Education for citizenship and democracy

In 1998, under the guidance of Professor Bernard Crick, an Advisory Group on Citizenship issued its report on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (QCA, 1998). The outcome of this report was the introduction of citizenship education to primary-aged pupils from September 2000, and to secondary pupils from September 2002. Crick had concluded that there were three principal strands of the citizenship curriculum: social and moral responsibility, community involvement, and political literacy. The third of these, political literacy or education for democracy, has had less attention than citizenship education and Crick later acknowledged that his committee’s recommendations for teaching politics were limited. This chapter looks at different issues associated with democracy and examines the causes of political apathy in young people. There is a critique of the assumptions suggested by the Crick Report, which fail to recognise the power and influence of the media and the diminished role of the state in the global economy. An alternative curriculum is suggested which, through such areas as media studies, would make pupils aware of the constructed nature of political discourse and encourage them to engage in political action