the key debates. You can identify ways in which
pupils could activate their learning.

LEVEL 3
You are at this level if you have a general or overview sense of the topic, but cannot
independently identify relevant and specific key questions/enquiries/concepts for
lessons or sequences of learning without significant further research. Lesson
planning might be overly dependent on the pupils’ textbook for key enquiries and
substantive knowledge and you would feel unable to deal with pupils’ questions
that ranged beyond that general content. You have some sense of the possible case
studies that could be used but are unsure of the precise issues, viewpoints central
to the case study. Ideas for ensuring pupils can activate their learning are general
and may not directly inform their understanding of the topic. Anything graded at
Level 3 needs further work. This is likely to be a short- to medium-term target.

LEVEL 4
You should grade anything about which you know very little at Level 4. This will be
a topic for which, even in general terms, you would be unable to outline key
debates, enquiries or developments or deal with pupils’ questions. Anything graded
Level 4 will need serious and immediate attention.

Step 2
Now start to ‘fill the gaps’ through research and other training activities. Research
should include reading appropriate texts and using media sources such as docu-
mentaries, government reports and websites of relevant organisations. Figure 4.1a
allows you to frame individualised targets and to record the action taken. Review
your progress and reassess your knowledge using the levels at regular intervals. For
this purpose, the grid assumes a training year with two placements and two periods
of HEI-based training. However, the grid could be adapted to suit your individual
circumstances.

36
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

Activity 4.1 continued

Step 3
The third activity has been used with beginning teachers to focus subject knowledge
development by applying it to a medium-term teaching plan. (See Figure 4.2a for
a possible planning grid and Figure 4.2b for a partial worked example.) Identifying
a classroom application consolidates pedagogical understanding (understanding
the craft of teaching and how pupils learn about citizenship) as well as consolidating
your substantive knowledge of a topic (your understanding of the main ideas,
factual details and arguments). This activity can support your understanding of
KSU2 and KSU3.
Choose two areas that you identified as needing urgent attention/serious work.
Research into these areas and complete those sections that relate to factual details,
key questions and some initial ideas for teaching and learning. You may want to
complete some sections after completing some of the later activities on identifying
topical issues and concepts for each KSU1 theme. It can be useful to enlarge the
grid to A3 size.

37
Activity 4.1 continued

Key questions Key words/concepts Key factual detail Appropriate case Possible teaching and Useful resources
studies/topical debates learning activities (with (teacher and pupils)
reference to skills of
enquiry/participation)

Figure 4.2a
Activity 4.1 continued

Key questions Key words/concepts Key factual detail Appropriate case Possible teaching and Useful resources
studies/topical debates learning activities (with (teacher and pupils)
reference to skills of
enquiry/participation)

What do we mean by Representation Voting rights: all citizens aged Is it time to lower the age Prior learning ideas: Clips For pupils: Rowe et al.
‘voting’? Authority 18+ have the right to vote. qualification? of voting on TV ‘reality’ (1998: section 5).
Fairness NB: some exceptions programmes to lead into Huddleston and Rowe
Who gets to choose? Democracy (e.g., those in prison). If postal voting helps more identification of voting and (2000: section 9).
Is this fair? Legal rights people to vote, why do impact.
MP Electoral system: some argue that it is a Mock election resources:
Is it important to vote? Parliament a) Central government – elections ‘danger to democracy’? Creating flow diagram on Hansard Society
If so, why? Why do so Election/campaign at least within 5 years of start how voting works and Young Citizen’s Passport
many people not vote? Voter turnout of a new government. impact. 2005
b) UK divided into constituencies
based on population – each Scenario on election results
represented by an MP. and issues – to judge on
c) MP elected by ‘simple’ majority, fairness, security and
i.e. ‘first past the post’. representation (link to postal
NB: role of regional and national voting topical debate).
assemblies.
Creating a campaign to
encourage voting in school
council election. Reflection
on success and how to
improve this.

Figure 4.2b
LIZ WEST

An alternative activity could be to plan for teaching and learning applications through the
design and use of a wall display. This should include highlighting key words and concepts
(such as ‘power’, ‘democracy’) with visual representations of those terms. For example, if the
theme is ‘voting’, you might want to link images of Parliament to images of voting. This then
could link to a section of the display which outlines the topical debate over postal voting. You
need to create an engaging, accessible display that highlights the essential elements of a topic.
You can increase the demands of this activity by dividing the display board into two.
Target different key stages on each of the two sections. You could place the key questions and
concepts/key terms in the centre of the display with arrows out to specific case studies/
learning activities geared towards the different key stages.

DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF KEY

CONCEPTS: THE ‘LANGUAGE OF CITIZENSHIP’
The second focus is conceptual knowledge and understanding. The Crick Report identified
a range of concepts that underpinned and demonstrated political literacy, such as rights
and responsibilities, power and authority (QCA/DfEE 1998). Political literacy requires an
understanding of this ‘language of citizenship’ (see Douglas (2003) for an examination of
how these concepts can be explored within the classroom). These concepts will be threaded
throughout pupils’ study of citizenship and are crucial if pupils are to understand the
significance of the language used within political debate. Citizenship teachers need to have
a deep understanding of these concepts and must be able to introduce ‘abstract’ concepts to
pupils in meaningful ways. The first activity focuses on ensuring a simple working definition
of all of the main concepts used within the teaching and learning of citizenship while later
activities build on this to develop ways in which these concepts could be initially introduced
to pupils and then developed over time so that their understanding becomes more rigorous
and richer.

Activity 4.2 ‘Working definitions’

Step 1
This activity uses the table of concepts within the Crick Report (QCA/DfEE 1998:
44–5). Draft out a basic definition of each concept. This can act as an audit of your
own knowledge of concepts. Politics and government examination texts often
include a glossary. This could be a starting point for your research. You may want
to add some additional terms that you think would be vital to citizenship education.
(See Douglas (2003) for ideas.)

Step 2
Use the ‘pairs’ of concepts indicated in the Crick Report’s table (QCA/DfEE 1998:
44). Identify the differences or links between the paired terms.For example: what
distinguishes ‘power’ from ‘authority’?

Step 3
Create a chart/flashcards that show the ‘family’ of terms linked to a concept. For
example, ‘Rights’ could include human rights, legal rights, inalienable rights. If
these cards are laminated they can be a resource for displays and teaching.

40
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

An effective citizenship teacher can introduce and explain a concept in a way that is under-
standable for pupils. This explanation requires an understanding of the essential elements
of a concept as well as examples of the concept in practice. This initial definition is then
revisited and developed throughout a sequence of learning. The following activity explores
how you would introduce a concept. It can be helpful to think about the common-day usage
of some terms so that you can distinguish between those terms where the common-day usage
can be a starter for understanding and those where it could prove less helpful. For example,
asking a pupil for the ‘opposite of a right’ could be met by ‘It’s a wrong’ or ‘A left’!

Activity 4.3 Introducing and contextualising concepts

Step 1
Use the medium-term plan that you started to create earlier. Complete the section
on key terms and concepts on one area that needed researching.

Step 2
Identify how you will explain two of these concepts to pupils. How might you use
concrete examples to demonstrate the concept? Construct and practice a three-
minute explanation of a concept using one prop. For example, one beginning
teacher used a Russian doll to illustrate the concept of identity, each doll signifying
a ‘layer’ of identity, such as occupation or age. Alternatively, identify how the
understanding of the concept will be explicitly linked to the teaching and learning
activities. In both approaches, note down on the planning grid how you would use
and introduce these two concepts.

Step 3
An extension of this activity is to plan a short learning activity which helps pupils
to use the concept in context.

DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF TOPICAL DEBATES

The National Curriculum programmes of study highlight the need for citizenship education
to provide an opportunity for young people to consider and debate topical issues (QCA/
DfEE 1999: 14–15). An effective teacher of citizenship needs to be knowledgeable about such
debates and the different viewpoints held. They also require secure knowledge and under-
standing of the underlying substantive issues and the evidence used to support the different
interpretations on offer. The following activities focus upon this aspect of subject knowledge.
For all of the ‘topical issues’ activities it is important to ground our own understanding of
the issue through wider reading and research or else we fall prey to a mediated version of a
debate with all of the pitfalls that this suggests.
Research should include further reading on the underpinning themes and issues so that
a broader perspective is secured and a clear understanding is gained of how this topical issue
fits into the ‘bigger picture’. Some beginning teachers create a ‘topical cuttings file’ which
enables them to track issues and case studies through media coverage. The file is divided
under headings related to the KSU1 elements.

41
LIZ WEST

Activity 4.4 Case study diary

Step 1
Select an area that you identified as requiring further work. Select a case study
related to this area (if you have started a topical cuttings file, you could select a case
study from this). Gather together some key articles/resources/notes from TV footage
using a variety of media and your own wider reading.

Step 2
Annotate these resources, bullet point the key arguments/perspectives and the
evidence put forward. These annotations should highlight how it exemplifies:

• Concepts: ‘This is an example of a conflict between individual rights and

community needs.’
• Processes: The strategies demonstrated. For example, ‘Note the use of
celebrity endorsement to secure publicity.’
• Debates: Identify the viewpoints expressed and evaluate the evidence
presented in support of this viewpoint. This is vital if you are to be able to help
your pupils critically engage with evidence. For example, on the use of statis-
tics: ‘This group argues that . . . They cite . . . as evidence for this . . . However,
this evidence is questionable because . . .’
• Possible application in terms of citizenship enquiries: Briefly pinpoint
how you could use this case study for teaching and learning. For example: ‘This
resource is a useful individual story which would be an engaging introduction
to the reasons for seeking asylum. It highlights several factors supported by
the data from . . . e.g., persecution due to political activity.’

You should include any notes on recognising how to handle sensitive and con-
troversial issues, such as acknowledging the age appropriateness of a resource or
case study.
You may want to include this in the relevant section on the medium-term plan
that you started in the first part of this chapter.

The above activities started to develop your subject knowledge about specific topical debates
but the National Curriculum also demands that citizenship teachers support pupils’ explo-
ration of these issues through oral debate (QCA/DfEE 1999: 14–15). The following activity
requires you to practise one way of modelling a presentation and marshalling of evidence in
support of a viewpoint. It is a direct ‘testing’ of your knowledge.

42
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

Activity 4.5 Preparing a ‘mini-debate’

Work with a colleague to ‘model’ a debate between opposing viewpoints on a

topical issue.

Step 1
Identify the issue, perspectives and focus. Agree with your colleague(s) who will
adopt each viewpoint. Set the date for the ‘mini-debate’, agree the arrangements
(time allocated, prior learning for pupils). Set a date for a preliminary run-through
(this is particularly important if you are a trainee teacher).

Step 2
Research the viewpoint that you are arguing. At the same time note down the
challenges that you face and processes/resources you used.

Step 3
During the lesson, stage a fifteen-minute ‘mini-debate’ summarising your per-
spective and the main evidence supporting that viewpoint. Allow for questions
from the floor (the class).

Step 4
Construct a step-by-step guide for pupils on how to structure and present an
argument and the selection and use of supporting evidence. How would you enable
pupils to do what you have done?

A variation on this approach is the ‘visiting expert’, which requires a depth of

knowledge on a particular issue allied to a breadth of understanding over varied
perspectives. In this, you act as a visiting expert on a particular issue and you handle
questions from the class which can range across several perspectives. Therefore, it
is a progression from the previous activity.

DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE OF EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS

There are several activities that can be used here. They will overlap with a growing under-
standing of pedagogical themes, such as assessment.

Activity 4.6 Answering questions

Step 1
Get a copy of a recent examination with the subsequent examiner’s report and
mark scheme. Select a small range of examination questions. Answer these ques-
tions using the time limits. Compare your answers to the mark schemes and
examples of pupils’ answers that are usually included in the examiner’s report.

43
LIZ WEST

Activity 4.6 continued

Step 2
Using your own answers/or the examples from the examiner’s report, highlight
and annotate those features that you would point out as significant to pupils. For
example, those features that made for effective responses. This can be enlarged
and used as a teaching resource/display item.

Developing this further

Select one style of question and create a sequence of learning or a learning
resource that helps pupils to tackle this style of question effectively. You can use
‘shadow marking’ (where you mark a sample of pupil work and then compare your
assessment with that of an experienced teacher) to support your understanding of
the requirements of specific sections of an examination.

DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF CURRICULUM MODELS

Schools have adopted a variety of models for teaching and learning about citizenship. This
section focuses upon developing an understanding of how different parts of the curriculum
can meaningfully contribute to citizenship education.

Activity 4.7

Step 1
Liaise with another department and look at a scheme of learning for a year group.
Identify one section that could legitimately explore citizenship themes.

Step 2
Amend that section to foreground citizenship themes, processes and debates.

Step 3
A further development to this is to place the schemes of learning for citizenship (if
taught discretely) alongside a scheme from another department. Identify potential
links and explicitly include these in the citizenship scheme. This should enable you
to strengthen a holistic vision of citizenship education through making these links
explicit to pupils. This enables your pupils to draw upon a wider frame of reference
in their thinking.

One extension of this activity is to identify extra-curricular or ‘learning beyond

the classroom’ opportunities within one year group. Some of these could have
citizenship learning foregrounded within them. One challenge for citizenship
teachers is to identify and make such learning explicit within their schemes of
learning and within the activities so that pupils can see how all of these experiences
inform their understanding of citizenship.

44
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

BUILDING AN UNDERSTANDING OF PROGRESSION INTO

THE ENHANCEMENT OF SUBSTANTIVE KNOWLEDGE OF
CITIZENSHIP THEMES
The summative activity in this chapter is probably best attempted after you have gained
teaching experience. It brings together several elements of subject knowledge that you have
been building up step by step.
As indicated earlier, part of secure subject knowledge is an understanding of progression
within your subject. The National Curriculum programmes of study have elements that
‘overlap’ key stages 3 and 4, such as voting and the electoral system. This means that
citizenship teachers must draw out more challenging enquiries and activities within and
across key stages.
The following activity builds upon your earlier work and extends the planning process to
include planning for progression across key stages or within a key stage. Figure 4.3 suggests
one possible planning structure for this.

Activity 4.8

Step 1
Identify a key topic/KSU1 aspect and place this in the top box.

Step 2
Use the headings in each box to plan key enquiries (the questions that guide
planning and teaching), key words, resources, case studies, teaching and learning
methodologies for at least two year groups in key stage 3.

Step 3
Identify how these enquiries could be linked and how you could build greater
challenges across the key stage. In other words, are they tackling more challenging
work in year 9 than they did in year 7? This may lie in the terms introduced and
used; the complexity of viewpoints examined, compared and evaluated; the types
of learning chosen; and the degree of independence fostered. Some teachers use
annotations along the arrows to illustrate the links to prior learning. These anno-
tations prompt explicit references within their teaching: ‘Remember when we . . .’

Step 4
If you are exploring progression across key stages, identify a further enquiry for key
stage 4. Think about how this enquiry builds upon prior learning and increases the
challenge from key stage 3 (look at the precise demands indicated in the KSUs).
This structure can help your understanding of longer-term planning and progression
within your subject.

45
Activity 4.8 continued

Key topic area (KSU1)_______________________________________________

KS3 KS3 KS4

Key enquiry/key questions

Key factual knowledge

Key terms/concepts

Possible case studies (with learning

purpose – i.e., ‘This demonstrates . . .’)

Possible teaching and learning activities

(building through KSUs 2 & 3)

Resources

Individual target area for planning

(e.g., access and challenge/assessment)

Figure 4.3
 DEVELOPING SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

Subject knowledge development is likely to be a recurrent theme in your teaching career as

you include new case studies, up-to-date topical debates and changes to political, legal and
social structures. It is important to secure a bedrock of substantive knowledge and under-
standing in order to be able to reflect on the significance of debates and issues and to ensure
that your pupils are able to place specific events and issues into a wider framework. In this
way, they might be able to think about that event’s significance. Without this foundation,
citizenship education could disintegrate into a fragmented kaleidoscope of enquiries, issues
and activities that may be temporarily distracting but ultimately can prove frustrating and
lacks coherence. At its best, subject knowledge develops continuously, as a teacher recognises
the potential and significance of resources, issues and evidence around them and wants their
pupils to share in that discovery.

REFERENCES
Douglas, A. (2003) ‘Educating for Change in the Political Culture?’, Teaching Citizenship, Issue
5, Spring, pp. 8–17
Huddleston, T. and Rowe, D. (2000) Good Thinking: Education for Citizenship and Moral
Responsibility, Volume 1: Key Stage 3. London: Citizenship Foundation/Evans Brothers
QCA/DfEE (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools: Final
Report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship [the Crick Report]. London: DfEE/QCA
—— (1999) Citizenship Key Stages 3–4: Programmes of Study. London: DFEE/QCA
Rowe, D., Thorpe, T. and Graham-Maw, M. (1998) Citizenship for All: A Wide Ability Teacher’s
Guide. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes/Citizenship Foundation
Teacher Training Agency (2002) Standards for Qualifying to Teach. London: TTA

FURTHER READING
Brett, P. and West, E. (2002) ‘Response to Ian Davies’ paper on subject knowledge’, available
at www.citized.info
Davies, I. (2002) ‘What subject knowledge is needed to teach citizenship education and how
can it be promoted? A discussion document for consideration by initial teacher education
tutors’, available at www.citized.info

47
 Lesson Planning
Chapter 5
SANDIE LLEWELLIN

INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides an introduction to the process of planning for citizenship learning by
bringing together guidance from available publications. Effective lesson planning involves
making choices and taking decisions and can only have impact on learners when based on
a full understanding of wider aims and context for teaching and learning. Good planning
underpins good practice.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should:

• know, and be able to use, the language for planning;

• be able to link planning to the aims of citizenship;
• know how to plan to meet intended learning outcomes;
• understand the focus for citizenship lessons;
• be aware of how resources support citizenship learning;
• be able to refer to relevant health and safety regulations.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGE OF PLANNING:

WHAT IS PLANNING?
A plan is a method of doing something that is worked out usually in some detail before it is
begun and that may be written down in some form. As adults we plan every aspect of our
individual lives on a daily, weekly and longer-term basis mostly effectively, without writing
things down and almost without thinking. Planning for teaching is an essential and struc-
tured activity that operates continually at a range of different levels to meet a complex set of
requirements (DfES, 2002).
As Kyraciou (1998: 25) points out, planning forms one part of a wider process – it is not a
stand-alone activity: ‘planning is one of the three groupings that form a continuous cycle
underlying the teacher’s decision making’. Planning is a cyclical process that involves making
decisions about how to achieve aims effectively, monitoring those decisions to identify
progress, reflecting on progress and evaluating achievement to feed into future planning
activities – PLAN, DO, REVIEW.
Planning for teaching needs to addresses the following questions:

• What should pupils learn?

• Why should they learn?

48
 LESSON PLANNING

• When should they learn?

• Where should learning happen?
• Who should teach pupils?
• How should pupils learn?

Lesson planning is, in a sense, at the ‘sharp end’ of the planning process but it is important
to recognise it has a distinct context. Good lesson planning is a vital part of becoming a good
teacher. Many (although not all) of the difficulties encountered in teaching can be overcome
by good lesson planning; however, avoid the temptation to start lesson design before you
are really confident about the long-term aims for citizenship in terms of the fundamental
purposes of education, societal responsibility and the specific aims of the subject.
Good planning co-ordinates long-, medium- and short-term approaches and underpins
good practice; it helps to ensure teaching is focused on what pupils need to learn and make
good progress, and enables staff and pupils to work together to achieve jointly agreed aims
(DfEs, 2002).

STRATEGIC PLANNING
The process of planning involves constant evaluation and reflection to ensure quality and
effectiveness against required national outcomes. Schools are responsible for their own
self-review, target setting and improvement planning; however, in most schools where
citizenship is newly established arrangements for development, modification and review
may be emergent and not as rigorous as in other National Curriculum subjects. Plans to
improve provision for citizenship should form part of the framework for school improvement
planning. Planning at this level involves linking citizenship with initiatives across all aspects
of school life.

