I'm not going to go into detail about the contents of Saturday's Power Conference. For that, you can look at Davide Simonetti reporting/blogging it here.
What I will say is that I got the chance to ask David Cameron whether he supported participatory budgets. My question was more or less as follows: "Mr Cameron, one of the main things that I took from the Power Inquiry is the lack of power that I have as an individual over decisions that affect my life. What do you think about participatory budgets, like the one in Porto Alegre, where citizens have control over 17% over their local budget? There have been initial experiments in the UK with participatory budgets, such as in Harrow. Do you support these in the UK?"
In typical politician fashion, he did not directly answer my question. He did not address the idea of communities and individuals having control over a portion of the budget, or the idea of truly giving power to people. Instead, he talked about the fact that police commissioners should be elected and that visionary civic leaders are needed. Bastard! I should have shouted out that he didn't answer my question, like other people did later when he didn't answer their questions. Oh well, I've learnt my lesson there. Instead I sent him an email him about it and am eagerly awaiting his response!
Apparently the event will be covered this week on BBC Parliament, so people out there will be lucky enough to see me ask my question (and David Cameron's less than satisfactory answer).
Exploring Active Citizenship
I have just finished reading a book which I picked up from the Power Conference which has gone straight onto my list of favourite books of all time: Beyond the Classroom - Exploring Active Citizenship in 11-16 Education which is edited by Benjamin Linsley and Elisabeth Rayment.
The quote below is from one of the 17 articles in the book, and succinctly outlines what is wrong with schools by comparing them with the workplace:
"Just suppose, as an adult, that you arrive at work and wait outside locked doors in the rain. You queue until you and your hundreds of colleagues are all suddenly allowed in together, struggling through crowded corridors. Up to a quarter of your day is taken up with queueing and marching, often in enforced silence...You have no space of your own but work in different parts of a large campus with regular crowded mass treks to the next workspace. You have nowhere to leave your coat and belongings and must carry them everywhere with you. You have a few short break times, but may be 'kept in' as a punishment, with no right to appeal. If you try to appeal, you will only get further punishment. The very unsavoury toilets are locked for most of the day, and over-crowded when you are 'allowed' in. You cannot have anything to drink all day; water fountains are turned off, 'in case you have water fights'. There are petty rules about uniform, jewellery and any hints of personal expression. These in turn stop freedom of speech because if you ask for a forum, such as a council, to review any rules democratically you are told, 'No, because you will only want to talk about uniform and you are not allowed to.' With breakfast club and after-work club you spend about 50 hours a week at work. When you arrive home your partner says , 'Your boss has just phoned to tell me that you have broken that agreement I signed with her. You were late back from lunch and she says I must stop you watching television for a week.' You reply, 'But I was helping a friend whose mobile was stolen.' 'Tough,' says your partner, 'I don't want any more lame excuses. Now get on with that work that has to be ready for tomorrow.' And so on." (Source: Democracy in Schools - Myths, Mirages and Making it Happen by Professor Priscilla Alderson, p.33)
Young people are often blamed and punished for rebelling against conditions that adults would not tolerate. If we want to promote good and active citizens, we have to give responsibility and decision making powers back to children. If we want our children to participate in our democracy and make rational decisions, then they must be able to practically learn how to do it in their schools and in their communities.
Active vs good citizenship
Many authors in the book confont the difference between active and good citizenship: "The good citizen is a conformist: an individual who keeps the law, trims the hedge and belongs to the Neighbourhood Watch. By contrast, an active citizen is someone empowered to work with others to effect change, to analyse and challenge the status quo. Neither citizen vandalises the local park, both probably vote, yet they are not synonymous. Active citizenship, then, is as much a frame of mind.as particular action." (Source: Preface by Benjamin Linsley & Elisabeth Rayment, p.2)
Another author makes a similar distinction: "there is a difference between being a good citizen and being an active citizen. One can be a good citizen in an autocratic state. One can also be only a good citizen in a democratic state, obeying the law and behaving oneself, minimising offence to others but not working with others to effect or resist change. This good citizen may even vote regularly - if now less than before - may sign a standing-order to support voluntary bodies or pressure groups, but would never attend a meeting. It is this minimalist approach to citizenship that made me...voice scepticism about an old tradition of Citizenship Education as Civics which stressed the primacy of the rule of law, without encouraging discussion of whether some laws are unjust, work badly and if so how to change them." (Source: Why citizenship at all? by Sir Bernard Crick, p.6)
Bernard Crick then goes onto quote David Hargreaves from The Mosaic of Learning:
"Civic Education is about the civic virtues and decent behaviour that adults wish to see in young people. But it is also more than this. Since Aristotle it has been accepted as an inherently political concept that raises questions about the sort of society we live in, how it came to take its present form, the strengths and weaknesses of current political structures, and how improvements might be made...Active citizens are as political as they are moral; moral sensibility derives in part from political understanding; political apathy spawns moral apathy."
