[Dan Moorhouse]

Quote

From the National Curriculum for History:

The national curriculum requirements for citizenship became statutory in September 2002. Schools will need to consider how the citizenship programme of study should be taught. This scheme does not provide a model for an approach to citizenship, but does suggest where links between history and citizenship might be made.
History has a significant role to play in citizenship education. In particular:

· pupils learn how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised themselves, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people's actions;
· pupils see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society;
· what pupils learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values;
· pupils develop skills that are prized in adult life.

Citizenship is something that we can’t avoid. Love it or loath it, we have to incorporate it into our schemes of work at Key Stage 3. This seminar hopes to explore a number of issues:

· How Citizenship can be incorporated into the history curriculum for 11-14 year olds.
· The role citizenship should play in 14-19 History
· Resources and ideas for effective lessons

The following are a list of things noted in the Citizenship Curriculum:

· legal and human rights
· the criminal justice system
· diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities
· central and local government
· characteristics of parliamentary and other forms of government
· the electoral system
· the work of community based, national and international voluntary groups
· the importance of resolving conflict fairly
· the significance of the media in society

Which of these areas can a History department deliver and how can we ensure that the requirements of both the History and Citizenship curriculums are fully met?

[gav]

Dan Moorhouse, on Apr 29 2004, 10:58 AM, said:

The following are a list of things noted in the Citizenship Curriculum:

· legal and human rights
· the criminal justice system
· diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities
· central and local government
· characteristics of parliamentary and other forms of government
· the electoral system
· the work of community based, national and international voluntary groups
· the importance of resolving conflict fairly
· the significance of the media in society

Which of these areas can a History department deliver and how can we ensure that the requirements of both the History and Citizenship curriculums are fully met?

It would be easy to cover most of these within History. However, they need to be covered in enough depth. More importantly, to actually fulfill the citizenship rquirements they have to be made relevant to today. That is, it is not good enough to teach about Democracy in the context of Rome. It has to be applied to Britain today. This is where History departments seem to have been going wrong in the past.

I think there is a real opportunity for History departments here. Citizenship has to be delivered in schools. Virtually every school that delivers it cross curricular and through PSHE, is deemed unsatisfactory by Ofsted. What it really needs is proper, dedicated teaching time. This is where History depts can step in. Why not offer to take it on board if all KS3 pupils are given an extra period per week. It will strengthen the department and will complement the History curriculum. Just an idea. Of course most schools will not be in a position to do this but given the messy way in which the government has introduced it in schools, this would be a positive step.

[Lesley Ann]

Just before OFsTED last year I wrote a policy on citizenship for the dept to follow on where there would be opportunities to develop citizenship linked and cross referenced with the brand new SoW:
The History/Citizenship inspector praised it highly.

For example:
1 Knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens

a The legal and human rights and responsibilities underpinning society, basic aspects of the criminal justice system, and how both relate to young people

A European study before 1914 (eg the Roman Empire)
Opportunity within this unit:
Was the republic a matter for the people?

Britain 1066–1500 (eg law and order; structure of medieval society; guilds and charters)
Opportunity within this unit:
Did the law treat everyone justly in medieval times? Is the law in the twentieth century any different?

Britain 1750–1900 (eg the abolition of slavery; the extension of the franchise; the development of legislation to improve working and living conditions)
Opportunity within this unit:
How was the freedom of the slaves achieved?
Extension of the Franchise
Development of legislation to improve working and living conditions

A world study after 1900 (eg the changing role and status of women; the Holocaust)
Opportunity within this unit:
Why did Nazi Germany pass laws that took away the rights of some of its people?



b The diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom and the need for mutual respect and understanding

Britain 1066–1500 (eg the Norman Conquest; the Crusades; the Jews in medieval society; relations with Scotland and Wales)
Opportunity within this unit:
Why is Edward I remembered in different ways in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

Britain 1500–1750 (eg the Reformation; relations with Ireland, Scotland and Wales; trade and exploration; industrialisation; changes in agriculture)
Opportunity within this unit:
Why were there religious tensions in the sixteenth and seventeenth century England?


Britain 1750–1900 (eg expansion of trade and colonisation; the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire)
Opportunity within this unit:
What was the reality of the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Non-European Society (eg The Indigenous Peoples of North America)
Opportunity within this unit:
What problems did the white settlers bring to the indigenous peoples of North America?


and so on.....