LONG-TERM PLANNING
Long-term planning in citizenship focuses on the aims that direct activity towards broader,
strategic educational and societal goals. This cannot happen in isolation. Long-term planning
for citizenship happens within the context of a school’s overall planned programme of work
in all subjects covering every year group in a school. This is called the Curriculum Plan.
The Curriculum Plan is specific to the individual school and reflects the school’s context
and characteristics, as well as its values, aims and priorities. The Curriculum Plan includes
guidance on how the institution makes provision for citizenship and includes detailed
schemes of work that specify objectives or intentions that guide the planning of units or
modules of work towards achievement of the aims.
Long-term planning involves the translation of ‘big picture’ aims into practical plans. A
focused framework of goals and objectives will allow the aims to be reached. QCA define a
long-term plan as ‘the planned programme of work for a subject across the school, covering
one or more key stages’ (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes).
A long-term plan shows how units of work in a subject are sequenced and distributed
across years and key stages. Schools make decisions about the order and timing of units
in a subject, focusing on curriculum continuity and progression in pupils’ learning. These
decisions might change from year to year to take into account new initiatives or other
changes. The DfES School Self-Evaluation Tool for Citizenship Education (2004) offers schools
a continuum to chart progress systematically using a four-stage approach and develop
citizenship effectively against six areas of development. Schools should be working towards
the ‘Advanced’ stage, with a ‘a well-developed curriculum in range and depth with confident
linkage of the three strands’ and ‘citizenship lessons are well planned for’.

49
SANDIE LLEWELLIN

MEDIUM-TERM PLANNING
This should focus on translating the aims into a framework of goals and objectives providing
guidance on provision, teaching and learning steps that will allow the aim to be reached. It
translates the programmes of study into coherent units of work. DfES define ‘medium-term
plan’ as: ‘a planned sequence of work for a subject (or for more than one subject) for a period
of weeks, such as a half term or term, or for a number of lessons’ (www.standards.dfes.
gov.uk/schemes3/planning/).
When organising the three interrelated parts of the programme of study under broad
headings QCA suggests three approaches that might guide the structure of the scheme of
work:

• a concepts approach;
• a skills approach;
• an enquiry approach.

The concepts approach uses the key concepts identified by the Advisory Group for Education
for Citizenship to provide a clear, overarching framework for citizenship that organises
aspects of knowledge and understanding. The skills approach uses the development of skills
required as the basis for promoting the knowledge and understanding of the programme
of study. The enquiry approach uses the interests and curiosity of pupils to investigate the
programme of study through the use of questions such as What? Why? How? When? Where?
For example, ‘Where does local government get its money from?’
Choosing one approach, or a combination of approaches, will determine how learning is
achieved and will have implications for teaching styles and pupil learning outcomes.
Medium-term plans identify learning objectives and outcomes and indicate the activities
that will enable these to be achieved. They usually show a sequence of activities that will
promote progression and some information about the amount of time needed to cover the
objectives (whether in blocked periods or regular lessons over a period of weeks).

Activity 5.1 Aims, objectives and learning outcomes

See QCA (2000: 19–22) and consider the implications for curriculum planning of
the three approaches. What are the advantages/opportunities and disadvantages/
issues of each approach?

ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES and ISSUES

OPPORTUNITIES

Concepts approach

Skills approach

Enquiry approach

50
 LESSON PLANNING

From 2001 QCA and DfES published guidance and examples of medium-term teaching and
learning units in the form of non-statutory schemes of work for KS3 and KS4. The schemes
of work can be found on the DfES standards site (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes)
and are designed to be adapted by schools to fit in with their curriculum for citizenship. The
schemes show how the citizenship programmes of study can be translated into manageable
units of work.

EXAMPLE OF MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FRAMEWORK

CITIZENSHIP SCHEME OF WORK Overview: This scheme of work sets out 14

YEAR X – 20 HOURS hours of lessons and 2 3 3 hour half-day
sessions. The main focus is
[insert title here . . .]

Curriculum Requirements The Three Themes

1a Political Literacy (PL):

1b Moral Responsibility (MR):

2a Community Involvement (CI):

etc.

Lesson Title Objectives Learning Suggested Activities Keywords NC

Outcomes and Resources

ALL: STARTER:

MOST:

MAIN ACTIVITY:

SOME:

PLENARY:

ALL: STARTER:

MOST:

MAIN ACTIVITY:

SOME:

PLENARY:

51
SANDIE LLEWELLIN

SHORT-TERM PLANNING
This focuses on implementation when small steps, or outcomes, shape progress towards the
objectives for pupils. It is based on the needs of individual schools and teachers. Teachers
often use short-term plans to think through the structure and content of a lesson and to note
information, such as key questions, resources, differentiation and assessment opportunities,
especially where this is not already included in the medium-term plan. DfES defines ‘short-
term plan’ as ‘a set of activities for a week, a day, or a lesson’ (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/
schemes3/planning/).
Short-term planning begins with units or modules from the scheme of work. These vary
in the amount of detail they provide. Some schemes of work provide sufficient detail to serve
as lesson plans but others are less detailed and require separate planning for each lesson. Even
where learning objectives are included in the scheme of work teachers usually wish to design
their own activities, choose resources to support learning and plan agreed learning outcomes
and assessment opportunities with pupils. Lesson planning is an essential part of the
planning process and when effective helps teachers to:

• structure lessons;
• build on previous lessons and learning;
• share the objectives of the lesson with pupils;
• assess pupils’ achievements;
• develop effective assessment for learning;
• make lessons more inclusive and address a range of needs;
• make better use of classroom support;
• make explicit the key strategies they wish to use;
• address key questions they need to ask;
• highlight key vocabulary;
• focus on targets for raising standards;
• set homework (DfES, 2002).

Planning and sharing objectives with pupils has become a key principle since the introduction
of the key stage 3 national strategy. It sharpens the focus on teaching and learning and so helps
to raise standards by enabling pupils to make more progress in the time available. It also
enables teachers to shift the emphasis from activities and what pupils do to what they learn.

CITIZENSHIP LESSON PLAN

Date Lesson Period Total Students Year

Code of Practice

Lesson Topic NC Context KS3 The Citizenship Question, The

KS4 Big Issue

Lesson Objectives (WALT) Lesson Purpose (TIB)

1.

continued
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 LESSON PLANNING

Assessment Criteria (WILF)

• Students will
• Students will
• Students will

Time Activities, organisation and pupil LEARNING OUTCOMES By the

evidence end of the lesson pupils will:

Launch → Starter

Main activities

Extension activities

Plenary

Differentiation

All learners will

Most learners will

Some learners will

Homework

Resource

Source: PGCE Citizenship, University of Bristol (www.ole.bristol.ac.uk)

LINKING PLANNING TO THE AIMS OF CITIZENSHIP

Planning for citizenship starts with how a school interprets the two broad aims of the
National Curriculum:

• to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and achieve;

• to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare all
pupils for the opportunities and experiences of life.

These two interdependent aims set out the values and purposes that underpin the school
curriculum and provide a context within which schools plan their curriculum and all the
work they do. Citizenship plays a vital role in these intentions.

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SANDIE LLEWELLIN

The National Curriculum programmes of study for citizenship (www.nc.uk.net) set

out the statutory requirement of what all pupils should learn through citizenship education
at key stages 3 and 4. They describe the subject knowledge and content of the curriculum
through three strands, and the attainment targets describe the types and range of perfor-
mance that the majority of pupils should characteristically demonstrate at the end of KS3 and
KS4. These, together with the three interrelated themes (social and moral responsibility,
community involvement and political literacy) through which pupils develop citizenship
knowledge and skills, establish the context for planning citizenship learning.
The three strands in the KS3 and KS4 programmes of study to be taught are:

• Pupils should develop knowledge and understanding about becoming informed

citizens.
• Pupils should develop the skills of enquiry and communication.
• Pupils should develop skills of participation and responsible action (www.nc.uk.net).

Planning of provision should reflect the need to ensure that pupils have a clear understanding
of their roles, rights and responsibilities in relation to their local, national and international
communities.
Understanding the wider philosophy and aims of the subject and articulating what is
trying to be achieved through the subject is important for all teachers, but for citizenship
teachers it is essential if the expectations for citizenship are to be achieved. Citizenship is a
complex concept that can mean different things to different people and our job as teachers
of the subject is to focus on the purpose of citizenship education and how the subject relates
to broader, strategic educational goals and contributes to society as a whole. Citizenship has
a societal responsibility to enable the next generation of adults to embrace the values and
concepts that underpin our society – freedom of speech, power with authority, equality, social
justice, democracy, respect, responsibility, etc. – creating a democratic society where people
matter more than things. Planning for citizenship learning needs to balance knowledge of
concepts with appreciation of values and opportunities to participate in our society. If we
value democracy then its continuity requires that pupils have the opportunity to develop and
rehearse the skills and characteristics necessary for democratic life (www.dfes.gov.uk/
citizenship). Citizenship, if it is to be effective, is more than a curriculum subject: it crosses
boundaries into culture and community and this has implications for provision.
Schools have to give careful consideration to how they offer and organise their citizenship
curriculum to achieve citizenship learning as there is considerable freedom. The National
Curriculum does not specify how this should be done, nor is there a statutory requirement
about the amount of time that should be devoted to citizenship and the balance of approaches
to the three strands. QCA (2001) guidance indicates that a combination of ways might be
necessary to ensure the requirements are met in a planned and systematic way and that
curriculum planning must be appropriate to meet the needs of the pupils and the community.
Consequently schools deliver citizenship in different ways. The following approaches are
currently used:

• stand-alone citizenship lessons within the taught curriculum school timetable – the
taught curriculum;
• citizenship taught through other curriculum subjects within the school timetable;
• making explicit links between aspects of citizenship and other subjects;
• citizenship taught through whole-school tutorial programmes;
• suspended timetable activities for citizenship;
• citizenship learning through wider school and community involvement.

Consider how well each of the six approaches could individually, not in combination, enable
the effective delivery of the three strands of the programme of study. What would be
successful and what might be overlooked? Refer to www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship.

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 LESSON PLANNING

Activity 5.2

Stand-alone citizenship lessons

within the taught curriculum
school timetable – the taught
curriculum

Citizenship taught through other

curriculum subjects within the
school timetable

Making explicit links between

aspects of citizenship and other
subjects

Citizenship taught through

whole-school tutorial programmes

Suspended timetable activities

for citizenship

Citizenship learning through

wider school and community
involvement

The curriculum structure for citizenship is a key decision in the planning process as it is
likely to be a major determinant of the quality of outcomes. Decisions about curriculum
provision require citizenship to be part of the regular planning cycle of review and devel-
opment where regular audit starts the process. The citizenship teacher’s guide (QCA 2001:
12 and Appendices 1–3) provides an audit and planning framework to help schools develop
a whole-school approach to meet pupils’ needs and combine appropriate modes of delivery.
Citizenship has implications for the whole school planning and therefore the ethos of
the school is critical to the successful implementation of citizenship. Does the school share
clear whole-school values? Are there good relationships within the school and the wider
community? Do pupils participate in decision-making processes and contribute to the
running of the school?
The following activity provides an opportunity to bring together the key issues that need
to be considered when planning for citizenship in schools. Ofsted (2002) identified that ‘best
planning for citizenship began with a discussion of policy and involved governors and staff’.
The activity offers the opportunity to simulate the initial stage of the policy preparation
process by creating a coherent vision for school-based citizenship.

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SANDIE LLEWELLIN

Activity 5.3 Discussion activity – our vision of citizenship

Step into each of the following roles and consider the aims of citizenship from a
range of perspectives – citizenship teacher, teacher, pupils, parents, member of
SMT, headteacher, governor, representatives of community groups, local councillor.
Invite each individual to contribute in turn, or ‘pass’, to build a group ‘vision’ for
citizenship education by addressing the following questions:

• What might really effective citizenship look like in school?

• What would be the key features of a whole-school approach?
• How could the citizenship curriculum be planned across all key stages in
school?
• What would need to change?
• What would need to be introduced?

PLANNING TO MEET LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning objectives and learning outcomes are the small steps that enable the broad aims of
citizenship to be achieved. The creativity afforded to citizenship gives generous flexibility
in specifying learning objectives and outcomes. Decisions on outcomes can be decided in
advance by the teacher but should increasingly be negotiated with pupils depending on their
preferred learning style, strengths and weaknesses. Outcomes need to be written, clearly
explained and confirmed by teachers and pupils to avoid any misunderstanding.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Learning objectives focus on what pupils learn as a result of the lesson and need to be
developed with pupils and made explicit to pupils in a language that they can understand.
The purpose of the objective is to support pupils as they move from what they know towards
new knowledge, skills and understanding. Some teachers write objectives in terms of WALT
– ‘We are learning to . . .’ others write them in terms of the expectation by the end of the
lesson, for example: ‘By the end of the lesson, pupils will . . .’ Useful stems for learning
objectives across the three strands of the programme of study for citizenship are:

Strand 1
• know that . . . focuses on knowledge, factual information. For example, ‘There are
646 MPs in the House of Commons, elections must happen at least every five years.’
• understand how/why . . . focuses on understanding of concepts, effects, etc. For
example, ‘The concept of democracy’; ‘How can we improve our environment and
why should we?’

Strand 2
• develop/be able to . . . focuses on skills such as analysing information, applying
knowledge. For example, use information on voting in the last election to explain the
role of women voters.

Strand 3
• develop/be aware of . . . focuses on attitudes and values, sensitivity towards social
issues, empathy. For example, issues and campaigns related to obesity.

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 LESSON PLANNING

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Learning outcomes are what pupils have ‘learned’ and can demonstrate as a result of an
experience, programme or event. They are the precise stepping stones that achieve the
learning objective and can be very specific (‘List ten key facts about Parliament’) or very
broad (‘Show a more positive attitude to participating in discussion’). Outcomes can be set
by teachers, organisations or by the learners themselves. They can be used to assess, describe
and evidence the learning that has taken place.
Some teachers find it helpful to use the WALT, TIB and WILF approach when sharing
expectations.

• WALT is a statement of the learning objective or ‘what are we learning today?’ For
example, we are learning about local government services, in particular whether they
serve young people well enough and how you can get involved.
• TIB – ‘this is because’ – creates links with the big picture and gives meaning and
relevance to learning. For example, this is because local government affects us all – we
pay for and have a right to essential services and we have the power to influence the
quality and quantity of them – so we should understand how.
• WILF – ‘what I am looking for’ – provides a precise statement of the learning outcome
from the lesson in terms of learning, evidence and quality. For example, a clear
explanation of why you feel so strongly about . . . , a list of ten services provided by
local government, an action plan showing how you intend to become more involved
with improving local services for young people.

The following activity is taken from the key stage 3 scheme of work (www.standards.dfes.
gov.uk/schemes) and gives the opportunity to distinguish between learning objectives –
what learning is intended in the lesson – and learning outcomes – evidence that the learning
has taken place.

Activity 5.4 Learning objective or learning outcome?

explain the difference between civil and understand why societies have laws
criminal law
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

about the reasons for laws and the different identify the member countries of the
types of law European Union
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

the importance of debate and discussion express your opinion and recognise the
importance of respecting the views of
others
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

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SANDIE LLEWELLIN

Activity 5.4 continued

the most effective ways of making a describe how individuals and communities
difference can make a difference
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

summarise in one paragraph the reasons why know that there are elections at different
different issues receive different amounts of times for various levels (local, national,
media coverage global) of government
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

learn about different laws that affect young the different links and relations between
people at different ages the UK, the Commonwealth and other
countries
Learning Obective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

describe how laws are made, using examples list the effects of global warming
mentioned on the video
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

identify why people migrate from one area know about the European Union and its
or country to another, recognising that some, member countries
but not all, do this out of choice
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

how the media can promote causes and know some of the arguments for and
campaigns against membership of the European
Union, for both individuals and
organisations
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

know how to approach and communicate know about an issue of local concern,
with the local council and other members of whose interests are involved and who
the community within the local council is responsible for
dealing with the issue
Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏ Learning Objective ❏ Learning Outcome ❏
Why? Why?

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 LESSON PLANNING

FOCUSING LESSONS
Citizenship lessons need to be R – E – A – L (Sarah Jones, South Gloucestershire LEA;
www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship).

R – Relevant
Pupils react and respond to topical, real issues that are current and actually affect people’s
lives; moral issues that relate to what people think is right or wrong, good or bad, important
or unimportant in society; and sensitive and controversial issues that can affect people at a
personal level, especially when family or friends are involved. Young people are aware of
and affected by controversy. They want to talk about and understand it. Learning should be
relevant to young people’s experience and interests. For example, consider the respon-
sibilities of the press by discussing the images presented in teenage magazines.

E – Engaging
Learning from real-life experience is central to citizenship education. Engaging directly with
real issues and events in the life of their school or college or in the wider community gives
pupils first-hand experience of citizenship in action. For example, through involvement in:

• school democracy, e.g., class and student councils;

• local democracy, e.g., youth councils, area forums;
• peer mentoring, e.g., playground buddies;
• community events, e.g., Make a Difference Day;
• campaigns, e.g., public transport, personal safety;
• regeneration projects, e.g., recycling, conservation;
• public consultations, e.g., lowering the voting age;
• planning and running charity support, e.g., Comic Relief (DfES, 2006: 108).

A – Active
Active learning is important in citizenship education because being a citizen is essentially a
practical activity – it is something we ‘do’. Active learning can be achieved indirectly through
the use of activities based on imagined or hypothetical situations. We learn about democracy
by engaging in the democratic process, how to debate by taking part in debates, and what it
is to be responsible through the exercise of responsibility. Learning through discussion is
important in citizenship education because it is an important vehicle for learning and a
citizenship skill in its own right and gives young people a voice. It is important to recognise,
however, that not all discussions are citizenship discussions. Citizenship discussions:

• are about real-life issues;

• deal with the public dimension of life;
• relate to young people as citizens (adapted from DfES, 2006: 111).

Project work is important in citizenship because it provides an opportunity for young people
to take responsibility for their learning and a form of active learning. Project work can be a
powerful motivator for citizenship learning. The opportunity to use initiative on an issue that
concerns them can stimulate in young people a desire to find out more about how their
community is run, what the barriers to change are and how these might be overcome. It also
helps them to learn where they can find out these things and has a valuable role to play in
the consultation process. Young people as researchers are able to provide information useful
for decision-making in schools and other organisations, and in the community at large.

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SANDIE LLEWELLIN

L – Learning
Citizenship learning is most effective when it takes place in a climate that is non-threatening,
in which young people can express their opinions freely and without embarrassment and use
their initiative without undue fear of failure. Such an atmosphere is built up gradually. There
are a number of strategies that can help you with this, including:

• Ground rules – work best when young people are involved in developing and testing
their own, e.g., for activities like discussion, or group work.
• Paired and small-group work – less threatening than facing the whole group all the
time.
• Seating arrangements – to create a more open and inclusive atmosphere, e.g., sitting
in a circle for discussion.
• Warm-ups and debriefs – help young people to get to know and trust each other and
feel a valued part of the process.
• Giving everyone something to do – prevents individuals feeling left out and builds
up a sense of group solidarity, e.g., having a vote, ‘round robins’, assigning different
responsibilities to group members.
• Achievable goals – to create a feeling of success and avoid any unnecessary sense of
failure.
• Catering for different learning styles – a range of activities employing different kinds
of learning, e.g., visual, physical, written, oral.

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT LEARNING

The problem with citizenship is that there are almost too many resources, so selecting the
most appropriate becomes an issue. It is essential to audit resources regularly and to develop
criteria for selection to ensure resources for citizenship support the learning objectives and
outcomes for all three strands of the citizenship programmes of study as a whole not just
Strand 1 – knowledge and understanding. This means that in addition to websites and ICT-
related resources, including video and CD-rom, texts for teachers, photocopiable resources
for pupils, fiction and non-fiction, there should be recognition of the contribution of visits and
visitors together with current materials in the form of newspapers, photographs and
magazines. The website www.qca.org.uk/citizenship provides guidance on the effective use
of people other than teachers as contributors to citizenship. Schools should work towards
involving pupils in the development of criteria and the selection of resources. (See DfES,
2004 for further guidance.)

HEALTH AND SAFETY

The development of citizenship within the wider community involves planning for visitors
coming into school and opportunities for pupils to make out-of-school visits. In both cases
provision must meet existing health and safety legislation. Health and Safety: Responsibilities
and Powers was sent to all schools and LEAs in December 2001. This explains who is respon-
sible for the health and safety of school staff, pupils and others on school premises or when
engaged in educational activities elsewhere, including visits. Advice on health and safety
when organising educational visits can be found in the DfES 1998 good-practice guide, Health
and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits.
Responsibility for health and safety in schools derives from the Health and Safety at Work,
etc. Act (1974) and associated regulations that place overall responsibility for health and
safety with the employer. Who this is varies with the type of school. Education employers
have duties to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• the health, safety and welfare of teachers and other education staff;
• the health and safety of pupils in-school and on off-site visits;

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 LESSON PLANNING

• the health and safety of visitors to schools, and volunteers involved in any school
activity.

