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Citizenship Education
CRE Submission
Education and Skills Committee27th March 2006
INTRODUCTION
1. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was established by the Race Relations Act 1976 to:
· work towards the elimination of racial discrimination; · promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups; and · keep the working of the Act under review.
2. Public bodies have a duty to eliminate discrimination in the way they work and to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations. The Commission is working to help them deliver this duty.
3. The Race Relations 1976 as amended came into force on 2nd April 2001. The amended Act imposes a general statutory duty upon most public authorities, including Schools, LEAs, the DfES and QCA to promote race equality. Public authorities are responsible for ensuring that the general duty is an integral part of any function where race equality is relevant.
4. The CRE's main points of interest fall into three sections which we believe are paramount to the current discussion on Citizenship Education.
· Integration · Britishness, Citizenship and Identity · Citizenship Education
5. On these points the CRE would like to ensure:
· Equality, Participation and Interaction are embedded into schools activities towards eliminating racial discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity and good race relations · Citizenship education ensures a practical experience of citizenship, through shared ownership, participation, responsibility and accountability among pupils, teachers and parents.
INTEGRATION
6. The CRE's primary goal is to create an integrated society. We have defined an integrated society as being based on three inter-related principles:
· Equality - for all sections of the community - where everyone is treated equally and has a right to fair outcomes.
· Participation - by all sections of the community - where all groups in society should expect to share in decision-making and carry the responsibility of making society work.
· Interaction - between all sections of the community - where no-one should be trapped within their own community and no-one should be restricted in choosing the people they work with or the friendships they make.
7. In short, in order to enable integration we need to develop equality for all sections of the community, interaction between all sections of the community and participation by all sections of the community. This can be done by tackling discrimination, actively promoting good race relations and at the same time focus on raising attainment and improving behaviour.
8. One of the key concerns for the CRE is the apparent increase in segregation between communities in Britain today. This is in terms of both residential and social separation. The Census shows us that 80 local authority areas have seen both a decrease in white population and an increase in the ethnic minority population between 1991 and 2001[1]. This is intensified by an increasing lack of interaction between communities - a CRE commissioned poll in 2005 showed that 95 per cent of white Britons questioned said that all or most of their friends are white and 55 per cent could not name a single non-white friend.[2].
9. Current evidence suggests that our education sector is more segregated than the wider community. We are concerned by the research produced by Professor Simon Burgess and his colleagues at Bristol University (Urban Studies, June 2005) which shows that children are slightly more segregated in the playground than they are in their neighbourhoods. Recent research in one London borough's primary schools showed that 17 schools had more than 90% Bangladeshi pupils, while nine others had fewer than 10%. A recent report showed that 59% of primary school children in Bradford attend schools with a population comprising over 90% of one 'single cultural or ethnic identity'[3].
10. The CRE believes that this growing separation can be tackled and that our education system is of fundamental importance in building an integrated society. In creating this change in society, we also believe that the curriculum in particular can be a vital lever for change.
11. We are greatly encouraged by the specific proposition in the Race Equality Impact Assessment of the Education and Inspections Bill that new schools have to explicitly demonstrate how they will contribute to community cohesion. This is a progressive measure that recognises the wider role of schools in promoting integration at the local level and we are currently lobbying for this requirement to be extended to cover all schools. We believe that if schools are to do this, whether it is a formal legal requirement or not, that the curriculum can be a key way in which it can be achieved.
12. We therefore are greatly encouraged by this timely review of the citizenship curriculum and hope that it leads to a broadening of the subjects currently covered and a fuller appreciation of the role of the curriculum in bringing about the type of society we all wish to see.
BRITISHNESS, CITIZENSHIP AND IDENTITY
13. Recently, there has been an increasing debate about Britishness as a way to strengthen ties between individuals and civic society. The CRE believes that Britishness is one of many ways people identify themselves. In the attempt to define Britishness, we are looking for something that can unite people and bring different communities together. In that context, we should see it as a means of ensuring collective identity and perhaps an overarching bridging tool.
