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We aim at no less than a change in the political culture of this country… for people to think of themselves as active citizens, willing, able and equipped to have an influence in public life. The Crick Report, 1998

Citizenship in School

Schools are encouraged to use three questions as they plan for Citizenship. They apply to the school as a whole, and to Citizenship as a subject:

1. What are we trying to achieve through Citizenship education?

2. How do we organise learning in order to achieve it?

3. How will we know we have achieved it?

1. What are we trying to achieve through Citizenship?

Since its introduction as a statutory subject, Citizenship has undergone a number of re-interpretations, so that there is now some confusion about what we are in fact trying to achieve for young people. There are currently at least three models of Citizenship education in schools:

Citizenship for Courtesy: Citizenship is about teaching children good manners and courteous behaviour; to be polite, respectful and pick up litter.

Citizenship for Cohesion: Citizenship is about teaching children ‘Britishness’, and what makes us and our country who we are.

Citizenship for Change: Citizenship is about teaching children the knowledge, skills and most importantly the inclination to participate in political and public life.

While recognizing that aspects of each of these models are important, it is clear in both the Crick Report and the new Citizenship programme of study, that the focus for Citizenship education should be on the latter model, Citizenship for Change.

Citizenship equips pupils with the knowledge and skills needed for effective and democratic participation. It helps pupils to become informed, critical, active citizens who have the confidence and conviction to work collaboratively, take action and try to make a difference in their communities and the wider world. Importance Statement, New Citizenship Programme of Study, 2007

One concise way to sum this up is to say that the purpose of Citizenship education is to build students’ sense of political agency. A sense of political agency is your belief that you can effect political change in your school, your community and the wider world, and a willingness to put this conviction into action. This could be as simple as emailing your MP or raising an issue in school council, or it could be a more complex action, such as campaigning to improve a local park or lobbying to lower the voting age. This is important because it means that in Citizenship our focus must be less on fund-raising for charity and more campaigning for change; fewer Christmas shoe boxes and more boxes of petitions.

2. How do we organise learning in order to achieve this?

If this is what we are trying to achieve through Citizenship there are two major implications for the way we organize learning in our classrooms, schools and communities.

First, we need to give students some say in the content and/or process of learning. We cannot say to them that participation is important, but give them no involvement in their learning. This is consistent with the principles of democracy, motivation and the new curriculum.

Second, we need to create opportunities for students to effect change in the world around them. You will not feel politically powerful until you’ve had a powerful experience of acting politically.

Student voice and student action are therefore two key characteristics of a compelling learning experience in Citizenship. Or to put it another way, we need to begin to explore ways to move from learning that is teacher-led and classroom-based, to learning that is student-led and community-based.

One of the challenges to achieving this is how to create these kind of learning opportunities for all students as an entitlement. However, many schools have piloted a range of manageable ways to give whole cohorts of students a meaningful opportunity to take Citizenship action.

This diagram suggests how this might be achieved

The new Citizenship programme of study provides a great opportunity to put these principles into action. The new structure of key concepts, key processes and range and content encourages us to focus less on a body of knowledge alone, and more on combining skills and knowledge in a learning experience that empowers young people to take action for change. This learning is embedded by the key concepts (democracy, justices, rights and responsibilities, identities and diversity) which give Citizenship greater depth, rigour and clarity.

The diagram below illustrates the importance of using the key processes to acquire knowledge, and then apply this learning to the real world through taking informed action. The best Citizenship learning occurs in the space where the three overlap.

This approach also applies when we are planning integrated learning with other subjects, and around the cross-curriculum dimensions. It’s not enough to simply say that we teach about sustainable development in Geography and because ‘sustainable development’ is mentioned in the Citizenship programme of study, we therefore teach Citizenship. Firstly, high quality Citizenship learning only occurs when the topic is explored from a Citizenship perspective, for example the political tension between sustainable development and economic growth. And secondly, when these Citizenship concepts and knowledge are acquired and applied through Citizenship skills, for example by enabling students to debate the issue in class and then set up and run a school recycling project.

The new curriculum encourages us to think deeper and be clearer about how and why we integrate learning. If we are honest, too often the answer lies in managerial or timetabling reasons; “it will free up space in the curriculum.” The challenge is to integrate in order to maximises learning, not maximize convenience. The starting point for the new curriculum is to ask, “how will integration benefit learners?” Integration is not an end in itself, but a means to making learning more relevant, engaging and powerful.

This may mean we review the way we link Citizenship with Humanities subjects and also look beyond the obvious links to more innovative combinations, for example linking Citizenship, English and Drama, using the whole curriculum dimensions and Personal Learning and Thinking Skills. This is the key to disciplined innovation – looking for new ways to structure learning, while retaining the key characteristics of Citizenship, in particular student voice and student action.

Curriculum opportunities for Citizenship:

In the new curriculum, the term ‘curriculum’ now means the entire learning experience of students at school, not just what happens in the classroom. This is a welcome change from the point of view of Citizenship. Citizenship has always been a:

new subject
new kind of subject
more than a subject

As a new subject it deserves parity in the curriculum with all other subjects. As a new kind of subject it has a special pedagogy characterised by student voice and action, which has the potential to transform learning in all other subjects. And as more than a subject, Citizenship has a role to play in building a participatory, democratic community across the whole school. This is known as the ‘3Cs of Citizenship’ and is very much supported by the new curriculum; Citizenship in the Curriculum, wider Community and Culture of the school.