Further information can be found at: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/health

andsafety/visits/responsibilities/.

SUMMARY
This chapter started by with the claim that ‘Planning for teaching is an essential and struc-
tured activity that operates continually at a range of different levels to meet a complex set of
requirements’. Check your understanding of the context for lesson planning for citizenship
by answering these two questions:

• What are the different levels of planning in citizenship and how do they interrelate?
• What requirements must be taken into account when planning an effective citizenship
lesson?

REFERENCES
Department for Education and Employment/QCA (1999) Citizenship: Key Stages 3–4. London:
DfEE.
Department for Education and Skills (2002) Key Stage 3 National Strategy Training Materials
for Foundation Subjects: Module 3. London: DfES.
—— (2004) School Self-Evaluation Tool for Citizenship Education. London: DfES.
—— (2006) Making Sense of Citizenship: A CPD Handbook. London: DfES.
Kyriacou, C. (1998) Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.
Ofsted (2002) Inspecting Citizenship 11–16 with Guidance on Self-Evaluation, London.
QCA (n.d.) Citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4: Initial Guidance for Schools. London: QCA.
—— (2001) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 3 Teacher’s Guide. London: QCA.

WEBSITES
Department for Education and Skills Standards: www.standards.dfes.gov/planning.
National Curriculum for Citizenship: www.nc.uk.net
PGCE Citizenship, University of Bristol: www.ole.bristol.ac.uk.

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 Medium- and longer-term
Chapter 6 planning

LEE JEROME

INTRODUCTION
Medium-term plans (schemes of work, enquiries, units or projects) are crucial to providing
engaging, effective and meaningful learning experiences. This chapter is primarily concerned
with the process of constructing medium-term plans which effectively combine citizenship
skills and knowledge in ways that promote progression and rigour. Over a period of time
teachers need to differentiate through addressing a variety of learning styles; ensure pupils’
understanding is developed and consolidated; and plan activities which develop pupils’
skills, rather than merely reflecting prior achievement. These broad issues can only be
considered across a series of lessons and so the medium-term plan provides a mechanism
for focusing on these ‘big’ issues in citizenship and clarifying expectations about progression
and assessment.
Once an effective medium-term plan is in place, individual lesson plans are much quicker
and easier to write. The big questions are largely resolved, so the aims of the lesson, the links
to prior and forthcoming learning, and the desired outcomes are all clear from the outset. The
lesson plan then becomes useful as a mechanism for clarifying the running order and timings
of the lesson, fine-tuning it to the needs and abilities of the particular class being taught and
providing prompts and notes for the teacher. Put simply, starting with a well-thought-
through scheme of work is likely to ease the planning and maximise the learning. On the other
hand, starting the term with a great idea for an introductory lesson and a vague ‘topic’ to
pursue is likely to create planning problems, confusion over assessment, and the lessons,
while individually satisfactory, are unlikely to amount to anything more than a series of one-
off experiences.
The rest of this chapter is concerned with practical approaches to thinking through
medium-term plans. The ideas are developed from the author’s own experience of planning
educational resources and projects. Although some of the suggestions may seem rather
removed from the practicalities of the classroom, they do help to establish the framework
within which engaging and challenging lessons occur. The first section focuses on knowledge
and understanding, and the second looks at some ideas for developing citizenship skills.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Plan lessons in the context of medium-term planning.

• Use a range of tools and checklists to review teaching plans.
• Plan to take account of pupils’ progression in knowledge and skills.

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 MEDIUM- AND LONGER-TERM PLANNING

PLANNING TO DEVELOP PUPILS’ KNOWLEDGE AND

UNDERSTANDING
When asked to rate their own levels of confidence in relation to the programme of study, 80
per cent of teachers at key stage 3 and 60 per cent at key stage 4 say that they are confident
(QCA, 2004). However, when researchers look behind these figures to consider what teachers
are teaching and how they feel about it, many report concerns about almost every area of the
knowledge and understanding element of the curriculum. Key areas of concern to teachers
include:

• political literacy;
• central and local government;
• the legal system;
• the economy;
• Europe (Kerr et al., 2004; NFER, 2004; QCA, 2004).

The lack of expertise and confidence can lead to some unexpected consequences, such as
teachers claiming to have ‘done’ an entire area of knowledge in a single lesson (Ofsted, 2005).
This clearly presents a challenge if we are to approach citizenship with the aim of pupils
developing a better appreciation of the complexities of society and democracy.
In addressing knowledge teachers obviously have to be concerned with the facts about any
given situation or process, and to think about how best to teach them. In a scheme of work
about human rights, for example, the teacher is likely to select a number of key international
agreements, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, to provide some basic knowledge about the inter-
national frameworks that exist to define and support human rights. The teacher might also
then go on to introduce some additional information about mechanisms that exist to support
and defend these rights. This might include domestic legislation, such as the Human Rights
Act, as well as international agencies that exist to monitor and promote human rights, such
as UNICEF. Such information is important if pupils are to become informed citizens, and as
they learn more they will be able to connect together bits of information to gain a better
understanding of huge and complex organisations such as the United Nations. Indeed, the
UN is an example of an area of knowledge which is so large and complicated that it may be
better considered throughout several projects, rather than as a single, somewhat dry factual
study in its own right. In this way a citizenship co-ordinator may plan across a whole key
stage to cover knowledge of a particular area in the citizenship programme of study.
In addition, becoming an informed citizen involves more than just learning ever more
facts about the world; it also involves developing an understanding of some deeper con-
cepts. Being aware of this conceptual level to citizenship knowledge will enable pupils to
generalise and organise the knowledge they accrue from the range of stories and case studies
they encounter. A study of the law and young people may, for example, begin with an
exploration of laws that directly affect pupils, as young people. At this level of knowledge
and understanding they may collect and remember information about the age at which they
are allowed to drive, buy alcohol, get married, fight for their country or leave school – all
useful citizenship knowledge. At the same time the lessons may also be concerned with
helping pupils to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of the law, social norms, the
courts and Parliament. At a deeper level still, pupils may also be developing an under-
standing of some of the fundamental concepts that define citizenship as an area of activity.
Discussions about the age of adulthood may also be used to consolidate and extend pupils’
understanding of justice, fairness, rights and authority.
The precise division between each of these three levels of knowledge is less important
than the conclusion for teachers that their planning must take account of the different levels
of understanding of citizenship knowledge. A scheme of work about young people’s rights
is likely to be more effective both as a single unit of study and as a contributory element of a

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LEE JEROME

whole-school programme if there is clarity about what information is being taught, what
specific citizenship concepts are being introduced (we might call these ‘political literacy’
concepts) and which basic concepts are being consolidated and extended. The following
figure illustrates what this might look like in planning.

Enquiry question: Why do young people have different rights from adults?

Key content coverage Political literacy concepts Basic citizenship concepts

Age of adulthood in a number Laws Rights (develop from Y7)

of different examples – laws Legislation Freedom (introduce)
and dates of introduction Parliament

Court process for dealing with Courts – judiciary Justice (introduce)

offences and statistics about Authority (develop from Y7)
the level of prosecutions under
these laws

Figure 6.1 Extract from year 8 scheme of work on young people and the law.

Although such a planning grid does not form a sequence of lessons in itself, it is an impor-
tant first step and ensures one is clear about the potential learning for each topic before getting
into more detailed planning. At this stage it is relatively easy to refine the focus and think
about what needs to be developed in greater detail or with more time in the scheme of work
and lesson plans that will follow.
Partly because the subject is so new and partly because citizenship is itself such a difficult
term to define, there is little agreement about the precise boundaries of subject knowledge
for citizenship education (Brett and West, 2003; Davies, undated). There are, however, some
useful sources of information, which are considered next.
Bernard Crick has presented a number of schemas for understanding citizenship at a range
of levels of generalisation. First, you might refer to the Crick Report (QCA, 1998: 44) for a list
of suggested concepts that could underpin citizenship education and therefore be revisited,
extended and consolidated across a range of schemes of work. These include:

• democracy and autocracy;

• co-operation and conflict;
• equality and diversity;
• fairness, justice, the rule of law, rules, law and human rights;
• freedom and order;
• individual and community;
• power and authority;
• rights and responsibilities.

In his earlier work on political literacy Crick had developed two other models which were
designed to help teachers pick their way through the mass of issues, events and people in
citizenship education and develop a clear vision of how to plan to revisit and extend key
concepts. The ‘political literacy tree’ (Crick, 2003a) helps focus on the key questions teachers
can use to structure schemes of work and lessons. At a more fundamental level, he has also
published a proposed list of twelve primary concepts that, used in combination, provide the
basis for understanding political literacy. He acknowledges that while there are more
commonly used concepts, such as democracy and equality, these are always contested and
the exploration of their meaning is actually dependent on an understanding of the following
concepts (Figure 6.2, from Crick, 2003b):

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 MEDIUM- AND LONGER-TERM PLANNING

GOVERNMENT

Power Force Authority Order

RELATIONSHIPS

Law Justice Representation Pressure

PEOPLE

Natural and Civil Rights Individuality Freedom Welfare

Figure 6.2

Of course, Crick is not suggesting that anyone should walk into a classroom and stick this
diagram on the board, but he is suggesting that teachers can use such planning tools to help
them clarify what is going to be most enduring about citizenship education, taken over a
whole key stage. It may be that pupils study 100 or more citizenship issues, case studies or
people over the course of key stage 3. How do we ensure that this all adds up to something
more than 100 bits of knowledge and actually contributes to a better understanding of
citizenship and political literacy? One of the ways is certainly to make sure we constantly
relate the individual examples to the general concepts and perennial debates.
Anna Douglas (2003) has also proposed a useful planning mechanism for thinking at
different levels of generality about developing citizenship knowledge. In her suggested
planning grid (Figure 6.3) teachers are invited to plan for the following aspects of developing
knowledge:

Programme of Key concepts Key questions Links to current Opportunities for

study link or debates issues action

Figure 6.3

While Douglas, an experienced politics teacher, draws on her experience to extend the list
of key concepts suggested in the Crick Report (Douglas, 2003: 12), Moores (2005) draws on
his experience as a sociologist to think about how to explore the citizenship programme of
study. He notes that many of the concepts already mentioned are common between the two
subjects but also suggests that taking a sociological perspective helps us identify four themes
where citizenship teachers would benefit from collaborating with sociologists:

• avoiding ethnocentric attitudes;

• understanding the importance of the nature/nurture debate;
• understanding the tension in social life between free will and determinism;
• striving for objectivity.

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LEE JEROME

Fundamentally, it probably does not matter what schema you and your citizenship co-
ordinator pick. The most important point is that a school’s citizenship provision will be
stronger if there is a strong conceptual/thematic framework that runs across the citizenship
provision and enables pupils to revisit, consolidate and extend their understanding of key
concepts and debates in citizenship. Without such a framework, it is likely that the whole will
amount to considerably less than the sum of the parts.

Activity 6.1 Reviewing your plans

Look at the citizenship schemes of work currently in use in the school.

• Can you identify a list of key concepts that run through the school’s pro-
gramme?
• Is it clear when they are being introduced, when consolidated and when they
are being developed?
• Is there any notion of progression evident between the treatment of such
concepts across key stages 3 and 4?
• Do the schemes of work need to be revisited to clarify expectations?

Activity 6.2 Thinking about progression

The following questions are taken from a teaching resource for key stages 3 and
4 produced by Liberty, the human rights campaign group. Thinking about depth
of subject knowledge only, what kinds of answers would you expect from a year
7 pupil and a year 11 pupil?

What does the phrase ‘human rights’ mean?

Where do our rights come from?
What would you do if someone violated your rights?
(Branson, 2005)

• To what extent are the differences in expectations you have written down
reflected in your citizenship lessons in key stages 3 and 4?
• Try to draw up appropriate learning objectives for a year 7 lesson incorporating
these questions, and then another set for a year 11 lesson.
• Do any of the citizenship concept schemas help you clarify the different
expectations?
• Do all citizenship teachers in your school have a clear idea about expectations
at different stages in secondary school?

PLANNING TO DEVELOP PUPILS’ CITIZENSHIP SKILLS

A major civics study, completed just before the introduction of citizenship education,
revealed that citizenship teachers are starting from a fairly low base, with three-quarters of
fourteen-year-olds reporting that they rarely or never discussed national or international
politics with their peers and two-thirds rarely or never doing so in school (Kerr, 2003).
Participation is the least likely element of citizenship education to form the main focus for a

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 MEDIUM- AND LONGER-TERM PLANNING

whole-school programme (Kerr et al., 2004). Moving towards an entitlement to participation

has proved problematic for many schools, which often tend to offer opportunities, rather than
ensuring appropriate experience (Ofsted, 2005).
On the other hand, citizenship teachers also need to bear in mind that pupils are devel-
oping transferable skills in other areas of the curriculum. In terms of discussion and debate,
for example, pupils have been developing their speaking and listening skills in English, and
will probably have discussed controversial issues in PSHE or RE. They will also have been
developing research skills in a number of subjects, and will certainly have been taught to
question sources of information through their study of history. Through the use of group
work and presentations across the school, pupils will also have developed some active
citizenship competencies (Holden and Clough, 1998) – skills which may have been developed
outside the content area of citizenship, but which will certainly form the basis of any active
citizenship project.
It is important to recognise the level of achievement in related subjects, for example by
familiarising oneself with the relevant attainment targets across the curriculum, and also
thinking about how one may help pupils make the links between their prior learning and the
demands of citizenship. As with knowledge and understanding, once this prior learning is
established, forward planning helps to ensure focus and progression in the development of
citizenship skills.
Wales and Clarke (2005) provide a useful list of teaching activities, each of which could
provide the focus for a lesson, or more likely a sequence of lessons. The following list is based
on their chapter headings and forms a core set of teaching strategies:

• discussion;
• debate;
• investigations;
• role play;
• group work;
• presentations;
• simulations;
• participation in the class, year group, whole school or community.

It would be useful to take a list like this, which could be extended and refined, as a second
tool kit to use at the very early stages of planning a sequence of lessons, and even as a checklist
for planning across a key stage. Alongside the list of citizenship concepts, discussed above,
such a checklist will help ensure skills are developed and extended and variety is maintained.
Even the most interesting strategies can become tedious if used too frequently and so it is
useful to think ahead about which particular strategies one should use in which contexts.
As well as planning for variety over a year or more, it is also worth building in a focus on
one particular skills area in any single sequence of lessons, rather than constantly hopping
from one to another. For example, allocating a few weeks to preparing for, holding and
reflecting on a debate is likely to be more valuable as an opportunity to develop debating
skills than simply slipping in a debate lesson in the middle of a scheme of work to liven
things up a bit. While the debate itself may last only a single lesson, by considering the
mechanics of how it will work, how to construct a good argument, what evidence to use, how
to connect with an audience, how to work as a team to prepare a case, etc., the activity begins
to link with a series of preparatory lessons. Thinking seriously about how to prepare for
a debate in this manner also makes it easier to formulate a strategy for reflecting on and
assessing the whole process. Pupils could be asked to assess each other in aspects of these
skills, or self-assess in others, and target-set for the next time they participate in a debate, as
well as reflect on the citizenship knowledge they have developed. The English Speaking
Union provides advice and resources to teachers on how to plan for effective debating in
schools at www.esu.org.uk. This website also includes information on competitions and
training opportunities for pupils.

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LEE JEROME

Activity 6.3 Planning appropriate teaching strategies

Identify a unit in your key stage 3 citizenship programme where you already have,
or think you could develop, a strong skills focus through building lessons around
one of these teaching strategies. Identify:

• How you (could) plan for progression within the unit, in relation to the skill.
• How this can be assessed.

While the example of debating might seem easy to plan for because it is largely classroom
based, the same point can also be made for the trickier issue of participation. If citizenship
teachers simply take the programme of study as the only point of reference, it seems difficult
to achieve a planned and coherent series of activities across a year or key stage. And yet, the
model of simply engaging in one substantial activity in three years (the minimum possible
entitlement for key stage 3) also seems problematic in terms of progression and development.
The problem can only be solved by teachers thinking about how to help pupils develop
the skills and competencies that can be used in subsequent community-based projects.
Teachers therefore need to think flexibly about the context in which the participation takes
place. Changemakers’ Active Citizenship in Schools (ACiS) project takes an approach to
participation which reflects this concern with progression, and their work with schools has
shown that it is important to think about a series of steps towards the ultimate goal of young-
people-initiated activity. They recommend teachers plan for a series of opportunities to
engage with the skills of participation and responsible action through the following:

• individual activity as well as group activity (in the class or school);

• school-based activities as well as projects in the wider community;
• adult-led, young-person-centred activities, as well as young-person-led activities;
• service/helping activities as well as issue-based action.

Such a flexible model encourages teachers to accept that, while some groups of pupils are
simply not ready for a fully independent, young-person-led project, nevertheless there are
a number of useful and necessary steps that can be planned to build towards this final aim
(Stenton, 2004). Such an approach requires careful planning and a sensitive approach to
facilitating the learning so that the teacher’s role does not become so intrusive that pupil
participation is rendered tokenistic (Hart, 1992).
Taking such an approach to participation presents a set of issues that need to be resolved
at the level of planning. Teachers without a coherent and structured programme for devel-
oping the skills of participation are likely to fail their pupils by failing to provide them with
meaningful opportunities to develop their competence over time. In such a scenario, the
sporadic opportunity to participate is likely to be experienced as a one-off event, with little
understanding of how it can be evaluated in relation to young people’s development as active
citizens.

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 MEDIUM- AND LONGER-TERM PLANNING

Activity 6.4 Planning for participation

Look at the units of work for citizenship over a key stage.

• How many opportunities are there for developing the skills of participation at
any level and in any context?
• How are they assessed?
• Is it possible to extend any units to include relevant activities?

Activity 6.5 Pulling it all together

All of the themes and questions considered in this chapter should inform the
creation of individual schemes of work. The following process may help guide you
through this process, especially where you are planning for citizenship education
in lessons, rather than active projects in the community. You may find it easier to
involve colleagues in the planning process, at least in the initial stages, when you
will benefit from the opportunity to discuss key concepts and debates.

• Identify a topic that you want to consider – this could be a specific issue or a
general area of enquiry.
• Brainstorm the possible key concepts and questions that could underpin your
scheme of work. You will find Figures 6.1 and 6.3 (above) useful.
• Next, think about the opportunities for developing skills and an active citizen-
ship dimension. Do any ideas, questions or concepts suggest particular types
of activities?
• You will now have too many ideas to fit into a single scheme of work and so
the most important step in planning is to decide how to focus on a particular
question or theme. This may be suggested by aspects of the content (for
example, perhaps the idea of rights or equality emerges as a key organising
principle from your brainstorm), or indeed may naturally follow a particular
idea for a learning activity (for example, does the whole project appear to be
best structured around a formal debate, a school-based campaign or the
production of a film?).
• Once you have identified your focus for the scheme of work you should be
able to plan the steps (lessons) towards the desired outcome. It is important
here to consider the pupils’ starting point, the knowledge and experiences
they bring to the work, and the order in which issues are best encountered.
Only at this stage can you begin to complete the type of planning grid that
schools often use for schemes of work (Figure 6.4).

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Activity 6.5 continued

Focus/Key Question: ......................................................

Key question(s) for each lesson Learning objectives Lesson activities Resources Outcomes/assessment
opportunities

(a) Skills

(b) Knowledge and Concepts

Figure 6.4 Scheme of work

 MEDIUM- AND LONGER-TERM PLANNING

SUMMARY
Planning is necessary to ensure progression and clarity in teaching. Without some notion of
how teaching and learning build on prior experience and attainment, and an idea of how it
will be extended in the future, it is more difficult to make sense of individual lessons. If
medium-term plans include the level of detail discussed in this chapter, the lesson plan itself
becomes much easier to write as the focus and purpose of the lesson is clear from the outset.
Such an approach to planning will also help to rectify some of the initial problems observed
with the implementation of citizenship and help to make citizenship learning more rigorous
and challenging.

