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Review of: Post-16 citizenship seminar - Hellesdon, 14 June 2007
Reviewed by: Sally Nderitu, BCTS
Review: A seminar organised by by City College Norwich and Broadlands Council Training Services (BCTS) was attended by staff from Social Services, Sixth Form Colleges, the Youth Offending Team and Connexions etc. These front line practitioners learnt about post-16 citizenship, were able to discuss their own areas of citizenship responsibility, have access to free training resources and discuss ideas with some post-16 citizenship champions. It was a great opportunity to network and share best practice, as well as highlight the importance and benefits of citizenship and community engagement when working with a “hard to reach” client group.” BCTS has been using Active Citizenship training for a few years, to give young people the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in society. The learning experience enables them to become informed, thoughtful and responsible citizens who are not only aware of their rights but also of their duties as citizens of Broadland, Norfolk and the UK. In our experience active citizenship has helped learners from “hard to reach” groups learn about their own culture and local and national policies which affect their communities through taking part in community-based projects to promote active citizenship, designed to empower them to try to effect beneficial changes in their own local community and within the activities and lifestyles of their peers.
Review of: Article - The role of education in a democracy, Roland Meighan
Reviewed by: Alan Wilkins
Available from: Encyclopaedia of Democratic Thought – ISBN 0-415-19396-6 edited by Paul Clarke and Joe Foweraker
Review: This five-page contribution was published in 2001 and still stands as an incisive brief account of the role of education in a democracy. The entry addresses three core elements:
- Identifies essential principles of democracy and democratic education
- Considers the implications these principles have for the operation of the learning systems
- Indicates current practices that are incompatible with democratic educational practice
Meighan explores how democracy is ‘a preferable state rather than an ideal’, and introduces concepts that help us all grasp this fundamental value that is core to society in the UK. One aspect is the difference between moral (underpinned by the values of human rights) and immoral (rule of the untutored mob) democracy. Another aspect is the distinction between shallow and deep democracy. Shallow democracy allows only limited power sharing and restricted participation in decision-making – it can ‘degenerate to such a sham as to be counter productive leading to cynicism, fatalism, and a belief that democracy does not work’. Deep democracy enables power sharing and a collective involvement in affecting the social and political world – this is the genesis of active citizenship.
Meighan postulates that democratic education tends to:
- Admit variety rather than uniformity
- Permit critical thought rather than belief
- Operate power sharing rather than authoritarian imposition
- Promote flexibility rather than rigidity
In July 2007 the British government release information on a new school curriculum to be introduced in 2008. Schools will still be a central component to education in the UK.
Juxtaposing original perspectives on the current and past learning systems by authors such as Roland Meighan alongside contemporary policy announcements enables us to maintain a critical stance. This helps to ensure that democracy genuinely exists or is at least striven for in all we do as democratic educators.
Rating: 5/5
Review of: Special edition of the Journal of Personalised Education Now – Summer 07 issue 6
Reviewed by: Alan Wilkins
Available from: http://c.person.ed.gn.apc.org/
Review: This journal is a compilation of interesting insights perspective and suggestions that assist the reader to place in context their own thoughts and experiences of working in, with and through the current school system in England. It challenges us to rethink the tenants that provide the foundation for the current educational construction that engulfs us all.
Well-selected quotes from Einstein, Churchill, Sir Christopher Ball and others challenge us to rethink. There is a contextual opening on the reconfiguration of the current learning system, an over view of what is wrong with our schools, thoughts on a learning system for the 21st century, a learners’ charter for a personalised learning environment. There is also an introduction to 8 principles for personalisation that underpin any personalised educational setting and landscape
- Learner–managed and co-constructed learning
- Shift from dependency to independence and interdependency
- Invitational learning and assessment
- Learning from an educational landscape of opportunities
- Re-integration of learning, life and community
- Democratic values, organization and practice
- Catalogue and natural versions of curriculum and assessment
- De–coupling of age–stage progressions and assessments
Personalised Education Now is a national network of educators committed to defining and sharing benefits of personalised education and learning. They seek to challenge the limited prevailing views and to envision a new personalised educational landscape and its wider benefits to re-integrating learning, life and community. PEN has been in existence since 1996 though the roots go back 17 years.
Its website http://c.person.ed.gn.apc.org/index.php has an archive of past newsletters, book lists and contact details.
Citizenship is core to this perspective - those seeking to understand the applications of active citizenship in a wider educational setting will find much to interest them as well as the possibility to network with other educators committed to similar values as themselves.
Rating: 5/5
Review of: Human Bingo - opening activity at citizenship events
Reviewed by: Alan Wilkins
Available from: See here for an example of the human bingo opening activity
Review: Getting the opening activity at any staff development event is always a challenge. This activity encourages participants to mix with others whilst they circulate the room attempting to complete one vertical and one horizontal line of boxes. Each box contains information that may require up to three peoples names to complete. Take a look at the example above. These boxes were compiled for a national work based learning event on London earlier this year.
Once someone has completed sufficient boxes the delegates return to their seats and the facilitator then asks for names of people associated with specific boxes. This enables everyone to identify others across the room that may have related experience or particular interests. Core issues can be initially raised, whilst wider themes related to the conference/workshop can also be introduced setting a basis for further exploration.
The topics can be changed to those that will be associated with the theme of the event.
The example above introduces citizenship provision as related to representation, entitlement, staffing and accreditation.
This was very a very effective opener and icebreaker for work based learning professionals and can be applied with modification to a variety of settings.
Rating: 5/5