14. The changing nature of British society has transformed social composition and dynamics, brought greater cultural diversity, and altered the sources of power and influence and the distribution of wealth. As a result, many citizens now possess inadequate social rights or the necessary resources. Those with the most to gain do not or cannot have a presence in their local community or networks. Deprivation leads to disaffection and social unrest, and the debate on citizenship must address the concerns of the most deprived in the interest of community cohesion. A citizen cannot be a truly equal member of the community if they are in a state of permanent dependency.
15. The CRE believes that the current debate on Britishness should be more explicitly linked to that around citizenship. In order for Britishness to succeed, we must seek common and equal citizenship. There must be a general agreement to a set of values based on justice, human rights and social responsibility, and a sense of common belonging so that all groups can feel at home. All people must be of equal value and deserve equal respect, and all individuals must have the opportunity to voice their opinion on issues that affect them. This clearly applies as much to within schools as anywhere else.
16. While much emphasis has been on an emotional identification, a sense of belonging to a broader community, expressed through shared symbols and values, we believe that the debate would better be focussed on what we term a 'practical identity'.
17. What this discussion will hope to achieve is to reassert fundamental values. We all obey the same laws, we all respect each other's rights, we all sign up to the equality of women and to equal rights for people whatever their sexual orientation. Also, we accept responsibility for participating in and preserving the integrity of our community and our polity.
18. This would also serve to provide a starting point that looks at what binds us as communities and an opportunity to negotiate differences without falling into the trap of it being interpreted as 'special treatment'.
19. The CRE believes that we need to have a debate about these difficult and sensitive issues, and about respecting difference that we come across daily. In a sense this would be a general code of behaviour, taking into account cultural, religious and racial differences that would provide a baseline for common agreement of how we conduct ourselves in the public sphere. This debate can also take place within citizenship education.
CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
20. Citizenship was introduced within the National Curriculum in September 2002, for pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 in schools in England. The introduction of the statutory subject complimented the recent debates on integration, community cohesion and Britishness.
21. As schools have the most significant impact on the personal, social and educational development of children and young people, learning about citizenship should be a key part of growing up. For that reason the CRE proposes to address the subject throughout the whole curriculum, including the forthcoming Early Years Foundation Stage which will cover children's learning and development from birth to 5 years. Early years settings and schools can act as agents of integration, encouraging participation and interaction from the earliest opportunity between children of different ethnic groups and allowing children and youngsters to develop positive attitudes and behaviour towards others.
22. The CRE welcomes an aims-led curriculum that emphasises competence, skills and knowledge creation without dismissing knowledge acquisition. The CRE agrees with Huddleston (2005) that citizenship education should aim to not only provide skills for children and young people for life as a citizen, but also the opportunities to exercise citizenship. By this, we mean skills for engagement in public debate, which offer opportunities to participate in debates on school, local, national and international issues.
23. The CRE proposes to devote particular attention to the development of a generic intercultural competence amongst learners as well as professionals that enables them to recognise different perspectives, understand how cultural diversity impacts on people's behaviour, deal with culturally sensitive issues, develop strategies to solve potential conflicts and learn to co-operate. This competence is instrumental to the integration of individuals and groups from different racial, ethnic, cultural and social background and citizenship education can have a significant impact in developing this competence[4].
24. The CRE is strongly in favor of creating a practical experience of citizenship. By this, we mean that schools develop shared ownership, participation, responsibility and accountability among pupils, teachers and parents. We strongly believe that high levels of participation are necessary for achieving an integrated society. Increasing the participation of children and young people should therefore be one of the objectives of citizenship education.