REFERENCES
Branson, S. (2005) A Teaching Pack for Citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4, available at:
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/resources/education-pack/pdf/teaching-pack.pdf
[accessed 24/04/05]
Brett, P. and West, L. (2003) Subject Knowledge and Citizenship Education, available at:
www.citized.info/pdf/commarticles/PB_LW_citizenship_subject_knowledge.doc
[accessed 24/04/05]
Crick, B. (2003a) ‘The Political Literacy Tree’, Teaching Citizenship, 5: 18–22
—— (2003b) ‘Back to Basics’, Teaching Citizenship, 7: 24–9
Davies, I. (undated) All Teachers Need Subject Knowledge, available at: www.citized.info/
pdf/commarticles/Ian_Davies2.html [accessed 24/04/05]
Douglas, A. (2003) ‘Educating for Change in the Political Culture?’, Teaching Citizenship, 5:
8–16
Hart, R. (1992) Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship, Innocenti Essays No. 4,
Florence: UNICEF International Child Development Centre
Holden, C. and Clough, N. (eds) (1998) Children as Citizens: Education for Participation, London:
Jessica Kingsley
Kerr, D. (2003) ‘Developing Effective Citizenship Education in England: Using the IEA Civics
Education Study to Inform Policy, Practice and Research, symposium paper presented at
AERA conference, Chicago, 21–5 April
Kerr, D. et al. (2004) Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study Second Annual Report: First
Longitudinal Survey – Making Citizenship Education Real, Research Report 531, Slough: NFER
Moores, M. (2005) ‘Sociology and Citizenship’, Social Science Teacher, 34, 2: 12–15
NFER (2004) National Evaluation of Post-16 Citizenship Development Projects: Key Recommendations
and Findings from the Second Year of Development, Brief No. RB507, Slough: NFER
Ofsted (2005) Citizenship in Secondary Schools: Evidence from Ofsted Inspections (2003/04),
London: Ofsted
QCA (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools: Final Report of
the Advisory Group on Citizenship [the Crick Report], London: QCA
—— (2004) Citizenship: 2003/04 Annual Report on Curriculum and Assessment, London: QCA
(QCA/04/1491)
Stenton, S. (2004) ‘Community Action and Young Person Led Participation’, in B. Linsley
and L. Rayment (eds), Beyond the Classroom: Exploring Active Citizenship in 11–16 Education,
London: New Politics Network
Wales, J. and Clarke, P. (2005) Learning Citizenship: Practical Teaching Strategies for Secondary
Schools, London: RoutledgeFalmer

71
 Planning, evaluating and auditing
Chapter 7 the whole-school provision

RALPH LEIGHTON

INTRODUCTION

In the majority of schools much or all of citizenship has been placed within PSHE
programmes . . . [but] the perceived close relationship between citizenship and PSHE is
proving problematic. Taking the broad view, PSHE is about the private, individual
dimension of pupils’ development, whereas citizenship concerns the public dimension
. . . Often, schools claim the content of lessons is citizenship when it is in fact PSHE.
(David Bell, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, 2005)

The place and nature of any citizenship programme must be set in the context of the school’s
aims, culture, ethos and values. Citizenship education is not only about lesson content, and
not all schools teach citizenship as a specific subject. Whether the intention is to maintain
subject provision or to develop and enhance it, the first step in planning and evaluating
whole-school provision must be to conduct an audit which will clarify the current situation.
This will enable the school to ensure that time and other resources are used to best effect, that
statutory requirements are being met, and that repetition is avoided.
As more citizenship departments are established, it is likely that many new or relatively
inexperienced teachers will take on responsibility for the planning and auditing of citizen-
ship. An audit of the curriculum, however citizenship is delivered, will enable subsequent
strategies and developments to be planned and implemented in a rational and effective
manner. Once you know which aspects pupils have already met, you will also know which
can be built upon and which have to be introduced as new. An effective and accurate audit
also enables you to consider what must be delivered specifically as citizenship and therefore
what must be involved in planning units and separate lessons.
Evaluating the effectiveness of provision depends largely upon the effects which are
desired. If your intention is to address as much of the National Curriculum as possible, ‘effec-
tiveness’ will be measured against criteria different from those which apply if the intention is
to enable pupils to become active, informed and responsible citizens. It may be that, in
successfully addressing one target, you also manage to meet the other. This chapter is intended
to enable teachers of citizenship, whether new or experienced, to meet those twin objectives.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• identify the extent of citizenship provision in your school, understanding what has
been done so far and what has still to be done;

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 PLANNING, EVALUATING AND AUDITING

• incorporate awareness of pupils’ own knowledge and experiences into your planning
and teaching;
• plan units of work which will enable pupils and the school to develop;
• evaluate the effectiveness of citizenship provision and consider ways of increasing that
effectiveness.

AUDITING CITIZENSHIP PROVISION IN YOUR SCHOOL –

MAPPING WHETHER THE CURRICULUM IS BROAD AND BALANCED
There are many different timetable structures and many different ways of organising the
delivery of citizenship in schools (Cleaver et al. 2003; Leighton 2004a; Bell 2005). Add to this
the fact that schools are encouraged to tailor their provision of citizenship education to meet
local circumstances, and it becomes apparent that auditing and mapping the citizenship
curriculum is a crucial and exacting strategy. If aspects of citizenship are being delivered
through other subjects or activities, it is important to avoid repetition and to ensure that time
and resources are used to full effect.
At the same time, it is not enough simply to identify subject or topic headings; it is also
necessary to ensure that the citizenship characteristics of a topic are identified and addressed.
For example, aspects of mass media might appropriately feature in the key stage 3 curriculum
in English and modern foreign languages, but both would approach it from a perspective
specifically relevant to those subjects rather than from an agenda explicitly informed by
citizenship. Subjects have their own character and content, and all of the National Curriculum
has to be delivered by schools. Bell (2005) offers an important reminder that the cross-
curricular nature of citizenship provision can be problematic. The best way to gain a clear
idea of how the subject is being addressed in any context is to conduct a detailed initial audit
as outlined in Activity 7.1. In order to clarify which areas are not being addressed (thereby
not meeting National Curriculum requirements), and those which are being duplicated
(thereby creating unnecessary pressures on staff and pupil time), as well as those which
might appear to be meeting some of the statutory requirements, the first step in identifying
what needs to be done for the citizenship curriculum must be to discover in detail what is
already in place.
This should be done with a view to what is appropriate to each school’s context. It is not
possible to deliver the whole citizenship curriculum in equal depth and detail, nor is this
required. It is also necessary to keep in mind that citizenship is concerned with skills as well
as knowledge, and that planning might focus on an ideal but success may depend upon
being able to bring colleagues, pupils, parents and others along. Be prepared to identify and
build in opportunities for others to support and contribute to the development of citizenship
provision.

Activity 7.1

1 Use a reliable and proven system to audit your school, for example the DfES’s
School Self-Evaluation Tool for Citizenship Education (Lloyd et al. 2004). This
will take quite some time, but it is an investment which will pay dividends by
giving a clear picture of what is provided and what is needed.
2 From the data gathered, list the key attitudes, concepts, knowledge and skills
of citizenship education being taught and learned in your school, within which
subjects and how they are being taught and learned, and also list those which
are not yet being taught and learned.
3 Think about how the differences between the two lists might be addressed
and resolved. It is the second list – what needs to be done – which should
become the focus of planning and evaluation.

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RALPH LEIGHTON

Activity 7.1 continued

4 Extension activities:

(a) On the basis of 1, 2 and 3, above, identify both what a comprehensive

citizenship policy for your school should include and what changes would
be required in order to implement that policy.
(b) On the basis of (a), above, and the other tasks in this chapter, write the
policy.

BUILDING ON AND TAKING ACCOUNT OF PUPILS’ PRIOR

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Although citizenship might still be considered a new subject – in some schools it remains a
subject in waiting – a lot of the content is not wholly new. It has been regularly pointed out
(for example, Crick 1998; Ross 2003) that citizenship education builds on activities which
many schools have regarded as essential for some time and could in the past have been ‘seen
in work pupils were already doing in the community, in contributions pupils made to the
running of the school or simply in the way that what children learnt in the classroom related
to what was going on outside the school gate’ (Bell 2005).
Once you have completed the audit of the school curriculum you can begin planning as
you will now have a clear idea of what is being done and what still needs to be addressed. If
you have found that a good quantity and quality of citizenship education is already present,
it is important to build on this for pupils to develop their understanding, knowledge and
skills; even if there was not a substantial amount overtly covered prior to the systematic
introduction of citizenship, it is likely that you will have found some aspects of the curriculum
which have been addressed through other subjects. If neither of these situations applies, you
might find that your pupils have other experiences and knowledge – from youth associations,
young people’s media, personal and peer experiences – through which citizenship education
can be introduced to them or through which their interest and awareness can be developed
and sustained.
Building relevance and recognition into subject delivery to create or enhance a sense of
continuity is not something which happens only within key stages or within particular phases
of education. As Claire and Holden (2004) show, much of the good practice in key stage 2
can be lost in the early stages of key stage 3; this period of transition is full of new experiences
for pupils and it may be that, by linking primary experiences to the secondary curriculum,
we can enable them to settle more quickly and effectively as well as enabling them to make
progress within the subject.
Activity 7.2 will enable you to find out with which aspects of the National Curriculum your
pupils have some familiarity and therefore where their prior experiences and knowledge lie.
You will also find areas of consensus and of disparity, which, given that year 7 pupils may
have come from a variety of schools with very different approaches to education in general
and citizenship in particular, will enable you to identify and work on common ground as well
as differentiating materials according to identified needs. The nature of the activities – card
sort, negotiation, presentation, discussion, peer assessment, voting – will also indicate the
extent of pupils’ familiarity with some of the subject-specific skills of communication and
participation identified in the National Curriculum.

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 PLANNING, EVALUATING AND AUDITING

Activity 7.2

• Organise a class into groups of five or six.

• Give each group a set of cards, each one representing one of the knowledge
areas for the appropriate key stage of the National Curriculum (DfES 1999).
• Each group should select three topics and produce a brief outline to the class
on why they regard them as important. They should also be given the oppor-
tunity to outline and advocate a topic not in the set of cards.
• The class can then negotiate between groups, through discussion and voting,
which five topics they regard as most important.
• Keep the outcomes of the above activities with your audit and policy produced
in Activity 7.1 so that the issues, knowledge and skills raised and identified
can be properly addressed in your planning.

PLANNING A UNIT OF WORK

When Bell (2005) wrote that ‘citizenship is the worst taught subject at Key Stages 3 and 4’, he
was commenting as much on poor planning and lesson structure as on content. Even when
lessons are seen to be satisfactory or better, these are often single lessons or approaches
unique to particular teachers rather than part of a cohesive departmental approach (Leighton
2004a). When planning a unit of work, it is essential that you have the outcomes of Activities
7.1 and 7.2 in mind, if not to hand. Each lesson should fit with others to make a cohesive unit,
and each unit should fit with others to create a coherent course, within a clear set of values
and a whole-school ethos.
While the debate about assessment in and of citizenship is far from resolved, there are
many opportunities for assessment in citizenship, and a variety of purposes to which the
processes and data can be put. Jerome (2004) clearly indicates that assessment strategies have
to be considered at the outset of planning in order to make it useful and effective; he also,
very usefully, provides considerable insight and advice on how to approach assessment
planning. Other issues to be borne in mind include all cross-curricular and national strategy
focuses, teaching and learning styles, as well as ensuring that the full range of skills and
knowledge is addressed across the units as a whole rather than necessarily within each
one.
Since there is no uniform structure to school days or timetables, as well as little consistency
in the amount of time given to various subjects, it is not possible here to give a specific
structure to units of work. These must be tailored to the time and resources made available
by each school, although it must be stated that schools which do not provide time, staffing
and other resources adequately will find it very difficult to meet their statutory obligations
with regard to citizenship provision.
The template in Figure 7.1 implies six sessions for a unit; it may that timetabled sessions
are fifty minutes a week in some schools, an hour a fortnight in others, and some of yet
different duration and frequency elsewhere. There is nothing to say that all units have to be
of equal length, as what constitutes ‘appropriate’ duration can depend upon many factors.
All units should address the full range of learning styles and provide a number of learning
activities, keeping the National Curriculum requirements clearly in focus. There should also
be an element of flexibility so that lessons can be interchanged, allowing pupils and staff
access to resources. With the increasingly frequent use of ‘focus days’ or ‘collapsed time-
tables’, consideration should also be given to how these can enhance citizenship provision,
and how they can be used better to address specific aspects of subject skills and/or knowledge.
The following activity should enable you to match classroom work and other strategies
to National Curriculum topics. As well as finding that there may be a number of ways to

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RALPH LEIGHTON

Session

Areas

Assessment

Literacy

Use of ICT

Numeracy

Active citizenship

Cross-curricular links
Learning Intended Resources
objectives outcomes

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Figure 7.1 Unit planning template

address particular issues, it will give an overview of strategies so that a series of units can be
developed within which there is not too much repetition, yet pupils can develop skills and
familiarity in relation to particular learning activities.

Activity 7.3

• Consider the list of activities and strategies below:

Class discussion Instruction Research exercise

Cross-curricular activity Lecture Showing a video

Focus day Literature search Simulation

Focused questions Observation Statistical data

Group discussion Off-site activity Team teaching

Hot seating Open questions Textbook focus

ICT Outside speaker Video conferencing

Independent learning Problem solving Working in silence

Identify four activities which would enable effective learning in each of the fol-
lowing areas: controversial issues; mass media; social and cultural diversity.

• Take any one of the areas identified and develop the activities to ensure that
they enable National Curriculum requirements to be met.
• Looking back at Activity 7.1, points 3 and 4, identify which elements of your
school’s provision have now been addressed.
• Continue with 1–4 in relation to all aspects of the citizenship National
Curriculum.

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 PLANNING, EVALUATING AND AUDITING

EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CITIZENSHIP CURRICULUM

The extent to which citizenship provision is successful depends upon the criteria for success.
Some schools may be satisfied with meeting the statutory requirements to the letter while
others clearly aim to espouse a spirit and ethos of citizenship beyond curricular demands.
For some, citizenship is a subject while for others it is an attitude. This dichotomy makes it
necessary that there is an understanding of the desired effect before steps are taken to evaluate
the effectiveness of provision.
For those schools where the expectation is to meet the requirements of the National
Curriculum, attention must be paid to the skills as well as the knowledge requirements. In
situations where the intention is to go further than statutory obligations, to create an
atmosphere and ethos compatible with the principles of citizenship, evaluation may have to
be deeper. In both cases it will have to be carried out over a reasonable time span and,
crucially, be regularly repeated.
One way in which it is possible to verify whether objectives have been achieved is to
reconsider those objectives. Activity 7.1 required that you identify what needs to be done in
your school; if the outcome of that activity was accurate and your response complete, you
will know that the objectives are met by checking actions and outcomes against the lists
which completion of the activity produced. If outcomes are uneven, you have a picture of
where more needs to be done and some idea of what it is that is lacking.
For those schools that wish to see their pupils become positive and active members of
society, it would be appropriate to refer to the local community to investigate the extent to
which this has happened. In the same way as Activity 7.2 is consciously focused upon the
perceptions of young people, the second task in Activity 7.4 is based on an awareness of
the need to work with local communities. Through the dynamic programme of study, and
other planned activities which comprise citizenship provision, you should have developed
practical and positive links with local organisations and individuals; their opinions and
perceptions could be invaluable to recognising the success of your programme so far, and to
offering advice and support for its future development.

Activity 7.4

• Identify three local agencies with which you have worked on delivering
citizenship – e.g., a local NGO, community police officers, faith groups – and
ask for their perceptions of the school community. Next year, ask them again.
Whenever the school works with outside agencies, ask for perceptions and
opinions. These need not be taken at face value, but can be considered
and reflected upon.
• Ask teaching and support staff for their perceptions of the effects of the
citizenship programme. Ask pupils. Ask those with domestic or caring respon-
sibility for the pupils. Remember that you are not asking how to adapt or
improve the citizenship programme but trying to build up a long-term picture
of its effects. Again, individual responses need not be taken at face value, but
can be considered and reflected upon.
• Re-do Activity 7.1, having completed the other activities and implemented
their outcomes. If you get the same results, you need to re-do the activities.

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RALPH LEIGHTON

SUMMARY
Not only is the nature of citizenship education and the content of the National Curriculum
likely to change over time, but the nature and content of other subjects is likely to change.
Therefore, the relationship between all subjects needs to be regularly assessed and evaluated
in order to ensure development and balance throughout the curriculum. It follows, then,
that each of the activities in this chapter should be regularly – if not frequently – revisited.
This will serve to keep policies up to date, enable content to remain relevant to pupils’
changing experiences, ensure that planning is always fresh and appropriate, and provide a
curriculum which is tailored to the needs of the school.

REFERENCES
Bell, D. (2005) ‘Speech to the Hansard Society’, available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/
Claire, H. and Holden, C. (2004) ‘Effective Transition KS2–KS3’, available at: http://www.
citized.info/
Cleaver, E., Ireland, E. and Kerr, D. (2003) ‘The Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study’,
Teaching Citizenship, 7: 15–19
Crick, B. (1998) Education for Citizenship and the teaching of Democracy in Schools: Final Report
of the Advisory Group on Citizenship, London: QCA
DfES (1999) Citizenship: The National Curriculum for England, London: DfES/QCA
Jerome, L. (2004) ‘Planning Assessment for Citizenship Education’, available at: http://www.
citized.info/
Leighton, R. (2004a) ‘The Nature of Citizenship Education Provision: An Initial Study’,
Curriculum Journal, Vol. 15, 2: 161–81
—— (2004b) ‘Trainees, Mentors and Citizenship: Fair Conflict Resolution Begins Here’,
Teaching Citizenship, 9: 26–31
Lloyd, J., Kerr, D. and Newton, J. (DfES Citizenship Team) (2004) The School Self-Evaluation
Tool for Citizenship Education, London: DfES
Ofsted (2003) Inspecting Citizenship 11–16 with Guidance on Self-Evaluation, London: HMSO
Roland-Levy, C. and Ross, A. (eds) (2003) Political Learning and Citizenship in Europe, Stoke-
on-Trent: Trentham
Ross, A. (2003) ‘Children’s Political Learning: Concept-Based Approaches versus Issue-Based
Approaches’ in C. Roland-Levy and A. Ross (eds), Political Learning and Citizenship in
Europe, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, pp. 17–33

WEBSITES
http://www.citized.info/
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship/
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/citizenship/?view=get
http://www.qca.org.uk/schemes
http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/

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 Assessment in citizenship
Chapter 8
MARY RICHARDSON

INTRODUCTION
Effective assessment practice will contribute to improving standards and achievement in
citizenship (QCA, 2002), but it has been suggested that assessment might be more difficult
to measure in subjects such as citizenship than in other curriculum subjects (Lyesight-Jones,
1998). Effective assessment is rooted in getting the right information from pupils in the most
efficient way and it should be an integral part of your teaching and learning programme for
citizenship.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, the reader should have:

• developed a knowledge of planning the assessment of citizenship;

• recognised a range of learning styles and should be able to identify means of differ-
entiation;
• developed an understanding of common learning problems and ways to tackle them;
• recognised some of the issues related to assessment of citizenship education.

ASSESSMENT OF CITIZENSHIP
There is a wide range of assessments available for citizenship, and the setting of clear
expectations together with the involvement of pupils in the assessment process will promote
motivation and help pupils to engage with citizenship. But what is meant by ‘assessment’?
Assessment is an overarching term which, when applied in the classroom, might include
some or all the following:

• written tests and examinations;

• portfolios;
• practical examinations;
• oral presentations and examinations;
• coursework;
• teacher observations;
• self-assessment;
• peer-assessment.