Put these principles together and you get a model of curriculum planning that will look something like this

See larger diagram

How do we overcome common hurdles to making progress?

We all know however, that as a relatively new subject, Citizenship often lacks support. Many schools have no specialist Citizenship teachers, little discrete curriculum time and patchy senior leadership understanding and support. And yet all the evidence suggests that these are the key features of a successful Citizenship programme; what has been called a ‘Citizenship-rich school’.

Of these, having a team of specialist Citizenship teachers is the priority. No science department would ever argue they could get by with teachers co-opted from other subjects, so neither should we as Citizenship teachers. Having discrete time is also important, but if that means Citizenship is taught by a group of reluctant non-specialists it may be better to think more creatively about timetabling. If it’s a choice between curriculum time and specialist teachers, the priority should always be specialist teachers. Once you have good quality teaching and learning in place, it’s much easier to make the case for more curriculum time. Quality first, then quantity.

This diagram suggests a wide range of small steps schools can take towards becoming Citizenship-rich. The aim is to think big, but start small!

See large diagram.

Campaigning for Citizenship:

However to make progress, we need to be prepared with arguments to support us; we have to become campaigners ourselves! The diagram below may give you some arguments you could use to lobby for a greater focus for Citizenship as a vehicle for whole school transformation.

See larger diagram.

3. How do we know we are achieving our aim?

How do we know our teaching is improving their learning? What evidence do we have with which to answer this question? The answer may not be just about individual students’ performance and attainment, but about how effective teaching and learning are as whole.

Nevertheless, we do need to know how well individual students are progressing.

Assessing individual students’ progress in Citizenship is often considered a particular challenge, but the new Citizenship programme of study now includes an attainment target for the end of key stage 3, set out as level descriptions (an 8 level scale plus exceptional performance). This should provide a better understanding of what the standards to aim for are. The levels must be used to report pupil progress in Citizenship at the end of key stage 3 in the summer of 2011. This means that from September 2008 schools should begin to collect evidence of learning to be used to make a judgment about pupils’ progress against the attainment target at the end of the key stage. The attainment target itself does not become statutory until summer 2011, when the first end of key stage assessment of pupils takes place. To be ready for this, teachers need to start working with the level descriptions now, for example to help you understand what is expected of your pupils, when creating success criteria for the tasks and activities you use for assessment and to help make a broad baseline judgment of your pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills in Citizenship when they begin the key stage.

Remember that teachers must use the levels that came into school in September 2007 in the secondary curriculum document NOT the revised level that came into schools in February 2010

The levels can be downloaded below.

What are levels for?

a guide to standards
a climbing frame for progression
a tool for planning opportunities to gather evidence of learning
characteristics of progress – a feel for pitch
judging attainment at the end of the key stage across a range of evidence

What are levels not for?

marking a single piece of work
a list of things to cover
labelling children ‘my level 5s’ etc

Planning for assessment

When you are planning your assessment of Citizenship across Key Stage 3, we recommend that you create an assessment framework which uses a:

range of evidence (not just written work);
range of methods (not just teacher-led);
range of formality (not just tests).

The type of evidence you might use to make a judgment about student progress in Citizenship at the end of key stage 3 include:

Draw and write a concept
Mind-mapping
Display of a community action project eg at parent’s evening
Presentations
Observation of a group discussion or group task
Photographs, films or even video made on a mobile phone
Web page or blog
Role play
Campaigning letters, emails or press releases
Silent debate (where students write down their arguments / opinions)
Written evidence and extended writing

Assessment in Citizenship at Key Stage 3 from Association for Citizenship on Vimeo.

An ACT film exploring the development of success criteria and assessment activities in Citizenship education at key stage 3. This film will help consider the importance of pupil progression in Citizenship education.

The key is to keep it simple. A few pieces of high quality evidence is better than many pieces of low quality.

Once you have identified what units of learning you intend to assess and how, the next step is to develop a success criteria for each of these units. Success criteria are descriptions of pupil performance based on the levels, and made relevant to a specific learning activity. They set out what a learner should know and understand and/or be able to do. Use the levels as a guide to pitch and progression when you write the success criteria. The levels are standards against which to make judgements; they are not a mark scheme in themselves. While most evidence could illustrate learning across a range of concepts and processes, we advise that the success criteria should focus in on one or two of them. Over the key stage, you should collect evidence which will help you make a judgement on students’ progress for each of the key concepts and processes.

The new Citizenship Curriculum in Action!

So what would you see and hear in a school which is beginning to put the new Citizenship curriculum into action? The following diagram may give some clues. These features are not exhaustive, neither are they an end in themselves. They are simply things that are known to benefit Citizenship learning and learners.

Curriculum in action diagram.

Exemplification in Citizenship progression-new materials

You can now view materials that exemplify achievement and progression in Citizenship education at KS3. Go to the National Curriculum website and you can see more on how to make overall assessment judgements from level 3 to level 8.