25. To be effective a citizenship curriculum needs to be mainstreamed into other educational initiatives in the school. By taking a whole school approach, schools can ensure that citizenship is embedded throughout their ethos, organisation, structures and daily practices. Using this approach, essentially schools are able to reach all participants in school life and implement ideas of active citizenship across the curriculum, which will in turn allow active involvement and participation. This model of democratic participation and learning can also be applied within the classroom, as suggested by Huddleston[5].
26. The CRE believes that it is vital that young people are actively involved in policy development and decision-making processes. We welcome the emphasis in both Youth Matters and Together We Can on involving children and young people in the design, delivery and evaluation of services. Young people should be at the heart of the decision-making that affects their lives and citizenship education is an opportunity for children and young people to take responsibility about their learning and actively participate in the running of the school.
27. As research[6] indicates the large majority of schools/colleges provide opportunities for their students to participate in a range of activities. However these opportunities are only utilised by a minority of students. The existing curriculum has made a first step towards fully educating students about how decisions are made both within their school and local community. These efforts need to continue but additional work is needed on two levels. Firstly extra effort is needed in more effectively marketing opportunities for involvement to increase take up. Secondly the minority of schools that currently do not offer a range of opportunities for involvement should be encouraged to do so.
28. The extended school provision can also be viewed as an opportunity for pupils, teachers and parents to participate in activities to learn about and become involved in life of the surrounding community.
29. The CRE welcomes proposals in the Youth Matters Green paper, for Government to look at innovative ways to increase the number of young people volunteering - to enable more young people to benefit from getting involved, and to support voluntary groups and local communities
30. For the reasons mentioned above, it is fundamental that teachers are prepared to take up the challenges of active citizenship in schools. Teacher training needs to prepare teachers to actively participate in connecting issues of school ethos and culture, by listening and use pupils' voices and those of the local community. To enable teachers to apply these principles in the classroom, they also need to be trained in using participatory learning methods, which may include cross-curricular activities, for example a community project linked to a particular subject area.
31. The design of the citizenship curriculum is equally an important issue that needs particular attention. The CRE welcomes initiatives where citizenship teachers and non-citizenship teachers draw up a curriculum together with learners and parents, to ensure the pupils' voices are heard.
32. Whereas the specific citizenship curriculum needs to explain principles and enable practices of active citizenship, these can not be limited to the subject area alone. Active citizenship needs to be embedded into other subject areas to ensure continuity, bind people together in communities and show the impact of active citizenship. Varied examples include the environment in geography, and how ideas of tolerance, understanding, compassion and solidarity are expressed in religious education. Children and young people can explore the reasons why so many people have roots in so many parts of the world, by looking at emigration and immigration in history.
33. All these subjects provide the opportunity to explore, reflect and debate on contemporary controversial but essential issues such as Iraq, Britishness, identity and bombings in London to give learners a true sense of their role and potential impact they can have in civil society. By this we envisage a strengthening of opportunities to build bridges and develop a common understanding of equality, respect and tolerance.
34. Active citizenship implies rights and responsibilities. Citizenship education needs to be linked with a clear understanding of behaviour management. The effectiveness of isolating and shaming an individual for his/her inappropriate behaviour needs to be reconsidered. Schools may want to look at ideas of reconciliation and restorative justice that teach children and young people to confront their victims and the collective group in a safe environment on, for example, racial harassment. By taking this approach principles of active citizenship are put into practice. [1] ONS, 2001 [2] CRE, 2005 [3] Education Bradford, 2005 [4]J.S Gundara (2000) Interculturalism, Education and Inclusion. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd. M.Verlot (2002) "Resistance, Complexity and the Needs for Rethinking Intercultural Education". Kolor, Journal on Moving Communities (1) 1:65-75 [5] Ted Huddleston: Teacher Training on citizenship education: training for a new subject or for a new kind of subjects? (Special Edition 2005) [6] Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study: Second Cross-Sectional Survey 2004 Listening to Young People: Citizenship Education in England. National Foundation for Educational Research, Research Report RR626. |