Teachers have been required to assess pupils’ attainment in citizenship at the end of key
stage 3 since August 2003. The end of key stage description (see www.qca.org.uk) divides

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evidence of pupil attainment into three categories: knowledge, skills and participation. Pupils
are required to:

1. demonstrate a broad knowledge and understanding of the topical events they study;
the rights, responsibilities and duties of citizens; the role of the voluntary sector; forms
of government; provision of public services; and the criminal and legal systems;
2. show understanding of how the public gets information; how opinion is formed and
expressed, including through the media; and show how and why changes take place
in society;
3. take part in school and community-based activities, demonstrating personal and
group responsibility in their attitudes to themselves and others.
(www.qca.org.uk)

Assessing the knowledge outlined in category 1 is reasonably straightforward: pupils’

knowledge can be demonstrated through written tests, coursework and presentations.
However, assessment of the skills required for categories 2 and 3 is more challenging and
requires some thought to be given to what might be appropriate for pupils. Although there
are no statutory arrangements for assessment at key stage 4, some qualifications, including
short-course General Certificates in Secondary Education (GCSE) in citizenship studies, are
offered by three English awarding bodies. Essentially, it is up to you to decide upon the most
appropriate way of assessing progress and rewarding achievement for pupils at the end of
key stage 4. If you decide to offer a qualification such as a GCSE at key stage 4, then consider
all of the specifications available and talk to the staff responsible for citizenship at the
awarding bodies to find out what further resources are available to support and develop
your teaching. Awarding bodies can provide a range of support, including INSET training,
recommended textbooks and specimen examination papers. Awarding bodies currently
offering a GCSE short course in citizenship are listed at the end of this chapter.
Citizenship education presents both the pupil and the teacher with many different contexts
in which assessment can take place (Kerr, 2002). Just as you might adopt different approaches
to the teaching of citizenship, there is a variety of ways in which pupils’ progress can be
recorded and their achievements recognised and celebrated. When planning assessment
of citizenship, you might consider presenting pupils with some of the following as ways of
recording progress:

• a diary or logbook;
• evidence of participation in a school event, e.g., a video recording of proceedings;
• a talk supported by an OHP or a PowerPoint presentation;
• the development of an educational game or a website;
• evidence of communication with an MP or a local councillor;
• literature about an organisation and a written account of voluntary work with that
organisation;
• worksheets.

Citizenship is unusual and exciting in that the approaches to assessment are necessarily
flexible. Therefore, you should consider which types of assessment will motivate and inspire
your pupils to optimise their achievements in citizenship. Successful implementation of
assessment is grounded in the knowledge that you have about your pupils as learners. The
following sections will allow you to identify ways to ensure you can help your pupils learn
more effectively and take responsibility for the development of their education in citizenship.

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LEARNING STYLES AND DIFFERENTIATION

Learning styles
We all favour particular styles of learning, and identification of suitable assessments can be
facilitated if you have some knowledge about the learning styles of your pupils.
Figure 8.1 is adapted from the learning styles summary designed by Honey and Mumford
(2005). It is possible to identify four types of learner – activist, pragmatist, reflector and
theorist – and, as Figure 8.1 shows, describe the optimum learning characteristics for each.
Think about your own learning style. You will probably find that you identify with more
than one style and most of your pupils will also demonstrate a combination of learning styles.
Therefore, it is important to know which are their strongest and which require development.
Use the next activity to help identify the learning styles of your pupils.

ACTIVISTS PRAGMATISTS

Activists like to be involved, to get stuck in and Pragmatists are keen to try new things, are practical
demonstrate enthusiasm for new ideas, but they can and bring a no-nonsense approach to their work.
easily become bored. They tend to have a ‘ready, fire, They engage well when learning about concepts that
aim’ approach and although they work well in teams, are directly related to the task in hand, but can be
they can dominate group tasks. impatient with lengthy discussions.

Optimum learning opportunities for the activist Optimum learning opportunities for the pragmatist

• Any new experiences, particularly problem-solving • Any task that is clearly linked to an end result
• Team tasks, including role-playing and leading • Techniques with obvious advantages, e.g., saving
• Being ‘thrown in at the deep end’ time
• Use of a clear model which they can copy
Pupils who are activists dislike listening to long
explanations and are less confident when working Pupils who are pragmatists are less interested in
alone. They prefer not to follow instructions to the learning when there is no obvious or immediate
letter and like to take action immediately. benefit that they can recognise or if the task has no
clear guidelines.

REFLECTORS THEORISTS

Reflectors will consider a situation from many dif- Theorists tackle problems in a methodical manner
ferent perspectives. They are systematic and like to and tend to be perfectionists who like to compart-
consider findings before deciding upon conclusions. mentalise their learning. Theorists can be detached
They like to observe others and enjoy discussing and/or analytical rather than subjective or emotive in
results. their thinking.

Optimum learning opportunities for the reflector Optimum learning opportunities for the theorist

• Observing individuals, groups or situations • Complex learning situations using existing skills
• Reviewing information or situations to consider and knowledge
what has happened and what has been learned • Structured situations with a clear purpose
• Generating analyses and reports • Consideration of ideas/concepts which might not
be immediately useful/relevant
Pupils who are reflectors prefer not to lead and are
not always confident about presenting work in front Pupils who are theorists do not usually enjoy par-
of their peers. They like plenty of time to consider and ticipating in situations which emphasise emotion and
prepare tasks and can be put off when thrown in at feelings or when they feel they are out of tune with
the deep end. the other participants, e.g., working with pupils of
opposing learning styles.

Figure 8.1 Learning styles

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MARY RICHARDSON

Activity 8.1

Draw up a learning descriptor grid (based on Figure 8.1) and title each square with
a learning style. Place each of the pupils in your class within the framework based
on their strongest learning skills. Think about a project that you are going to present
to the class to work on in groups and consider how you might group pupils most
effectively based upon their learning styles.

Differentiation
Differentiation is a term that is often used to describe the process teachers go through to
make lessons accessible for pupils with learning difficulties (Jerome, 2004). However, it is
important to understand that differentiation is integral to your programmes of teaching and
learning. You might not organise your citizenship classes by ability, but you need to develop
a thorough knowledge of each pupil’s abilities in order to provide an appropriate learning
experience for all. Jerome (2004) classifies differentiation into six categories; a condensed
version is presented in Table 8.1, below.

Table 8.1 Approaches to differentiation

Differentiation by Method

Content/resources Pupils work on a similar theme, but with a variety of resources. You may decide
to provide everyone in the class with all resources, or direct specific resources to
specific pupils.

Activity or task Pupils have the same resources to use, but work on different questions or tasks.
Organisation Pupils work in mixed-ability groups and on other occasions pupils are grouped by
ability; or
Pupils work in pairs, thus encouraging a culture of peer support.

Support You might spend more time with more able students in one lesson and then focus
on those experiencing difficulties in another lesson. You may enlist the help of a
teaching assistant.

Gradation/extension Pupils work with the same resources, but questions become more difficult as the
lesson continues; or
Pupils start the lesson with a common activity and the addition of ‘extension’ work
moves pupils on at a different pace or level.

Response/outcome Pupils preparing for a citizenship GCSE get used to working on open-ended
questions and producing an individual response that can be levelled. Careful
planning may help you set common tasks with common resources, but it is likely
that teaching (as opposed to assessment) will also draw on one of the previous
strategies.

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Activity 8.2 Aims, objectives and learning outcomes

Using Table 8.1, identify the differing needs of the pupils in your class and consider
how you plan to address them. Select one stimulus source, for example a news-
paper article, and construct a lesson plan which presents tasks appropriate to pupils’
differing learning needs; encourage pupils to work alone and then in small groups
to discuss their opinions and responses.

COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT CITIZENSHIP

This section lists some of the common misunderstandings about the assessment of citizenship
and suggests ways to address them. It is likely that you will encounter many misconceptions
about citizenship while teaching the subject, but rather than view this as a problem, keep a
collection of the most common, or your ‘favourites’, to use in lessons as starting points for
discussions.

A mark is the measure of a citizen

It is important that pupils, parents and others understand that the assessment of citizenship
is not a test of ‘goodness of the individual’. Some assessments review pupils’ knowledge: for
example, pupils might answer a written examination comprising questions about the
electoral system, or they might present a portfolio related to voluntary work for evaluation.
While it is possible to assess and grade both of these types of evidence from pupils studying
citizenship, the final mark awarded for the work is not a reflection of citizenship ability.

Activity 8.3

Discuss the different modes of assessment available with your pupils to ensure that
they understand how their work in citizenship will be evaluated. Divide the class
into groups and assign each a mode of assessment; they must research and present
this assessment and argue its case by explaining why and when it will be useful.
For example, one group could present a video of a school council meeting and
argue that this demonstrates active participation; another group might present a
sample examination paper (downloaded from an awarding body website) and
discuss the value of the qualification; and a third group can explain that marks in
citizenship describe their achievement in the subject and are not a reflection of the
individual.

We know what citizenship is . . .

Everyone has an opinion about citizenship education. The problem is that everyone has a
different opinion. Some might say, ‘That’s the class about being good, isn’t it?’ while others
might ask, ‘Is it something to do with voting?’ Citizenship is part of busy school curriculum
so pupils need to understand where and when it is being taught, particularly when it is
taught using a cross-curricular approach rather than as a discrete lesson. Pupils also need to
understand that the assessment of citizenship is something that, unlike many other subjects,
involves them being proactive about the recording and review of their progress.

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Ensure that pupils are clear about what comprises their citizenship education. Ask them
to identify learning for citizenship in different situations, for example in a classroom, at home,
within a community setting or at a whole-school event.

Citizenship is the same as PSHE

Although the dominant model for citizenship has been that of PSHE, it is a very different
subject. Research from Ofsted has shown that many schools still treat the two subjects as
one. It is important that the status of citizenship is clear and the subject is valued in its own
right. Present students with some key concepts and learning outcomes for both citizenship
and PSHE. Ask them to compare and contrast the two.

KNOWING WHERE PUPILS STAND

At the start of each lesson or project, pupils should be made aware of the goals and outcomes
for learning. If this practice is established from the outset, there is less chance that students
will misunderstand what is expected of them. As mentioned earlier, citizenship affords pupils
the rather unique opportunity to take more responsibility for managing the recording and
review of their own learning. However, for reporting purposes, you need to know where they
stand. Use Figure 8.2 as a means of working through the process to see where each pupil is.
With reference to the QCA guidance on assessment of citizenship (QCA, 2002), Table 8.2
develops further questions to use when recording your pupils’ progress.

PUPIL

What is being assessed?

TYPES OF EVIDENCE

How will it be assessed?

TEACHERS, PEER, SELF, OTHER

How will achievement be recognised?

GRADE/MARK, QUALIFICATION

How will achievements be celebrated?

CERTIFICATE, AWARD, PRESENTATION

What happens next?

FURTHER STUDY, NEW TOPIC, LINKS TO
EMPLOYMENT, VOLUNTARY WORK

Figure 8.2 Pupil achievements

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Table 8.2 Recording progress

Task Question

Identify assessment partners Do you/your pupil know what type of assessment will be used?
When, and with whom, will pupils use peer assessment?
How will pupils manage self-assessment?
Who else might be involved in assessment of their progress?

Establish expectations Are pupils clear about what is expected for each lesson, for each project, by the
end of term?
If pupils are working towards a formal qualification, are they clear about the
learning outcomes?
How is this information presented to pupils?
Do you have any exemplars of work to which pupils can refer?

Agreeing targets How will goals be set and achieved?

How often will progress be discussed?
Are pupils clear about their responsibilities for self-assessment and peer
assessment?
Do pupils know the dates of examinations?
How will pupils deal with issues which might affect progress towards goals?

Reporting and reviewing How will evidence of learning be selected?

evidence How will assessment of the evidence be documented?
Have you drawn up a timetable for discussing assessments with individual
pupils?
What evidence might be submitted towards a qualification (e.g., for GCSE
coursework)?
How will achievements be reported to parents?

Rewarding achievements Is there an opportunity to report to the whole school?

Have you made use of the local media to highlight a successful
school–community project?
Is there a prize-giving or similar presentation day where achievements in
citizenship are recognised?
Have you made a note of the date that exam results are published?
How might successful group work be rewarded?

Continued review What have you learned from the last lesson/project, term, etc.?
Are there subjects or topics that merit further investigation?
Did you identify problems/issues and consider how they might be dealt with in
the future?
Did you identify any personal skills or knowledge that might benefit from
further development?

PARTICULAR ISSUES RELATED TO ASSESSMENT OF

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
Like all subjects, citizenship has its idiosyncrasies. The following are just some of the issues
that are particular to citizenship. As with the misconceptions, it is useful to keep your own
records of issues in order to consider how you can address them effectively within your
school.

• Assessment of subjects through cross-curricular routes is difficult. Ensure that you

know where and when citizenship learning is taking place so that it is possible to
identify learning outcomes that can be recorded and included in pupils’ records.
• Official guidance emphasises the idea that assessment should be creative and varied,
thus evidence of attainment can include a range of media, for example video, verbal
presentations, computer-based work as well as written work. However, you need to

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understand that a wide variety of approaches to assessment might not always be

realistic. It is important to select and promote methods of recording work for assess-
ment that are manageable within the context of your framework of teaching.
• Make use of all the support that is available when planning and developing assess-
ments. Get in touch with the citizenship team at QCA. If you decide to offer a GCSE
(or other qualifications), talk to the citizenship subject staff at the awarding body; they
can inform you about additional information and training that are available.
• Evidence of learning should be of a high standard. Schools need to develop
approaches of recording attainment in citizenship that encourage pupils to produce
and collate work that is of an equal standard to that in other subjects.
• Offering a formal qualification such as a short-course GCSE has been shown to benefit
standards in some schools. Research from Ofsted (2005) found that pupils’ achieve-
ments and standards were often higher when students were working towards a
recognised qualification.

SUMMARY
To some extent, the development of a clear model of progression in citizenship still hinders
the development of assessment. It remains difficult to be precise about what it means to
achieve in citizenship. Just as pupils play an integral part in the learning of citizenship, it is
teachers who will assist in the development of models of good practice. The flexible delivery
and assessment of citizenship can be used successfully to support the different learning styles
of individual pupils. Choosing a variety of approaches to assessment can improve pupil
motivation and affords pupils a tangible sense of achievement in citizenship.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Citizenship curriculum and assessments

Department of Education and Skills (Citizenship Team) – www.dfes.org.uk/citizenship
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (Citizenship Team) – www.qca.org.uk
National Curriculum Online – www.nc.uk.net
Nuffield Curriculum Centre – www.nuffieldcurriculumcentre.org

Awarding bodies (offering a citizenship qualification)

Assessment and Qualifications Alliance – www.aqa.org.uk
Edexcel – www.edexcel.org.uk
Oxford, Cambridge and RSA – www.ocr.org.uk

Support and ideas for teaching

Citized – www.citized.info (Teaching resources and information for trainee teachers)
Citizenship Foundation – www.citfou.org.uk (Provides information, resources and covers
all aspects of citizenship education)
Association for Citizenship Teaching – www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk (For case studies,
teaching resources and lesson plans)
Institute for Citizenship – www.citizen.org.uk (Works with teachers and students to form
effective models of citizenship education)

REFERENCES
Campbell, J. (2000) ‘Assessing Citizenship: Opportunities and Challenges’, Citizenship Update
(Autumn), No. 3

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Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (2005) ‘Learning Styles’, available at: <http://www.campaign-

for-learning.org.uk/aboutyourlearning/whatlearning.htm>
Jerome, L. (2004) ‘A Briefing Paper for Trainee Teachers. Citizenship Education and Pupils
with Learning Difficulties’, available at: <http://www.citized.info>
Kerr, D. (2002) ‘Assessment and Evaluation in Citizenship Education’, paper presented at
British Council seminar, Beijing, July
Lyesight-Jones, P. (1998) ‘Assessment Issues within Personal and Social Development’, in S.
Inman, M. Buck and H. Burke (eds), Assessing Personal and Social Development: Measuring
the Unmeasurable? London: Falmer Press
Ofsted (2005) Citizenship in Secondary Schools: Evidence from Ofsted Inspections (2003/4), London:
HMSO (HMI 2335)
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2001) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 3
– Teacher’s Guide, London: QCA
—— (2002) Citizenship at Key Stages 1–4: Guidance on Assessment Recording and Reporting,
London: QCA

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 Leading citizenship
Chapter 9
DARIUS JACKSON AND RUSSELL MANNING

INTRODUCTION
Citizenship is a new subject in schools and is having a troubled childhood (Ofsted 2005).
Even Libby Purves commented on the difficulties citizenship was having in schools
(Education Programme, BBC Radio 4, 17 May 2005). Ofsted make it clear that poor decision-
making is one of the biggest factors in citizenship’s poor report this year (Ofsted 2005). So if
it is going to prosper it needs effective leadership of the subject in schools.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you should:

• be able to develop strategies to raise the status of citizenship in your school.

• be developing strategies to market citizenship to parents and your colleagues.
• have highlighted strengths and concerns within the teaching of citizenship in your
school.
• be confident with a number of strategies useful in handling the headteacher, members
of the SMT and colleagues.
• have analysed a case study in raising the status of citizenship.

LEADING CITIZENSHIP
The importance of leadership is central to a discussion of school improvement (see Barker
2005 for a discussion of this). The need for the support of the headteacher cannot be overstated
for the development of citizenship: ‘There can be no effective whole school strategy for
Citizenship evaluation without the full support of the Head and Senior Management Team’
(Potter 2002: 120). This ‘effective . . . support’ will help to prevent the poor decision-making
derided by Ofsted.
Placing middle managers at the centre of the consideration of school leadership is a
relatively new idea. Traditionally, in discussion of school leadership, the central role was
given to headteachers (Brundrett and Terrell 2004: 7). However, in recent years emphasis has
shifted and the concept of leadership has been broadened to include middle managers
(Bennett 1999: 289). Admittedly, though, there is some discussion as to whether they are
‘leaders’ or just ‘managers’. This is because subject leaders have an ambiguous position. Are
they primarily downward conduits for leadership decisions or upward conduits representing
their departmental interests? Do they make school policy or merely make sure it is imple-
mented? This ambiguity leads to the regular complaint that being a head of department
means ‘everyone is free to kick you!’

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To help understand this complex situation, Busher and Harris (1999: 307–8), based on
work by Glover, argue that heads of department have four ‘dimensions’ to their job:

• ‘. . . transactional leadership role’ where they use their authority to secure agreement
by colleagues to carry out policies. These policies may be at school or department
level;
• ‘. . . foster collegiality . . .’ by developing shared visions within the department;
• ‘supervisory role’ in monitoring pupil performance and supporting colleagues’
performances;
• ‘representative’ of the department to outside agencies and senior managers.

In this chapter we shall focus on a number of these roles as we consider how to go beyond
mere survival in schools. We need to study a number of things. How does a middle manager
champion citizenship within the school and beyond. How can you co-opt the headteacher
as an ally? And where do you find support?
As we consider other issues and a case study, we hope to show that middle management
in school is about, above all else, transformation: ‘How do we move this subject along?’ This
is in terms of its success and status within the school, and in terms of its internal cohesion;
the degree to which all of the teachers agree with and implement departmental practice.
To enable you to prioritise areas, it is useful to develop an overview of where citizenship
is starting. DfES’s School Evaluation Tool for Citizenship Education (available from
www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship) provides a good starting place. From this you should be able
to produce a development plan for citizenship.

RAISING STATUS IN SCHOOLS (OR KEEPING THE HEAD HAPPY)

Activity 9.1 Why is subject status important?

Think about the schools in which you have worked. Which subjects had high status?
What benefits did this status bring these subjects?

Busher and Harris (1999) explain that status comes from a number of factors, most of which
are amenable to change. This first one, alas, is not. Some subjects traditionally have higher
status: mathematics, science and English are all heavyweights; they dominate the school
curriculum and resources. Other subjects need to work hard to gain and maintain their status.
Luckily, there are other factors which are within our control: ‘The status a department
acquires depends upon the academic and technical performance of the students it teaches,
on its contribution to the extra-curricular activities of a school and on the quality of the profile
it helps the school to gain within its local community’ (Busher and Harris 1999: 313).
Acquiring status for the department is essential as it is an effective means to acquire ‘extra
resources’. Consequently, any citizenship co-ordinator must keep the headteacher up to
speed with the subject and work with other subject leaders who are sympathetic.

Activity 9.2 How many times in the last two weeks have you discussed
the state of citizenship with the following?

Formally Informally
Headteacher
Deputy/assistant head
Other head of subject

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DARIUS JACKSON AND RUSSELL MANNING

It is impossible to overemphasise the importance of good contacts with your headteacher.

Headteachers are busy people. Consequently, if you ‘drop in’ for an informal chat it is a good
idea to know exactly what you want them to have learned from you at the end of the con-
versation. From our experience of running departments (a little over thirteen years between
the two of us) headteachers respond best to solutions and success. They need to know their
subject leaders both solve problems and raise the school’s profile.
Where schools have a rigid hierarchy you will need to keep your line manager informed
as well as opening up lines of communication directly to the head. The next area to consider
is how should a new head of department communicate with other subject leaders?

HORIZONTAL COMMUNICATION
‘Networking . . . is endemic to organisations. It is quite useful for middle managers in
secondary school to share information, ideas and concerns’ (Fleming 2000: 17).

Activity 9.3 How do subject leaders see each other?

Think about the school you work in.