Most of the authors in the books emphasise that both good and active citizenship go hand-in-hand and should be both taught to children. They also emphasise the importance of practising what you preach. Rather than just having dry theoretical lessons, students should have practical hands-on experience in their communities as well as having decision making powers over processes in their schools. They emphasise that learning a democratic participative ethos can only take place through the experience of participation in democratic decision making itself.
As Professor Anderson points out, solely teaching political literacy "presents democracy as a dull theory instead of as an intensely important, interesting and emotive living reality, such as disputes on sharing control and resources that affect everyone." Daily practises must embrace the democratic precepts that are taught. Otherwise, students are bound to become bored, cynical or just plain angry about the ensuing confusion and hypocrisy. Professor Alderson outlines the irreconcilable conflict between teaching and doing democracy:
"For centuries, leading educationalists have advocated learing by doing, instead of by listening passively to confusing dry abstractions. Even very young and unschooled children can understand complicated aspects of democracy, rights, justice and respect, through their activities and achievements.
"Democracy is practical and pervades all relationships. We cannot avoid either 'doing' democracy or else being actively undemocratic; there is no middle way. Undemocratic schools powerfully teach, by example, lessons of intolerance, mistrust, disrespect, repression and fear of change. If they preach democracy, they teach duplicity [My emphasis]. Students who try to improve matters learn to fail and to feel powerlessness and hopeless, a disastrous prelude to adulthood and the future of democracy. Schools that work to promote democratic approaches demonstrate and encourage the personal strengths of active citizens: listening, tolerance and cooperation, respect and equality, trust and hope, being open and adventurous. Such schools gain from the fresh ideas and efforts of many of the students and staff, and not only of the few 'top' people. When students are active citizens in the school community, as in Indian children and Siobhan showed, they learn as much if not more from the extra activities as from the basic curriculum. And, in the words of the UN Convention they lay the foundations for peace and justice in the world." (Source: Democracy in Schools - Myths, Mirages and Making it Happen by Professor Alderson, p.36)
In my opinion, the more people participate in the process of their own education, the more the people participate in the development of their selves. The more people are asked about what they want, about their expectations, the better (and more active) the democracy we will have.
In some schools these ideas have been implemented already. The book gives some case studies, which include the Middleton Community School, the Nobel School in Stevenage and the John Mason School in Abingdon. Some of the amazing schemes introduced at these schools include:
- School Councils which enable all students, through tutor group representatives, to take part in the day-to-day organisation and running of the school.
- Students help interview and select new staff
- Peer education programmes - where older children help younger children with reading/writing etc, which encourages solidarity between different age groups
- Students are involved in processes that reach out into the wider community, such as: "Every Year 8 pupil takes part in a debate in the town hall on a topical issue and Year 9 pupils do a project linked with the local Magistrates' court." (A Whole School Perspective by John Potter, p.25)
- Students have study centres, where they can choose to study during lunchtime ands and after school, and are responsible for its opening hours, rotas, and, to a large extent, discipline.
- Citizenship lessons, citizenship days and nationwide forums on citizenship, which are often broadcast live on local radio.
- Mock elections around election time
- Schemes to raise money for, and volunteer with, local charities
- Strong links to local newspapers where students can contribute articles.
- Letting students design, dig and maintain a garden
- A peer mediation programme with volunteer pupils selected and trained to tackle disputes between pupils before they became so serious to be reported to staff!
The list goes on and on.
Conclusion
We face a real problem in that not all people realise that a big part of citizenship is about working together with others to effect or resist change. Many cultural and learning traditions must change if we want schools to embrace good AND active citizenship. Derry Hannam outlines some of the damaging perceptions that many have of young people and education:
"Traditional attitudes and anxieties of the teaching profession and in particular expectations of the 'strong head teacher', expectations of some parents and the media, the incorrect association of rigid authority with high academic standards, inappropriate forms of accountability such as league tables that take no regard of social circumstances or the achievements of less academic students, a failure to understand the nature of effective learning, and sheer in-built cultural deficit models of childhood that problematise, marginalise and even criminalise the very existence of young people all play their part and must be tackled." (Source: Student Councils - education for Democracy in English Secondary Schools by Derry Hannam, p.43)
After reading this book, I am a lot more optimistic about citizenship education in the UK. One of the big problems with my education was that I was taught in a very top down manner about kings & queens, the second world war, maths, etc. I wasn't taught to question the government, why some people are poor and why others are billionaires (and can avoid tax that would help the poor), the history of social struggle between different classes, how to constructively help other people, etc. If - and when - I have children, I want to send them to a school with a strong citizenship program which has changed the culture and practises of the institution itself. I want to send them to a school which has been both transformed as a community and in the community through citizenship education. Where the teachers are open to liberatory and participatory educational practises and the students are involved in the creation of their own knowledge. But most importantly, I want to send my children to a school that really helps them think, question and work together with others to effect or resist change.
Not too much to ask!
Posted in Day to Day Life | Media | Politics ed's blog | 1580 reads
Submitted by ed on Mon, 2006-05-08 16:01.
