Current challenges for citizenship education in England

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss current challenges for citizenship education in England. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a relatively brief overview of the reasons for the introduction of citizenship education into the National Curriculum. Then, it describes the different versions (in 2002, 2008 and 2014) of the National Curriculum for citizenship. Finally, this paper draws attention to the issues that explain the reasons for the radical change in status and nature of citizenship education evidenced by the 2014 version of the subject. Findings – Following the period 1998-2010 in which citizenship education became research informed and professionally developed, policy makers now since 2014 seem to be involved in the development of citizenship education in the National Curriculum in the form of promoting knowledge about civics, willingness to volunteer and a commitment to manage responsibly personal finances. In 2014 policy makers have confirmed the place of citizenship education in the National Curriculum but its nature, the relative lack of attention devoted to it and the growing official commitment to character education which emphasises personal morality rather than citizenship education suggests that it has lost a lot of ground. This paper argues that there are parallels between what we felt had happened at earlier points, principally, the early 1990s, when political education had been rejected in favour of a particular form of citizenship education (i.e. volunteering); and the situation in 2014 when volunteering and character education are now officially preferred. Originality/value – This paper argues for a need to address key current challenges in citizenship education in the context of earlier development.

British Experience of Teacher Professionalization in Citizenship Education

“…It still encourages for volunteering work but focuses more on school-based activities for community improvement. Moreover, it has been found a decrease in using language of rights, freedoms, identity and diversity, active citizens and the use of media and ict for informing and influencing public opinion, which were mentioned in previous curriculum documents, which is commented by Davies and Chong (2016) as 'a dramatic change' .…”

“…There are a number of challenges have been reported. For instance, the absence of specialist professional training for teachers has not been satisfactorily filled up (Heater, 2001;Keating et al, 2009;Davies & Chong, 2016). Teachers' nervousness about handling such a complex subject might provoke accusations of bias or indoctrination (Heater, 2001).…”

“…Citizenship itself is a comprehensive field of study, but there is a lack of comprehensive, profound and interdisciplinary models of teacher training, which remains as one of key challenges in Citizenship Education (Andrews & Mycock, 2007). Moreover, Citizenship has survived in National Curriculum but in a very different context from two decades ago (Davies & Chong, 2016), which also causes the decline of the scale of teacher education. Responding to the challenges, a number of university, including Institute of Education, University College London (ucl-ioe), have made an effort to insist providing relevant programmes for teacher education.…”

“…First of all, I have to admit that Citizenship is a flexible or vulnerable subject that very easily to be influenced by the change of national curriculum policy and social political status quo. Although the subject along with its teacher education seems missing "a golden age from 1998 to 2010" (Davies & Chong, 2016), the case study showcases a university's persistence in promoting teacher education for citizenship, which re-demonstrates multiple tensions in the field of citizenship education (Osler & Starkey, 2005). In such a changing period, the university-led training approach provides classical, fundamental and profound academic knowledge and underlying values, which might be necessary for teachers to overcome challenges.…”

“…It is also designed for and taught in primary school (Key Stage 1 & 2) as a non-statutory subject so that 'schools can plan a whole curriculum' (DfE, 2015, p. 1), which could be regarded as a good preparation for the statutory subject in secondary level. However, the limitation of quantity and quality of professional teachers has been concerned during the development of Citizenship curriculum (Heater, 2001;Davies & Chong, 2016). It is obvious that the call for good teacher training and agencies is still lasting.…”