• Which subject leaders have status within the management? These are people
whom other subject leaders consider to be the big hitters.
• Which subject leaders are not big hitters?
• Which subject leaders are seen as ‘awkward customers’?

You will need to use different styles of communication; an informal chat with the head is
completely different from an agenda-based meeting with your line manager. You also need
to work out which other subject leaders can help you plan the delivery of citizenship. This
is not just in terms of subject matter – RE studying diverse beliefs; geography studying world
trade and poverty – but also attitude:

• Which ones do you find it easy to work with?

• Which of them is amenable to an advance from citizenship?
• Which of them can carry their team with them?
• Which department is the most innovative?

COMMUNICATING WITH THE CITIZENSHIP TEAM

This is probably the most important part of a subject leader’s job – communicating with and
building a subject team. Obviously it is going to be easier in subjects with clearly defined
boundaries and a high degree of pedagogic cohesion. Citizenship, as a new subject, is trying
to define the boundaries and pedagogies (Jackson 2005; Davies, Harber and Yamashita 2005).
The other problem you are likely to meet is the make-up of your team. Many schools have
put citizenship into another area, subject or time slot. Consequently, it can often blur into
PSHE, or may be taught by all teachers in tutorial time. These strategies are not helping
citizenship develop its borders and practices, and this contributes to the poor state of citizen-
ship in schools. In a recent Ofsted report (Ofsted 2005), one in four schools had citizenship
provision defined as ‘unsatisfactory’. Where citizenship is working, it is taught either by a
small team of subject specialists or a ‘significant partner’ in PSHE. The shared features are
that ‘citizenship has sufficient time, an identity to which pupils can relate and building blocks
which together establish coherence and progression’ (Ofsted 2005: 4). Developing this

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‘coherence and progression’ must be the target for citizenship co-ordinators. Clearly the
curriculum time issue is to be negotiated with the headteacher; so how are you going to build
a team to give citizenship its identity?
On ITT courses time is spent considering how to motivate a range of pupils. Running a
team of teachers is similar; it is all about motivation. There is a series of rules of thumb:

• Consult. Teachers love to discuss their ideas and are happy if their leader consults.
• Take time. Do not try to change everything at once: plan changes over a number of
years and communicate the plan to the whole team. Make time to talk to your team.
• Charm. Anyone who is less supportive needs to be brought on board. Take time to
canvass their ideas and discuss contentious issues with them.
• Praise loudly and honestly.
• Share good practice and ideas. Use an agenda item to make teachers share their ideas.
• Mistakes. We all make them, so don’t make a fuss, just pick up the pieces and smile.
• Make decisions when they are needed. Do so openly and explain your choice.

The qualities of a good team have been around for a long time, Brundrett and Terrell (2004:
85) list twenty. These are worth considering:

Shared values A focus on learning Leadership from Having clear Having policies that
and beliefs and learners different people on departmental are developed from
different tasks policies and school policies . . .
procedures . . .

Moral purpose Engagement in Good inter-personal Positive humour A sense of direction

the department relationships

Sharing Collaboration Co-operation Enquiry Reflection

Evaluation Criticality Involvement Vision A sense of

achievement

Activity 9.4 Strengths and areas to improve

From Brundrett and Terrell’s list, select four that you are good at and four you need
to work on. Then decide what you are going to do to improve. This can be done
as a team.

Where citizenship is taught by the whole staff you need to go beyond a small team to manage
a range of teachers, some of whom will be at least indifferent and possibly even hostile to the
subject. Though the comments by Hannam, Smyth and Stephenson (1976: 167) are not new,
they are valid: ‘There is nothing simple about becoming a member of an established staff
group and the newcomer needs to develop an awareness of its structure and methods of
communication. Most will learn haphazardly or through trial and error.’ You need to
understand the informal structures in the staffroom and use them to help develop your
subject. Staffrooms are hotbeds of politics and a young subject leader needs to aware of this.
You must be conscious that citizenship is a controversial subject. With a commitment to
active learning, participation and children’s rights, it challenges the ideas that children are
the recipients of education and above all else need to be controlled. Teachers have deep-
seated ideas about pedagogy that stem from their personal philosophical stances, so your new

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ideas will inevitably unsettle a few of your colleagues. This is also nothing new. Back in the
1960s Morrison and McIntyre (1969) described not only how young teachers became less
progressive as they established themselves in school, but also how conflicts between teachers
were often about expectations of pupil behaviour. As in running a department, the trick is
to decide who will support you and who will oppose your ideas, and to respond accordingly.
You will never be able to develop citizenship if you are seen as a staffroom cynic. However,
if you can convince the other teachers it is not a bad idea, you will have defused a problem
early.

MARKETING CITIZENSHIP
Marketing schools and subjects is inevitable. Teachers are often unhappy about this, but it is
part of the job (Oplatka, Hemsley-Brown and Foskett 2002). As is shown above, a subject
leader is always engaged in marketing: trying to convince the head of geography that a link-
up is a good idea, convincing the head that GCSE (short-course) citizenship for all is a winner
or stressing that the history department teaching about the suffragettes is not quite enough.
It’s all marketing!
Before we consider marketing, it is crucial to remember that the best way to market any
subject is through the quality of teaching. If the pupils arrive expecting an exciting, dynamic
lesson in which they can express their ideas they will tell everyone how excellent citizenship
is. That is why team building is central to running a department.
The three most important areas for you to market citizenship are to the headteacher, to the
parents and to the wider community.

The headteacher
In their report on citizenship, Ofsted (2005: 3) said that where teaching of citizenship is poor,
‘key management decisions were based on misunderstanding or scepticism’. Consequently,
your head needs to know:

• How you are planning to develop the subject, why these areas are a priority and what
the timescale is.
• How citizenship will raise the profile of the school in the local community.
• How citizenship will help raise the standard of education in the school.
• How you will raise levels of collegiality in the school.

Parents
This is about more than convincing parents that citizenship is a worthwhile subject. Research
by Cathie Holden (2004: 257) concluded that ‘parents were largely ignorant of what was
going on in schools with regard to citizenship education but held clear views about this area
of the curriculum and wanted to know more’. So ask yourself, will parents see:

• A convincing and passionate rationale for citizenship teaching in the school?

• A clearly thought-out programme of lessons, which shows the lessons are exciting and
thought-provoking?
• Evidence to show pupil progress in citizenship?
• Reporting which is clear and precise?
• That the subject has high status in the school by the prominence it is given in the
prospectus and in displays?

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The wider community

Marketing to the local community is all about looking for opportunities and seizing them.

• Which local organisations are involved in citizenship work?

• Which political parties are willing to come into school and which are good at inspiring
the pupils about politics?
• Which local issues impact upon your school?
• Which charities enable us to participate rather than simply raise money?
• Are there any local groups set up to support teaching citizenship?
• Does the local university teach citizenship; if so, at what level and how can we join
in?

OTHER AREAS OF SUPPORT

The obvious place to look for support is among the advanced skills teachers of citizenship.
These people are employed to support the development of citizenship in schools. They have
a wealth of ideas and enthusiasm.
There is also the Association of Citizenship Teachers, which produces an excellent journal
and organises conferences. (See www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk.)
The CitizEd website (www.citized.info) is similarly full of ideas. Even though this is
intended for trainee teachers, you will visit it time after time as it includes plans, discussions
and articles.
Don’t forget the QCA (www.qca.org.uk), DfES (www.dfes.gov.uk) and Ofsted
(www.ofsted.gov.uk) websites. There is plenty of useful material on all of them. Inspecting
Citizenship 11–16 from Ofsted is very good as a tool for self-evaluation of teaching and
learning in citizenship.
Any consideration of charities and pressure groups is quickly outdated and doomed to
be partial, but there are some we would recommend as we use them on the PGCE course:

• Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org.uk)

• Citizenship Foundation (www.citfou.org.uk)
• European Parliament (www.europarl.eu.int)
• Holocaust Education Trust (www.het.org.uk)
• Institute for Citizenship (www.citizen.org.uk)
• Let’s Kick Racism out of Football (www.kickitout.org.uk)
• Teachers in Development Education (www.tidec.org)
• Unicef (www.unicef.org.uk)

For a more exhaustive list of websites, see Appendix Three in Gearon (2003).

CASE STUDY: PROMOTING CITIZENSHIP THROUGH A

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY
I [Russell Manning] taught history for ten years in a comprehensive school in Dudley. In
2002 I travelled to a neighbouring school and had the privilege of listening to an Auschwitz
survivor talk about his wartime experiences. The pupils and teachers who heard these
recollections were inevitably moved. This encounter brought history to life and engendered
a feeling of empathy for those who had to endure such terrible suffering. After witnessing
the success of this day I decided to arrange a similar event at my school for the whole of
year 9.
At the time I was a teacher of history, not a head of department, and had no responsibility
for promoting citizenship. Below is a description of the procedure I went through in order
to organise this event.

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Getting the ‘go ahead’

1 Before you mention your ideas to anyone else ensure that you are very clear in your own
mind as to why you want such a day to take place. I wanted this day to occur for two
main reasons:

• to enhance pupils’ understanding of the importance of a recent historical event;

• to develop pupils’ understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens in a
modern democracy.

2 Check with your head of department/faculty that they think it is both a good idea and
practicable.
3 Discuss with other colleagues in the department/faculty and seek out their views and
advice. A departmental meeting can be used to plan what needs to be done.
4 Before approaching the relevant senior manager ensure an appropriate venue is
available and that your event does not clash with any other on the school calendar.
5 Once all the above has been clarified approach the appropriate senior manager/
headteacher and explain:

• why it is such a good idea

• why there is no practical reason why it should not take place.

6 Once you have the go ahead, advertise this day to all staff as soon as possible. They then
have time to point out any potential problems and voice objections, advice and support.

Organising the day

Head of department. Pupils. Hand out letter

Members of
Does he/she think it is a and prepare
your department.
good idea? lessons.

Event co-ordinator The whole staff,

The appropriate (Teacher of history). including caretakers
form tutors Who do I have to (arrangement of
liaise with? furniture).

Administration staff. Parents. Ask Communicate with Other staff that can
Typing letters. Producing for financial those governors help, e.g. head of
resources. Setting up contribution. interested in attending music setting up the
equipment on the day. the day. PA system.

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How did I publicise the event?

Local press.

Newsletter. Publicising the event School brochure.

Pupils’ work displayed Publishing results of

in prominent parts Parents’ evening. pupil evaluation in the
of the school. school newsletter.

How did this day help to market citizenship?

The process of organising the day helped to raise the profile of citizenship and helped my
career development. As a teacher of history, organising this day raised my profile and the
status of citizenship within the department, in the faculty, and with staff in other depart-
ments, senior managers, the headteacher, governors, parents and pupils. My central role
certainly helped me become the head of history within a few years. The headteacher was
extremely supportive for two reasons:

• He strongly approved of the purpose of the day.

• He saw this as a good training opportunity for someone he wanted to promote to
middle management. He in a sense was empowering a member of staff to organise and
take decisions that would have significant implications for a whole day’s learning
within his school. Busher and Harris (1999: 306) refer to ‘shared or devolved leadership
activity where leadership activity is not chiefly the preserve of the headteacher’. This
shared leadership can lead to a vibrant culture within a school where even relatively
inexperienced teachers can initiate events that can enhance the curriculum.

The organisation of this day helped to develop collegiality within the department, faculty and
school. Planning introductory lessons, activities during the day and follow-up lessons
enabled the RE, geography and history departments to share good practice. This co-operative
approach helped the Humanities Faculty to develop a greater sense of identity. Busher and
Harris (1999) refer to the need for a head of department to foster collegiality by helping to
shape and establish a shared vision. This collaborative approach towards planning ensured
those staff involved felt empowered and valued, while the culture of shared values and sense
of common direction certainly helped the Humanities Faculty to become a more coherent
group that could communicate more easily and drive further initiatives. Greater sharing of
pedagogy across the faculty was developed through the process of staff sitting down and
planning lessons together.
This improvement in communication extended further than the Humanities Faculty. As
the co-ordinator, I needed to liaise with form tutors who would be involved in supervising
and chairing discussion work during the day. This helped to develop a sense of collegiality
across the whole school. Busher and Harris (1999) point out that if teachers spend time

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together and work together, friendship groups might well develop. I would say this was the
case during the process of organising and supervising this event as it enabled enthusiastic,
energetic and committed teachers with a wide variety of different experiences to work
together across departments towards a common goal.
Communicating to pupils what the day was about through preparatory lessons, the day
itself and follow-up lessons delivered by all of the humanities departments helped them to
understand that teachers could work together across departments with a shared vision. As
a year group all involved in the same work at the same time, pupils talked about issues linked
to the event as a year group rather than as individual classes. The pupils felt empowered as
they were given the opportunity to ask questions and at the end of the process completed
evaluation forms. The statistics generated by the completion of these forms were displayed
within the school and published in the weekly newsletter. Pupils’ work generated as a
result of the day was displayed on boards in the main school reception area. Parents were
sent letters before the day explaining its focus. This led to a number of them asking if they
could take part during the day. At parents’ evening the majority mentioned the event and
were extremely positive and interested. Enthusiastic governors attended the day, taking part
in discussion sessions with pupils that were held between the addresses of two guest
speakers. The local press were invited to cover the event, strengthening links with the local
community.
Overall, this Holocaust Memorial Day led to greater collegiality among the staff, a sense
of shared purpose among an entire year group, and heightened awareness of what was going
on in the school among parents, governors and the local community.

REFERENCES
Barker, B. (2005) ‘Transforming Schools: Illusion or Reality?’ School Leadership and Management,
25, 2: 99–116
Bennett, N. (1999) ‘Middle Management in Secondary Schools: Introduction’, School
Leadership and Management, 19, 3: 289–92
Brundrett, M. and Terrell, I. (eds) (2004) Learning to Lead in the Secondary School, London:
RoutledgeFalmer
Busher, H. (2005) ‘Being a Middle Leader: Exploring Professional Identities’, School Leadership
and Management 25, 2: 137–53
Busher, H. and Harris, A. (1999) ‘Leadership of School Subject Areas: Tensions and
Dimensions of Management in the Middle’, School Leadership and Management, 19, 3:
305–17
Davies, L., Harber, C. and Yamashita, H. (2005) Global Citizenship Education: The Needs of
Teachers and Learners, Birmingham: Centre for International Education Research, School
of Education, University of Birmingham
DfES (2004) ‘The School Evaluation Tool for Citizenship Education’, available at www.
dfes.gov.uk/citizenship
Fleming, P. (2000) The Art of Middle Management in Secondary Schools, London: David Fulton
Gearon, L. (ed.) (2003) Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School, London:
RoutledgeFalmer
Hannam, C., Smyth, P. and Stephenson, N. (1976) The First Year of Teaching, London:
Penguin
Holden, C. (2004) ‘“Heaven Help the Teachers”: Parents’ Perspectives on the Introduction
of Education for Citizenship’, Educational Review, 56, 3: 247–58
Jackson, D. (2005)’Learning to be Teachers: Building the Confidence to Explore Global Issues’,
Tidetalk, 3: 24–5
Morrison, A. and McIntyre, D. (1969) Teachers and Teaching, London: Penguin
Ofsted (2002) Inspecting Citizenship 11–16 with Guidance on Self-Evaluation, London: 719
—— (2005) Citizenship in Secondary Schools: Evidence from Ofsted Inspections (2003/04) London:
Ofsted

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Oplatka, I., Hemsley-Brown, J. and Foskett N. (2002) ‘The Voice of Teachers in Marketing
Their School: Personal Perspectives in Competitive Environments’, School Leadership and
Management, 22, 2: 177–96
Potter, J. (2002) Active Citizenship in Schools: A Good Practice Guide to Developing a Whole School
Policy, London: Kogan Page

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 Researching citizenship
Chapter 10
LIAM GEARON

INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides a brief outline of some recent critiques of educational research and
some research contexts for citizenship education. It will not be able to focus in depth on
these issues, but it will provide parameters of debate among communities of educational
researchers in general and those interested in citizenship education research in particular. The
questions posed, responded to and investigated by researchers in citizenship education form
a small part of a wider context of educational research, and of course a relationship between
citizenship and substantive disciplines which have defined its subject matter, such as the
arts and humanities, economics, international relations, politics, science, etc. If debates over
research priorities in citizenship education will tend naturally to vary depending upon
present-day matters of import, many issues – democracy, the distribution of wealth, the
environment, sustainable development, politics and governance – and educational responses
to these are perennial and likely to be the focus for attention at local, national and global
dimensions for the foreseeable future.
Research surveys of school curricula around the world have shown considerable inter-
national interest in citizenship education:

During the 1990s there has been a resurgence of interest in Civic and Citizenship
Education. The number of formal democracies in the world has increased from 76 (46.1%)
to 117 (61.3%). This has been described as the ‘third wave of democracy’ related to sig-
nificant world events such as the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the democratisation of former communist states in Eastern Europe and the disinte-
gration of the Soviet Union. Civic education programmes have become an increasingly
important means for countries to educate citizens about their rights and responsibilities.
Increasing pluralism within states has encouraged the development of civic education
programmes that go beyond simple ‘patriotic’ models of citizenship requiring uncritical
loyalty to the nation state. By defining ‘citizenship’ in terms of human rights and civic
responsibilities, civic education programmes attempt to avoid concepts of ‘citizenship’
that define nationality in terms of ethnic, religious or cultural identity. The aspiration
is that concepts of citizenship based on human rights and responsibilities may make it
more difficult to mobilise political conflict around identity issues. It has therefore become
the norm for modern civic education programmes to have a strong human rights values
base, to make specific reference to children’s rights and address issues related to diversity
and the rights of minorities within society.
(www.unesco.org; follow links to ‘Citizenship’; accessed 17/9/05)

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Teachers beginning a career in the teaching of citizenship will have come to the profession
from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. This chapter aims to consolidate previous
chapters in this volume which dealt with the development of subject knowledge in citizen-
ship and to provide a framework for the generation of new knowledge – that is, a basic outline
of some research questions in citizenship – and to provide some of the parameters for this as
an undertaking within educational research.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter the reader should have a grasp of:

• some basic critiques of educational research;

• some research contexts in citizenship education.

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Jean-François Lyotard (1984) characterises the postmodern condition as one in which we
have witnessed the end of ‘grandnarratives’, broad and general religious, philosophical or
scientific accounts of our world. He suggests that we can no longer depend upon such
grandnarratives to explain our world, in the broadest sense the human condition, and that
this situation, which could be defined as a crisis of knowledge, defines the postmodern con-
dition. In this postmodern condition, our knowledge of the world is contingent, dependent
upon the particular historical and cultural contexts, and cannot be said to be universal
(Popper, 1959, 1998; Sarup, 1987; Smart, 1993; Kuhn, 1996).
Of course, this is all open to challenge. In educational research, as in philosophy, the ques-
tion of epistemology, of what constitutes knowledge, of how we can be sure we know what
we know, remain equally critical (Berg, 2001; Cohen et al., 2000; McNiff et al., 2003; Robson,
2003), and equally so if we remain unclear about the ethical dimensions of that which we
are investigating and the means we are using to generate new knowledge (McNamee and
Bridges, 2003). Without some grasp of these underlying epistemological questions the
furtherance of new knowledge can tend to be superficial, and the question of what new
knowledge is in educational research is under constant scrutiny by philosophers of education
(Bridges, 2003; Pring, 2004). All research therefore needs not only a grasp of some basic
tools for gathering new knowledge (a method) but also a wider conceptual framework (a
methodology) to place that new knowledge within a wider context of how we know what
we know. In research, then, methodology is the conceptual framework wherein we seek to
frame and attain knowledge of our field of research; method is the application (through
practical ‘tools’ – interviews, surveys, philosophical reflection) whereby we seek to add to
knowledge in our field of research. In research, we return constantly to the question of
epistemology: what do we know and how can we be sure that we know it? Research is thus
as much about presenting an understanding of the parameters in which we define such
knowledge as about the knowledge we are presenting. The present-day ‘crisis’ in educational
research is as much about a crisis in knowledge as about policy or practice.
Pring (2004) presents a succinct and authoritative eight-chapter overview of the major
philosophical issues in educational research. He identifies four criticisms of educational
research (see also Pring, 2000):

• Research doesn’t provide governments with the information they require for decision-
making on policy.
• Research doesn’t help professional practice.
• Research is too often fragmented.
• Research is often tendentious or politically motivated.

