Section 3: Effective education for citizenship in practice
3.4 Contexts for learning and development
To achieve these ends consideration should be given to developments in four areas of school life.
- Participation by young people in the decisions and activities that are part of the culture and everyday life of the school community or early education centre.
- Studies within specific curricular areas or subjects throughout the stages from early education to post-16.
- Cross-curricular experiences, such as enterprise activities, international awareness activities or drama productions.
- Involvement in link activities with the wider community, including environmental projects and community service.
Participation by young people in decision making
The right of young people to participate in decision making on matters affecting their daily lives is stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. One of the guiding principles of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, is that 'each child who can form his or her views on matters affecting her or him has the right to express those views if he or she so wishes'. The Standards in Scotland's Schools, etc. Act 2000, requires that each school's development plan shall include an account of the ways and extent to which the headteacher of the school will consult with pupils and involve them in decision making, when decisions are made concerning the everyday running of the school. Pupil participation lies at the heart of learning 'citizenship through experience', and has been developed enthusiastically by many local authorities and individual schools in Scotland.
It is essential to effective education for citizenship that learning experiences provide opportunities for active engagement and that they are perceived by young people as purposeful and personally relevant. The ethos and climate for learning in classrooms and beyond should be:
Pupil participation should be developed within a framework that:
- recognises the value of the views of all members of the school community, including the adults who work in the school, and in relevant circumstances those who live around it
- extends beyond broad areas of school policy to the content and teaching of lessons, using processes such as profiling, Personal Learning Plans, and other procedures devised for school and departmental self-evaluation
- actively seeks and takes account of the views of all pupils
- devolves the process of decision making on the responsible uses of resources, for example those that have been allocated to pupil councils
- allows for feedback and extended discussion when pupils' views conflict with those of the people responsible for the management of the school.
Studies within specific curricular areas or subjects
Much of young people's education for citizenship can take place through learning and teaching within specific curricular areas or subjects throughout the stages from early education to post-16. An overall challenge for curriculum designers and planners is to ensure that each young person's entitlement to education for citizenship through 'mainstream' learning and teaching is provided by means of a varied, carefully planned and progressive programme of learning experiences. This includes planning for transitions between early education, primary and secondary education.
A Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5 recommends practitioners to consider:
- the extent to which contexts for learning link with children's experiences at home and in the community
- the range of opportunities provided to develop social awareness and willingness to cooperate
- the extent to which children feel included in activities and experiences
- whether children are helped to be aware of differences and value them.
Throughout the 5-14 stages of schooling, young people's studies of all the curricular areas that are part of their entitlement provide opportunities for developing and applying knowledge, skills and dispositions that underpin active and responsible citizenship. For example:
- In the social subjects components of environmental studies, there are opportunities to develop important elements of social, political and economic understanding and to foster other aspects of capability for citizenship. The attainment outcome 'people in society' in particular directly addresses many of the knowledge and understanding learning outcomes. Along with its most closely related secondary subject, modern studies, it also provides opportunities to develop many of the skills and values associated with education for citizenship in relevant contexts
- In the context of environmental studies, pupils can consider the effects of scientific developments and technological activity on people's lives and the environment, as recommended in the Scottish Executive's Science Strategy for Scotland
- In the RME guidelines the attainment outcomes 'other world religions' and 'personal search' encourage multicultural awareness and discussion of relationships and moral values
- Personal and Social Development and Health Education guidelines encourage awareness in relevant areas, including personal and community safety, environmental effects on health, personal relationships and conflict resolution
- Expressive arts encourages young people to express feelings, ideas, thoughts and solutions, and in some contexts to negotiate as a member of a group and to communicate appropriately with different audiences
- In mathematics, problem solving and information handling activities can relate to real life issues, for example where to place a crossing outside a school, or what kinds of litter are left at different points in the school
- In languages, all four outcomes of listening, talking, reading and writing can be exercised in contexts that are highly relevant to education for citizenship, with effects that are likely to enhance the effectiveness of each young person's individual contribution, for example, learning to take part in discussion of a school issue
- By using ICT, young people can communicate and collaborate with pupils in other schools, both locally and internationally.
Post-14 students exercise choices with respect to particular areas or modes of learning. During the 14-16 years choice in the optional areas of the curriculum is usually structured around a number of key curricular areas. For instance, nearly all pupils study a social subject and a science, and there are usually also elements of creative and aesthetic subjects and technological subjects in each pupil's curriculum. Social subjects courses - in particular, courses in modern studies - make major contributions to the development of knowledge and skills related to citizenship. However, modern studies is not studied by all young people and other social subjects, whilst making significant contributions to education for citizenship, may do so less directly. Moreover, other optional subjects such as art and design, home economics, science or social and vocational skills, also provide 'vehicles' for development of understanding of areas of knowledge relevant to citizenship (see Annex A).
The subjects typically taken by all students, at least until the end of S4 - mathematics, language and communication, personal and social education and religious and moral education - provide opportunities for continued learning related to citizenship. As with the early stages, these opportunities are partly related to the conceptual and factual content covered and partly to the approaches to learning and teaching. In particular, PSE, RME and language studies, including, in the case of English and communication courses, some aspects of media studies, offer considerable scope for provision of key learning experiences, such as those noted in paragraph 3.3. Moreover, even where a topic being studied may have no obvious relevance to education for citizenship, opportunities can be taken to contextualise the learning in ways that help to foster some aspects of capability for citizenship.
Cross-curricular experiences
Whilst much can be achieved through traditional subjects, there are important features of education for citizenship that can only be achieved through cross-curricular approaches. Particular challenges include:
- provision of whole school learning experiences that publicly affirm the school's commitment to the values of education for citizenship, for example, assemblies, community forums, equal opportunities events
- provision of learning experiences that enable young people to perceive, forge and make use of the many connections across areas of study, through issue-focused studies or interdepartmental approaches in areas such as European studies, anti-racist education and global/development education.
This points to the need, particularly at secondary level, for schools to review and possibly extend their range of cross-curricular contexts for learning. Such cross-curricular experiences complement subject-specific studies and provide essential additional opportunities for young people to engage with issues in increasingly mature and reflective ways.
Working with the wider community
In Scottish schools there are substantial traditions of enabling young people to become directly involved in community projects to explore and investigate social and environmental issues. Such approaches are especially important for the development of active and responsible citizens.
Local communities are an important resource for learning in schools and offer contexts within which authentic environmental and social issues can be explored. However, the community is not only a resource for study. Schools and early education centres are themselves valuable resources for the whole community, in which there is legitimate interest in decision-making about the school's development.
There is also scope, particularly in the later stages of schooling, for collaboration between schools and community education agencies. Together with teachers, community educators from both the local government and the voluntary sectors can bring much by way of expertise and experience to the design and management of opportunities for young people to tackle real-life issues in their communities. The development of New Community Schools is giving fresh impetus to collaboration between teachers and other professionals, including social workers and health professionals, in order to provide the best possible opportunities for all young people to maximise their achievements.