[D Letouzey]

I have been waiting to send a third message to this seminar.
Of course, I shall express a personal POV on the French practises.


The national curriculum requirements for citizenship became statutory in September 2002.

Citizenship is part of the curriculum in France.
In colleges (11-15), it is mainly taught by historians (they teach also geography).
To sum up, some titles from the official curriculum :
6 -The school
5 - Citizens' s Equality
4 - Freedoms
3 - Republic and democracy
The full curriculum in French : http://www.ac-rouen....o/pgm/index.htm


In lycees, "Education civique" was seen as an active learning after 1945.
But teachers took more time teaching history and geography.
So in 1997, a new Citizenship curriculum was set, and called ECJS (éducation civique, juridique et sociale).
3 choices were made :
- a political one : that this new teaching would help to fight growing incivilities. A first name was ECJP, P standing for Politics.
- an intellectual one : to leave a divided knowledge, and to encourage the interdisciplinary nature of our teaching
- a pedagogical one : to replace lectures by a combination of a documentary search and a "democratic" debate in small groups.

In brief, the curriculum is organised on 3 years :
classe de 2de : From social life to citizenship
1ere - Politics, from law to practises
Term - Citizenship in a changing world

The full curriculum, in French :
http://www.histgeo.a...ec_sec_prog.htm
http://www.histgeo.a...ec_pre_prog.htm
http://www.histgeo.a...ec_ter_prog.htm


. Why not offer to take it on board if all KS3 pupils are given an extra period per week ?

We "teach" small groups, 30 minutes a week.
In fact, either 1 hour every 2 weeks or 2 hours a month
This can have damaging effects on a class weekly timetable…


- What global assessment can be made from a 7 years practise ?

Laurent Wirth and Marc Fort have written an official report ; in chapter 2.3, they see "Un malaise autour de l'ECJS"("a discontent", "an uneasiness" about Citizenship curriculum )
ftp://trf.education....orts/reflyc.pdf

. On the positive side, ECJS brings :
An another way of "teaching", with smaller groups ;
The possibility to debate of controversial matters,
The faculty to go from factual history to sociology of the social and political powers…

ECJS can be applied to teach a "lecture critique" (critical thinking ?) of newspapers and TV.
For instance, what is the role recently played by images from Iraq ?

. On the negative side, ECJS has been created by reducing the history-geography schedules in 1ere S and Term S.
And it can be taught by any other subject, ranging from philosophers to sports teachers…

it is not good enough to teach about Democracy in the context of Rome. It has to be applied to Britain today

No trouble, for us, on this issue : we teach mainly contemporary history, and geography of a changing world. We use also long term history to study the roots of contemporary questions, for instance Palestine-Israel and the Balfour declaration of 1917.

But we may encounter several difficulties :
. Citizenship can endanger the history teaching : at this moment, having to teach what Europe has inherited from Athens, we do not focus on art history, philosophy or science, but on citizenship. In such a choice, we may forget that our political system is totally different from the Athenian one ; we may teach a reconstructed history (Have you ever tried to speak to 30 000 individuals, even on the Pnyx ???)

. History tend to be taught from our present situation. Teaching "The XIIth century Mediterranean", we are told to focus on the intellectual exchanges between Christians, Moslims, and Jews. The Crusades were also wars and fightings...

. In some cases, we teach how to debate in Citizenship, but History is no longer seen as a matter of political and scientific controversies. History is often seen as a patrimonial story which has to be learnt (It is our "linguistic turn", as if representations were playing a greater role than the real events...).

One interesting issue has been dealt in this Forum : what European history
should we teach ? How can we avoid transferring at the European level the dangerous choices of all nationalist histories in Europe ?

Pupils see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society;

It is absolutely necessary to teach democratic value, both on human rights for men and women, on political alternance, on the necessity for countervailing powers.

"Citoyen" as an adjective has become a fashionable adjective, much more than "civic" or "civism". With the "fair trade" (commerce équitable), even your shopping at Leclerc ( a kind of Sainsbury 's) should be "citoyen" !

To conclude, our changing world has a surprising sense of Citizenship :
- The rise of the peepshow TV is just the reverse of the value we want to teach.
- The "liberal" globalisation does not really improve the living standard of African men and women. But it affect jobs in our societies, and it creates more precariousness.
- Some political and religious leaders seem to choose to lead their countries on the way of a clash of civilisations.

This post has been edited by D Letouzey: 17 May 2004 - 08:33 AM