The suggested solutions to this problem might be:

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• Develop a cumulative body of knowledge (and especially evidence-based knowledge,

including systematic research reviews).
• Develop increased involvement of professionals, like teachers, in the research process.

For the reasons outlined by Pring, under pressure from those who provide funding for
research (funders want evidence that research will make a difference), current trends are
towards an ‘evidence-based’ model in educational research. We can see this when we look
at who does research, at ‘communities of researchers’.

GENERIC EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS

• British Educational Research Association (BERA). Visit www.bera.ac.uk and
follow links to the downloadable reviews of research. The BERA website also
shows the international dimension of research, nowhere more evident than in
links to the European Education Research Association (EERA) and the American
Educational Research Association (AERA).
• The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre
(EPPI). Visit http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk and follow links to systematic reviews.
• Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, www.pesgb.ac.uk. The ency-
clopedic references will be useful as a source of future reference, and also to
demonstrate the importance of questions of philosophy and epistemology, and
show that not all research has to be empirical, that without a philosophical
framework, empirical research can be overly led by current-day policy concerns
and may lack depth or lasting worth.

Activity 10.1

Visit one of the above-listed educational research websites. Many of the listed
research communities focus on matters of importance to teachers of citizenship,
such as personal and social education. BERA has an official special interest group
(SIG) on social justice.
Look at the BERA website and search for the abstracts of papers presented at its
annual conference (you could do the same for EERA or AERA) and download those
related to research in citizenship education. One thing you might notice from such
an activity is that much research of relevance to citizenship educators might not
have an explicit citizenship title.
To what extent is research in citizenship education a feature of wider aspects
of the work of educational researchers? Are there special issues or difficulties in
researching citizenship education?

Activity 10.2

Outline a broad area of interest you might have in researching within citizenship
education. If you are working in a group, share the broad areas of interest and
discuss the reasons for your interest.

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The critique of educational research highlighted by Pring in philosophical terms is likely to

colour the educational research scene for many years to come. Ongoing discussion is found
in one of the key arenas for debate, the British Educational Research Journal. Here, Oancea
(2005) provides a detailed overview of the generic issues of policy, practice, the generation
of knowledge and the general usefulness of educational research:

The late 1990s have seen at least two discourses emerge and consolidate, one lamenting
the misbehaviour of educational research from a managerial perspective (associated
with a ‘big science’ model of knowledge production and an ‘engineering’ model of
knowledge use), and the other attempting to defend it in the name of academic freedom
and right to diversity, or to reinstate it through a humanistic model of knowledge
transfer. Such allegedly antagonistic discourses about educational research are the focus
of a variety of conference papers, journal editorials or book reviews . . . The role of the
educational researchers is conceptualised differently, from that of a ‘technician’ meant
to deliver answers of ‘what works’ to that of the ‘public’ or ‘critical’ intellectual whose
accountability should be defined not in terms of immediate impact of national policies
informed by research findings, but as a capacity for producing localised, transferable
knowledge. Nonetheless, a worry is present that some rather anachronistic ‘paradigm
wars’ threaten to be rekindled by pushing forward some ad hoc ‘folk devils’ or by ‘getting
the ghosts out to repeat themselves’ . . . and therefore that often the deeper complexities
of the matter and their philosophical underpinnings remain outside the epicentre of the
debate.
(Oancea, 2005: 157–8)

Oancea surveys a wealth of educational research and three key analyses of educational
research: Hargreaves (1996); Tooley and Darby (1998); and Hillage et al. (1998). From these
she presents an analysis of documents from the late twentieth century (1996–8; see also Pring,
2004) as a guide to those issues and approaches that have emerged in the twenty-first. She
analyses the critiques of educational research of Hargreaves (1996), Tooley and Darby (1998)
and Hillage et al. (1998):

• core topics/targets of criticisms;

• rhetorical devices for expressing criticism;
• philosophical themes/presuppositions

Below, by way of example, are some of the criticisms listed under ‘core topics/targets of
criticisms’.

SUMMARY OF CRITICISMS OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

FROM OANCEA’S REVIEW (2005: 166–7)
• the commissioning of research. The procedures for funding were criticised for being
unsystematic, politically biased and based on processes, such as peer reviewing,
that would exclude users’ input. Also the choice of priorities was commented
upon as being misdirected, uncoordinated and supply-driven;
• the abilities, attitudes and practices of the actors involved. The researchers were
deemed guilty of insufficient training and of partisanship in the conduct and
presentation of their research, in argumentation, in their choice of focus and
priorities. Nonetheless, the practitioners and policy-makers, at an individual and
at a collective level, were also accused of being partisan and uncoordinated,
lacking interest in research, lacking ability to use research findings, and thus not
offering a strong user demand for research;

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• the organisation of research was criticised at all levels: publication – inefficient

refereeing procedures, pressure to publish; networking – lack of partnership,
lack of user involvement, isolation of university researchers; monitoring – inco-
herent, internally driven, self-validating; dissemination – linear, not targeted and
inefficient, correlated with a general lack of training for using research findings
and a lack of mediation; and assessment – quantitative orientation of RAE, low
standards, lack of codes of good practice;
• the methodology. Educational research was deemed non-reliable and inconclusive.
Much of this was charged to flaws of empirical research, especially qualitative –
lack of triangulation, sampling bias, purposeful distortion, ideological bias, etc.;
but also to flaws of non-empirical research, such as contentiousness, superficial
literature review, logical incoherence, excessive reliance upon secondary sources,
adulation of great thinkers;
• the outcomes of research were criticised in terms of presentation (omissions in
reporting, imprecision, emotional language, jargon, over-theoretical language,
etc.) and especially of impact of research (ineffectiveness in informing policy and
practice, irrelevance for solving practical problems or for undertaken purposes,
low contribution to any theoretical or methodological advancement, inaccessi-
bility to audiences, non-cumulativity).

Oancea draws upon the notion that there is a ‘new orthodoxy’ in educational research:

• ‘standards (model, criteria, codes) for good practice of research’, ‘value for money’
(Tooley and Darby, 1998);
• ‘body of knowledge’, ‘research-based profession’, ‘evidence-based research’, ‘rele-
vance for practice’, ‘user involvement’, ‘good value for money’, ‘national research
strategy’ (Hargreaves, 1996);
• ‘evidence-based policy and practice’, ‘strategic coherence and partnership’, ‘fitness for
purpose’, ‘quality assurance’, ‘accessible language’, ‘excellence in research’ (Hillage
et al., 1998).

One of the major drives of educational research, she concludes, then, is that educational
research is increasingly driven by political necessity, and a degree of pragmatism that might
potentially make researchers and research subject to a great extent to the behest of policy-
makers, who might also fund the research. The risk is that research becomes not only lacking
in independence but subject to a limited focus, because – despite the existence of research
councils – only research of interest to policy-makers may receive funding.

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION RESEARCH

Research in explicit citizenship education is as new as its post-Crick and post-National
Curriculum context. What we can call implicit citizenship also has antecedents from the
1970s onwards in relatively marginal initiatives in peace education, global studies, human
rights education and political education (Gearon, 2003a). With the advent of National
Curriculum citizenship many of the areas previously classified under such titles shifted
towards formal and explicit identification with citizenship. The most prominent review of
related research at this transitional phase linked citizenship to values education and to issues
around social justice in education or political education (Gearon, 2003a). The educational
trend towards making citizenship explicit is, however, a response to dramatic changes over
recent decades in the world in which we live. Increased complexity in many aspects of social

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and cultural, political and educational life has led to educational initiatives like citizenship.
Recent international research, for example, on wider factors influencing citizenship education
suggests that:

The last two decades have witnessed a fundamental review of the concept of citizenship
and what it involves in communities across the world. This review has been brought
about by the impact of the rapid pace of change in modern societies in the realms
of political, economic and social life and the need to respond to this impact. The pace of
change is having significant influence on the nature of relationships in modern society
at a number of levels, including within, between and across individuals, community
groups, states, nations, regions and economic and political blocs. This period of unprece-
dented and seemingly relentless change has succeeded in shifting and straining the
traditional, stable boundaries of citizenship in many societies. There has been particular
pressure on the nature of relationships between differing groups in society as well as
those between the individual and the state. The pressure has triggered a fundamental
review across societies of the concepts and practices that underpin citizenship.
(Kerr, 2003: 9)

A review of citizenship education across countries (Kerr, 1999a, 1999b, 2002, 2003) reveals
common sets of issues and challenges that the unprecedented pace of global change was
presenting to national educational systems, including:

• the rapid movement of people within and across national boundaries;

• a growing recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities;
• the collapse of existing political structures and the fledgling growth of new ones;
• the changing role and status of women in society;
• the impact of the global economy and changing patterns of work and trade on social,
economic and political ties;
• the effects of the revolution in information and communications technologies;
• an increasing global population and the consequences for the environment;
• the emergence of new forms of community and protest.
(Kerr, 2003: 9)

Citizenship education, then, is an active – and at present highly transitional – response to

these challenges (Gearon, 2003a, 2003c).

Activity 10.3

Given Pring’s and Oancea’s surveys of educational research and the problems with
which it is often beset, are there issues of a similar nature for those interested in
researching citizenship education? For example, does research in citizenship
education risk being seen, perhaps like citizenship itself, as too closely related to
government policy? Or too closely related to the problems of the day? Is this an
advantage of research in citizenship education, in that it is perpetually relevant?
Obviously this may be a very general discussion, to which you may wish to return
having considered Activity 10.4.

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While most research undertaken to date, with some exceptions, has been concerned with
philosophical or terminological issues about the meaning and definition of citizenship in
Crick and the implications of National Curriculum or syntheses of previously undertaken
research (McLaughlin, 1992, 2000; Crick, 1998; QCA 1999; 2001a–g; Heater, 1999; Flew, 2000;
Pearce and Hallgarten, 2000; Lawton et al., 2000; Scott, 2001; Gearon, 2003a–c), increasing
amounts of empirical research are available, within the UK, in Europe and globally. The
role of academic researchers – who may themselves be teachers and policy-makers – is to
highlight theoretical and empirical and/or evidence-based assessments of citizenship.
Such research can then inform practice – in community involvement, in classrooms, in
teacher training, in wider aspects of community involvement, in the light of diversity,
through to policy development, and so forth (Crick, 2001; Lindsay, 2001; Jackson, 2002;
Gearon, 2003a, 2003b; Maitles, 2005; Osler, 2000, 2005; Osler and Vincent, 2004; Osler and
Starkey, 2006).
Crick’s conceptual framework for citizenship was based upon the foundational definitions
of Marshall (1950) and adapted to identify three strands in citizenship which were to prove
important in its development as a National Curriculum subject: social and moral respon-
sibility; community involvement; and political literacy. The most substantial national and
international study of citizenship has been the IEA research published by NFER. This began
in 1999 before citizenship was a National Curriculum subject in England. It provided an
overview of approaches to citizenship education as well as a wealth of other contextual
information. (Torney-Purta et al., 1999; Steiner-Khamsi et al., 2002). Each participating country
tested and surveyed a representative national sample of fourteen-year-olds about their civic
knowledge, civic concepts and attitudes, and civic engagement and participation. Kerr et al.
(2002) include a summary of key findings:

• fourteen-year-olds in most countries, including England have an understanding of

fundamental democratic values and institutions, but depth of understanding is an
issue;
• there is a positive correlation between civic knowledge and participation in democratic
life. Specifically, the higher students’ civic knowledge, the more likely they are to
participate in political and civic activities as adults;
• there is scepticism among students in England about traditional forms of political
engagement, with the exception of voting. Young people are more open to other forms
of involvement in civic life, such as collecting money for a social cause or participation
in non-violent protests;
• schools and community organisations have untapped potential to influence the civic
preparation of young people positively;
• schools that model democratic values and practices, and encourage students to discuss
issues in the classroom and take an active role in the life of the school, are most effective
in promoting civic knowledge and engagement. However, this approach is not the
norm in many schools;
• teachers recognise the importance of citizenship education in preparing young people
for citizenship;
• taken together, there is some evidence that the attitudes and beliefs of young people
in the study confirm the growth of a ‘new civic culture’.

In this regard citizenship education and citizenship education research are arguably unique
in their subject matter, their focus often being upon the necessarily shifting context of
national, regional and global political institutions and the problems which confront these.
Citizenship and research into the subject provide both teacher and student with a wealth
of immensely relevant and important subject matter. A timeline of the historical issues
confronted and dealt with by the United Nations (how effectively is, of course, a matter of
political debate) demonstrates this well: in the post-Second World War, post-Holocaust
period when the United Nations was formed to counteract totalitarianism through a common

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model of democratic governance based on universal human rights to current-day issues of

world poverty, environmental crisis and global terrorism.

ASPECTS OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION RESEARCH – EMERGENT

CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES
Visit www.un.org for a global picture of emergent cultural, economic, social and political
issues among the nation states of the United Nations. A particularly useful advanced
database resource for further research is the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
Again, visit www.un.org and follow links. For an authoritative independent source for
international law, see the Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL)
at www.eisil.org and follow links.

Activity 10.4

• Visit the UN website. What are main areas of concern for the UN? Are there
any areas of particular relevance to education? Or to citizenship education in
particular?
• Visit the UNESCO website to see how the political concerns of the UN are
translated into educational programmes for curriculum development and
research.
• Devise a research task for pupils to investigate an aspect of global importance
in the UN system, and with relevance to the local school community.

Activity 10.5

Refer to Activity 10.2, above. Try to refine your broad area of interest into a specific
research question. For example, ‘What is the extent of pupils’ knowledge and
understanding of the United Nations [or UNESCO, or the Commonwealth, or the
European Union, or the Council of Europe, etc.]?’
Educational research is a technical and complex process, integrally connected
to the pursuit of new knowledge and thus to epistemological questions about
what constitutes new (or any) knowledge. Educational research is closely related
to the social sciences but not all educational research is empirical; some will be
philosophical.
Use one of the standard textbooks on educational research (for instance, Robson,
2003; Cohen et al., 2000), and consider what method (questionnaire, survey,
interview, etc.) you might use in order to investigate your research question. Use
Ian Davies’s guide ‘Research’ in the Citized induction pack (see box below) to see
whether there is any possibility of developing the idea further.

There is an increasing amount of research being undertaken today on issues of critical

significance and importance to both national and international communities as well as
citizenship education, including, for instance, a major study at the National Foundation
for Educational Research (NFER) ‘Citizenship Education: Longitudinal Study in England’

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LIAM GEARON

(from 2001 to 2009, with the first report published in 2002, and the 2005 report surveying a
pupil cohort of 6,400; see www.nfer.ac.uk and follow links). The political problems of history
as well as those of the present day are potential subjects for citizenship education research.
The box below provides a selective list of some key hubs of information, from lists of academic
resources for undertaking research and organisations that use research in citizenship to
organisations that undertake citizenship education research.

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

RESEARCH

UK-based

BECAL
The BeCaL Bibliography is a collection of academic sources (paper, abstracts, related
references) in values education, including citizenship education. The BeCaL Database
is part of the Values, Education and Learning Gateway; visit www.becal.org.uk.

CITIZED
The website www.citized.info (follow links) provides a major source of current informa-
tion on citizenship in initial teacher training. The induction pack provides a systematic
range of resources for all aspects of citizenship teaching and training:

TEACHING UNITS

Citizenship Education for Sustainable Development in Initial Teacher Training

Community & Diverse Communities – Andrew Peterson
Community Action for Sustainable Development – John Huckle
Ethics and Tolerance – Robert Bowie
Global Conflict – Ian Davies
Justice and the Law – Andrew Peterson
Schools Councils – Ian Davies

ITT PROGRAMMES

Citizenship – Subject Knowledge – Peter Brett

Effective Transition KS2–KS3 – Hilary Claire and Cathie Holden
Making Citizenship Teacher Education Courses Become More Active and Participative – Janet
Palmer
Post 14 Citizenship Examinations – Ralph Leighton
Standards Relevant to the Achievement of Qualified Teacher Status in Citizenship – Ian Davies
Subject Co-ordination for Citizenship Education – Lynn Revell

THEME: RESEARCH

Applying for External Funding – Ian Davies

Higher Degrees – Ian Davies

THEME: RESOURCES

Citizenship Organisations and Resources – Roma Woodhead

Resources for Teaching Citizenship: A Guide for Beginning Teachers of Citizenship – Peter Brett
The theme of ‘Research’ is obviously most relevant to this chapter but research requires
an integrated approach to the development of knowledge, such as is possible.

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 RESEARCHING CITIZENSHIP

BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Visit the BERA website, www.bera.ac.uk, and look for systematic reviews relevant to
citizenship, including Gearon (2003a).

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

The ESRC, www.esrc.ac.uk, is the major funding council for economic and social
research in the UK, and has citizenship as a significant strand in its funding priorities.

EVIDENCE FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE CO-ORDINATING CENTRE

EPPI is based at the Institute of Education. It has undertaken systematic reviews of
empirical research in citizenship education and is a most useful hub for research; visit
http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk

NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH (NFER)

Visit www.nfer.ac.uk and follow links. NFER is a major funding organisation and
undertaker of educational research.

QUALIFICATIONS AND CURRICULUM AUTHORITY (QCA, UK)

The website, www.qca.org.uk, contains links to curriculum material, including National
Curriculum citizenship.

TEACHERNET
The website, www.teachernet.org.uk, has extensive reference points for curriculum
development rather than research but it is still useful.

JOURNALS
Generic journals of educational research are too numerous to list but those associated
with professional educational research are important. Specific to citizenship education
research: Education, Citizenship and Social Justice (see www.sagepublications.com and
follow links); International Journal of Citizenship and Teacher Education (see www.
citized.info and follow links); Reflecting Education (see www.reflectingeducation.net and
follow links; volume 1, number 3 is dedicated to citizenship).

Europe-wide

COUNCIL OF EUROPE
This body declared 2005 the European Year of Citizenship through Education, and its
website provides a Europe-wide resource of recent research in citizenship and education
for democratic citizenship (EDC); visit www.coe.int/edc and follow links.

EUROPEAN UNION
The newly expanded European Union has, like the Council of Europe, a considerable
interest in harmonising notions of European identity, and thus prioritising notions of
citizenship across its member states; visit http://europa.eu.int/and follow links.

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LIAM GEARON

EURYDICE
The website www.eurydice.org provides an excellent resource for empirical resource
across Europe.

US-based and worldwide

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

(IEA)
IEA (2004) Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age 14 in 28 Countries: Results from the IEA
Civic Education Study by Judith Torney-Purta, Jo-Ann Amadeo and Rainer Lehmann; the
most important worldwide source for citizenship or civics education research, with
links at www.indiana.edu and www.iea.nl.

UNITED NATIONS
The website www.un.org is one of the most underused resources in global education,
superb for all issues in citizenship, including economics, environment and global
terrorism, and outstanding as a resource on human rights. Responses by nation states
to the UN’s International Decade for Human Rights Education, including curricula
incorporating citizenship and human rights, can be found at http://ap.ohchr.org/
documents.

UNESCO
The website www.unesco.org, another highly usable resource, has much specific work
on citizenship education research.

USERS OF RESEARCH: PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS)

• Citized (www.citized.info)
• Citizenship Foundation (www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk)
• Institute for Citizenship (www.ifc.org.uk)

Activity 10.6

Discussion: In the light of Activities 10.1–5, discuss how research might be used in
developing the quality of classroom teaching in citizenship education.

SUMMARY
Citizenship education research globally is at an important stage in its development. Research
in citizenship education will need to address many of the challenges posed within and raised
by educational research; the wider political significance of research in citizenship might yet
make a contribution to more general debates on the usefulness of education research.

REFERENCES
Arthur, J., Davison, J. and Stow, W. (2000) Social Literacy, Citizenship Education and the National
Curriculum, Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University.

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Berg, B.L. (2001) Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 4th edn, Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
Bridges, D. (2003) Fiction Written under Oath? Essays in Philosophy and Educational Research,
London: Kluwer Academic.
Clark, C. (2005) ‘The structure of educational research’, British Educational Research Journal 31,
3: 289–309.
Cohen, L., Mannion, L. and Morrison, K. (2000) Research Methods in Education, 5th edn,
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Cogan, J. and Derricott, R. (1998) Citizenship for the 21st Century, London: Kogan Page.
Crick, B. (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools: Final Report
of the Advisory Group on Citizenship, London: QCA.
—- (ed.) (2001) Citizens: Towards a Citizenship Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.
Flew, A. (2000) Education for Citizenship, London: IEA Studies in Education.
Gearon, L. (2003a) How Do We Learn to Become Good Citizens?: A Professional User Review of UK
Research, London: British Educational Research Association.
—— (2003b) The Human Rights Handbook: A Global Perspective for Education, Stoke-on-Trent
and Sterling, VA: Trentham.
—— (ed.) (2003c) Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School, London: Routledge.
Hammersley, M. (2002) Educational Research, Policymaking and Practice, London: Paul
Chapman.
—— (2005) ‘Countering the “new orthodoxy” in educational research: a response to Phil
Hodkinson’, British Educational Research Journal 31, 2: 139–55.
Hargreaves, D.H. (1996) ‘Teaching as a Research Based Profession: Possibilities and
Prospects’, Teacher Training Agency Annual Lecture, London.
Heater, D. (1999) What is Citizenship? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hillage, J., Pearson, R., Anderson, A. and Tamkin, P. (1998) Excellence in Research on Schools,
report for the Department for Education and Employment, London: DfEE.
Jackson, R. (2002) International Perspectives on Citizenship, Education and Religious Diversity,
London: Routledge.
Kerr, D. (1999a) Re-examining Citizenship Education: The Case of England, Slough: NFER.
—— (1999b) Citizenship Education: An International Comparison, London: QCA/NFER.
—— (2000) ‘The Making of Citizenship in the National Curriculum (England): Issues and
Challenges’, paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER),
University of Edinburgh, 22 September.
—— (2002). ‘An international review of citizenship in the curriculum: the IEA national case
studies and the INCA archive’, in G. Steiner-Khamsi, J. Torney-Purta and J. Schwille (eds),
New Paradigms and Recurring Paradoxes in Education for Citizenship, Amsterdam: Elsevier
Press.
—— (2003) ‘Citizenship education in international perspective’, in L. Gearon (ed.), Learning
to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School, London: Routledge.
Kerr, D., Lines, A., Blenkinsop, S. and Schagen, I. (2001) Citizenship and Education at Age 14:
A Summary of the International Findings and Preliminary Results for England, Slough: NFER.
Kerr, D., Lines, A., Blenkinsop, S. and Schagen, I. (2002) What Citizenship and Education Mean
to 14-Year-Olds: England’s Results from the IEA Citizenship Education Study, London:
DfES/NFER.
Kuhn, T. (1996) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd edn, Chicago: Chicago University
Press.
Lawton, D., Cairns, J. and Gardner, R. (2000) Education for Citizenship, London: Continuum.
Lindsay, I. (2001) ‘The voluntary sector’, in B. Crick (ed.), Citizens: Towards a Citizenship
Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: An Enquiry into Knowledge, Manchester:
Manchester University Press.
McLaughlin, T.H. (1992) ‘Citizenship, diversity and education: a philosophical perspective’,
Journal of Moral Education 21, 3: 235–50.

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—— (2000) ‘Citizenship education in England: the Crick Report and beyond’, Journal of
Philosophy of Education 34, 4: 541–70.
McNamee, M. and Bridges, D. (eds) (2003) Ethics and Educational Research, Oxford: Blackwell.
McNiff, J. Lomax, P. and White, J. (2003) You and Your Action Research Project, 2nd edn,
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Maitles, H. (2005) Values in Education – We’re all Citizens Now, Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic
Press.
Marshall, T.H. (1950) Social Class and Citizenship, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Nash, N. (2005) ‘Explanation and quantification in educational research: the arguments of
critical and scientific realism’, British Educational Research Journal 31, 2: 185–204.
NFER (2005) ‘Citizenship Education: Longitudinal Study in England’, available at:
www.nfer.ac.uk.
NFER/DfEE (2002) Citizenship Education: Longitudinal Study, 2002–2009, Slough: NFER.
Oancea, A. (2005) ‘Criticisms of educational research: key topics and levels of analysis’, British
Educational Research Journal 31, 2: 157–84.
Osler, A. (2005) Teachers, Human Rights and Diversity, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
—— (ed.)) (2000) Citizenship and Democracy in Schools: Diversity, Identity, Equality, Stoke-on-
Trent: Trentham Books.
Osler, A. and Starkey, H. (2006) Education For Democratic Citizenship: A Review of Research,
Policy and Practice 1995–2005, London: British Educational Research Association.
Osler, A. and Vincent, K. (2004) Citizenship and the Challenge of Global Education, Stoke-on-
Trent: Trentham.
Pearce, N. and Hallgarten, P. (2000) Tomorrow’s Citizens, London: IPPR.
Popper, K. (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—— (1998) Unended Quest, London: Routledge.
Pring, R. (2000) ‘The ‘false dualism’ of educational research’, Journal of Philosophy of Education
34, 2: 247–60.
—— (2004) Philosophy of Education Research, 2nd edn, London and New York: Continuum.
QCA (1999) National Curriculum Handbooks for Primary and Secondary Teachers, London:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001a) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 3, London: Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001b) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 4, London: Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001c) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 3: Teacher’s Guide, London:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001d) Citizenship: A Scheme of Work for Key Stage 4: Teacher’s Guide, London:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001e) Citizenship: Key Stages 3–4, London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority).
—— (2001f) Getting Involved: Extending Opportunities for Pupil Participation (KS3), London:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
—— (2001g) Staying Involved: Extending Opportunities for Pupil Participation (KS4), London:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
Robson, C. (2003) Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-
Researchers, 2nd edn, Oxford: Blackwell.
Sarup, M. (1987) An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism, 2nd edn,
Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Scott, D. (ed.) (2001) Curriculum Journal, 11, special issue: ‘Responses to Crick’.
Smart, B. (1993) Postmodernity, London: Routledge.
Steiner-Khamsi, G., Torney-Purta, J. and Schwille, J. (eds) (2002) New Paradigms and Recurring
Paradoxes in Education for Citizenship, Amsterdam: Elsevier Press.
Tooley, J. and Darby, D. (1998) Educational Research: A Critique of Published Educational Research,
report for the Office for Standards in Education, London: Ofsted.

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Torney-Purta, J., Schwille, J. and Amadeo, J.-A. (eds) (1999) Civic Education across Countries:
24 Case Studies from the IEA Civic Education Project, Amsterdam: International Association
for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H. and Schulz, W. (2001) Citizenship and Education in
Twenty-eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Participation at Age Fourteen, Amsterdam:
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

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 Appendix to Chapter 3

CITIZENSHIP AT GCSE AND A LEVEL – AQA AND OCR

SUBJECT CONTENT

AQA Short GCSE OCR Short GCSE AQA Advanced

course in Citizenship course in Citizenship subsidiary GCE in
Studies (2006–7) Studies Social Science:
Citizenship

www.aqa.org.uk www.ocr.org.uk www.aqa.org.uk

The Nature of Definitions of

Citizenship citizenship, and
contemporary debates
about the citizen in the
modern state.
Individualist and
communitarian views
of citizenship.
The changing nature of
ideologies of
conservatism, liberalism
and socialism, including
the concept of post-
ideological politics. The
extent to which such
ideas are used to frame
contemporary debates
about citizenship.

Conflict Resolution Issues relating to one Dealing with conflict Sources of power and
current area of through responsible authority in groups;
international conflict or voluntary action, and decision-making;
co-operation. other processes of strategies for resolving
bringing about social conflict and achieving
change. Key points of collaboration, both
one topical international formal (e.g., voting),
conflict. and informal (e.g.,
persuasion and
negotiation).

Community How power and Interdependence and Community and

authority are exercised mutual respect between individual responsibility.
within school. individuals and Influence of socialisation

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How schools can promote communities. Processes in creating differently

equal opportunities and of change within empowered citizens.
reflect the diverse communities, and the Differences in life-
multicultural nature of role of individuals and chances in relation to
society. groups in bringing health, education and
about social change. employment. Anti-
Formal and informal discrimination policies
processes of meeting and equal opportunities.
local needs. Individual, structural and
Discrimination and its cultural explanations of
social and legal poverty and inequality;
implications. consequences for
citizens, families and
society.

Culture and Race How ethnic identity, How rights and Influences on voting
culture and religion can responsibilities are behaviour such as class,
affect community life. viewed within different age, ethnicity, gender,
cultures. The nature of religion and region.
ethnic, religious, national The influence of class,
and regional identities. gender, sexuality,
ethnicity, age and
nationality on both
participation in society
and the construction of a
citizen’s identity.

Business and Economics Legal and moral rights Consumer rights and
and responsibilities responsibilities.
of employers and Employer and employee
employees. How a case rights and responsibilities.
study or work experience Employer and employee
company relates to organisations.
other businesses and Fair and unfair trade.
contributes to the local
and national economy.
How individuals and
businesses use financial
services.

Human Rights Moral and legal rights Rights and responsibilities The citizen’s legal,
and responsibilities of in school/college. political and social
parents, teachers and International human rights. Universal rights
students. Issues of rights. and duties. Civil liberties
disputed human rights in Britain, Europe and
globally. Human Rights
Act. Freedom of
information.

Crime, Justice and Young people and the Criminal and civil law. The courts and
the Law law, including consumer, Criminal and civil courts. alternatives such as ADR,
race relations, human How courts interpret tribunals, ombudsmen.
rights and age-related the law. The legal profession,
legislation. How laws advice and
are made and how courts representation. The
use the law. Criminal citizen’s voice in legal
and civil law. The role of process. The rights of the
police, magistrates, police and the accused.
solicitors, barristers, The prosecution process.
judges and juries. Law enforcement – uses
and dangers.

The Voluntary Sector How individuals can The role of self-help The private and
bring about change groups, special interest voluntary sectors.

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APPENDIX

through voluntary groups, charities and Examples of local action

organisations. community groups. (such as self-help) which
Arguments for and may enhance social
against aid from richer inclusion, or local
to poorer countries. pressure groups which
may support local
community interests –
e.g., the local
environment.

Parliament and Power and authority at The relationship between Theories and forms of
Democracy local, national and government and representation:
devolved governmental Parliament. How bills elections, manifestos
levels. Referendums, become law. Universal and the mandate.
elections and suffrage, rights and Powers and main
participation in political responsibilities to take responsibilities of elected
parties. part in elections. representatives, from
Regional parliaments and parish, district and
assemblies in the UK. county councillors to
MPs and MEPs.

Media in Society The importance of a free Culture and the media. Elected representatives’
press. The responsibilities Law and the media. interaction with the
of the media. Media and Politics and the media. media. Use of the media
formation of public Government and the and the internet to
opinion. media. Global issues and influence voting
the media. The role of behaviour. The use of
the media and the the media in
internet in international campaigning on local,
affairs. national or global issues.
Local, national and
global influences of the
media: competing
debates and models such
as consensus and
pluralist. Agenda setting
and the issue of bias.
The processes of
labelling and
stereotyping in the
media.

Government and How government Government Debates about welfare

Public Services exercises power, responsibilities for the and the state. Housing,
authority and economy and public health care, provision for
responsibility in services. Local and the old. The Citizen’s
managing the economy, national taxes. The public Charter; aims and
raising taxes and funding and the private sectors. effectiveness. Citizens
public services. as public service
consumers. The main
functions and levels of
government, local to
European.

The UN and Relationships between The nature of the

Commonwealth the UK, the UN and the Commonwealth. The
Commonwealth, and nature of the UN, and
associated rights and the UK’s role within it.
responsibilities.

The Global Community Global inequality, trading The nature of global

practices, multinational dependence and
companies and aid. interdependence.
Global interdependence. Responsibilities of citizens

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 APPENDIX

How consumers, the towards global issues.

media, pressure groups Thinking globally, acting
and governments can locally to bring about
influence international change. Key points of one
issues. topical international issue.

Europe Power and authority at The EU and its

European governmental relationship with the UK.
level. Relationships
between the UK and the
EU and associated rights
and responsibilities.

ESD (Education The nature of sustainable The nature of sustainable

for sustainable development. Local development. Local
development) Agenda 21. Agenda 21.

Active Citizenship Ways in which schools How individuals can take Membership of political
can provide opportunities part in democratic parties and pressure
for student participation processes – e.g., school groups. Attending
and community councils, pressure groups, meetings, voting,
involvement. How political parties. Processes campaigning,
individuals can bring of responsible voluntary fundraising.
about change through action, including Parliamentary action
democratic processes, planning, communication, (writing to MPs,
pressure groups or negotiation, participation lobbying) and extra-
voluntary organisations. and evaluation. parliamentary action
(using the media,
campaigning,
demonstrating).
Knowledge of the
aims, methods and
effectiveness of a local,
national, European or
worldwide campaign
which has sought to
promote a particular
policy and/or influence
a political decision
(e.g.,road building, GM
crops, global warming).

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 Index

Active Citizenship in Schools (ACiS) 68 suggested activities 6–7; and understanding

Aristotle 9 citizenship 6
Arnot, M. 5 Claire, H. 74
assessment 2; areas of 79; common Clarke, P. 67
misunderstandings about citizenship 83–4; Cleaver, E. 73
contexts 80; differentiation 82–3; flexibility 80; Clough, N. 67
knowing where pupils stand 84–5; Cohen, L. 99, 105
knowledge, skills, participation 80; learning communication 90–2
styles 81–2; particular issues related to 85–6; controversial issues 16–18; balanced approach
planning 80; recording progress 85 17; committed participant 17–18; neutral
Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) 2 chair 16–17
Audigier, F. 5 Council of Europe 107
Crick Report (1998) 1–2, 11, 40, 64–5, 74, 104
BeCaL Bibliography 106 curriculum: auditing 73–4; evaluating 77;
beliefs 10 planning 75–6
Bell, D. 73, 74, 75
Bennett, N. 88 Darby, D. 101, 102
Berg, B.L. 99 Davies, I. 64, 90, 105
Branson, S. 66 Department for Education and Skills (DfES) 2,
Brett, P. 64 18, 48, 49
Bridges, D. 16, 17, 99 DfES Standards Site 51
British Educational Research Association differentiation 82–3
(BERA) 100, 107 Dillabough, J.-A. 5
British Educational Research Journal 101 Douglas, A. 65
Brundrett, M. 88, 91
Busher, H. 89, 95 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
107
Centre for Citizenship Studies in Education Education Act (1996) 16
(Leicester University) 25 Europe Union 107
citized website 106 eurydice website 108
citizenship: active 3; as complex concept 54; Evidence for Policy and Practice Co-ordinating
factors influencing 103; implications for Centre (EPPI) 107
whole school planning 55; and
individual–state relationship 3–4; language Flew, A. 104
of 40–1; making it explicit 102–3; meaning of focusing lessons: active 59; engaging 59; learning
2–3; nature of 5–6; practice of 3; and societal 60; relevant 59
responsibility 54 Foskett, N. 92
citizenship education: and acting as citizens 6; as
active/highly transitional 103; approaches to Gearon, L. 102, 103, 104
54; assessment of 2; boundaries of 5; General Certificates in Secondary Education
conceptual framework 104; curriculum (GCSE) 80, 86, 92, 112–15
structure 55; definition 1–2; and form-content
discordance 13–14; historical timeline 104–5; Hallgarten, P. 104
identifying 2–3; implementation of 2; and Harber, C. 90
public situations 6; and pupil-teacher Hargreaves, D.H. 101, 102
interaction 13; statutory requirements 2, 54; Harris, A. 89, 95
student participation 6; and subject matter 13; Hart, R. 68

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 INDEX

Haydon, G. 11 misunderstandings about citizenship:

health and safety 60–1 citizenship is same as PSHE 84; mark as
Health and Safety: Responsibilities and Powers 60 measure of a citizen 83; we know what
Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) 60 citizenship is 83–4
Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits 60 Moores, M. 65
Heater, D. 2, 104 Mumford, A. 81
Hemsley-Brown, J. 92
Hillage, J. 101, 102 National Curriculum Council 11
Holden, C. 67, 74, 92 National Curriculum 12, 42, 53–4, 72, 73, 74, 102
Holocaust Memorial Day 93–6 National Curriculum for Citizenship in England
Honey, P. 81 1, 2
Huddlestone, T. 12 National Foundation for Educational Research
Human Rights Act 63 (NFER) 105–6, 107
Hurd, D. 3
Oancea, A. 101
Ignatieff, M. 3 Ofsted 55, 86, 88, 90, 92
Inspecting Citizenship 11–16 93 Oplatka, I. 92
Isin, E.F. 5 Osler, A. 5, 104

Jackson, D. 90 Pearce, N. 104

Jackson, R. 104 Personal and Social Education (PSE) 2
Jerome, L. 82 Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain
journals 107 100
planning of lessons see lesson planning
Kerr, D. 63, 67, 80, 103, 104 political participation 4–5
Kerr, E.F. 2 Popper, K. 99
Kuhn, T. 99 Potter, J. 88
Kyriacou, C. 48 Pring, R. 99–100
Purves, L. 88
Lawton, D. 104
leadership: case study 93–6; communicating Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA)
with citizenship team 90–2; 2, 11, 16, 18, 49, 50, 51, 53, 84, 86, 93, 104, 107
department/subject status 89; effective 88;
good contacts with headteacher 90; relativism 10–11
horizontal communication 90; importance research: abilities, attitudes, practice 101–2;
88–9; marketing citizenship 92–3; support 88, citizenship education 102–6; commissioning
93 of 101; core topics/targets 101–2; criticisms
learning objectives 56 of/solutions to 99–102; debates 98;
learning outcomes 56, 57–8 epistemological questions 99; Europe-wide
learning styles 81–2; activists 81; pragmatists 81; 107–8; generic educational organisations 100;
reflectors 81; theorists 81 international interest 98; ITT programmes
Leighton, R. 73 106; methodology 102; new orthodoxy in 102;
lesson planning: activities/strategies 76; actual organisation of 102; outcomes 102;
learning outcomes 57–8; definitions 48–9; philosophical/terminological issues 104;
focusing lessons 59–60; learning objectives 56; postmodern 99; professional organisations
linking to aims of citizenship 53–5; long-term 108; teaching units 106; themes 106; trends
49; medium-term 50–1; meeting learning 102–3; UK based 106–7; US-based and
outcomes 56; PLAN, DO, REVIEW 48; worldwide 108; usefulness of 101
short-term 52; strategic planning 49; template resources 60
75–6 Robson, C. 105
Lindsay, I. 104 Ross, A. 74
Lyesight-Jones, P. 79
Lyotard, J.-F. 99 Sarup, M. 99
School Evaluation Tool for Citizenship
Mclaughlin, T.H. 104 Education 89
Mcnamee, M. 99 School Self-Evaluation Tool for Citizenship
Mcniff, J. 99 Education (2004) 49
Maitles, H. 104 Scott, D. 104
marketing 92; headteacher 92; parents 92; wider Smart, B. 99
community 93 Starkey, H. 104
medium-term plans 50–1, 62; boundaries of Steiner-Khamsi, G. 104
knowledge 64; developing pupils’ citizenship Stenhouse, L. 17
skills 66–8; developing pupils’ knowledge Stenton, S. 68
and understanding 63–6; frameworks 64–6; subject knowledge 20–1; acquisition of key skills
human rights 63; justness, fairness, rights, audit 28–30; audit 25–6; concerns over 21; as
authority 63–4; key areas 63; legislation 63; contested area 21; curriculum models 44;
planning for participation 69; pulling it all developing 31–47; engaging young people in
together 69–70 group-based community action 27–8; exam

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INDEX

requirements 43–4; exam syllabus 24; values: and citizenship classroom 13–14; and the
identifying gaps 33–40; curriculum 12–13; definition 9; and education
introducing/contextualising concepts 41; key 10–11; and factual statements 9; and liberal
concepts 40–1; mapping/developing 21, 23, democracy 13; morality of 10; personal 10,
26; progression into enhancement of 14–16; pluralism of 10; professional 12, 16;
citizenship themes 45–7; surface public 12; and the teacher 14–16; and teaching
understanding 31; trainee examples 21–2; controversial issues 16–18; terminology 13;
understanding topical debates 41–3; what and value statements 9–10
you need to know 32–3; what you would like Vincent, K. 5, 104
to teach 23; working definitions 40
Wales, J. 67
teachernet website 107 Warnock, M. 17
Terrell, I. 88, 91 Warwick, P. 25
Tooley, J. 101, 102 West, L. 64
Training and Development Agency (TDA) for whole-school provision: auditing 73–4; building
Schools 2 on/taking account of prior
experience/knowledge 74–5; evaluating
UNESCO 98, 105, 108 effectiveness of curriculum 77; planning unit
United Nations 108 of work 75–6
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Wood, P.K. 5
Child 63
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 63 Yamashita, H. 90

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