Voices blog

Tony and Ade gave evidence to the Speaker’s Conference yesterday and I came along to provide moral support and take notes.

The Speaker’s Conference is investigating how to rectify ‘the disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large’. That the Speaker’s Conference was established at all must mean that the House of Commons recognises that this is a serious problem - following from that, I assumed that there was, at the very least, a tacit agreement that the traditional routes towards becoming an MP (through the political parties) aren’t working. But, confusingly, no such agreement seemed apparent in yesterday’s session.

Indeed, the strongest theme to emerge from the questions asked of CF, ACT, the Young Foundation and the UK Youth Parliament was a preoccupation with driving young people towards political party membership, with Diane Abbott MP even suggesting that our organisations currently promote ‘value-free activism’. I know Ade has been thinking about this question since (and has blogged about it today), but I thought I’d also add in my two pence.

There’s nothing wrong with joining a political party, being active at a local level and gradually moving towards a seat in Westminster. Really, there’s a lot right with it, especially when an MP is able to draw on years of experience working in the communities they represent. And this party system has given us Diane Abbott (the first black woman MP) and Jo Swinson (another woman who, at 29, is the youngest MP in the House right now) - so it’s probably no wonder that MPs think that the old model simply needs to be reinvigorated or resuscitated to achieve the levels of participation a fair democracy demands.

And yet it appears that there is no going back, no magic formula that can recreate the conditions - industrialisation, world wars, the trade union movement, strong family associations - that drew so many people to political parties. This does not mean that I think that the political parties have had their day, but I do think they need to face up to the reality that the easiest way for organisations like ourselves to engage young people in politics is not to invite them along to a constituency party meeting where established party members dominate the agenda, but rather to find an issue that matters to them and support them in making change themselves. If the parties want to stay vibrant and viable, I think they need to make the same kind of offer.

Citizenship education programmes have to provide young people with both the knowledge required for effective citizenship – how our legal, political, social and economic system works and how individuals and communities can impact upon this system – and real experience of doing citizenship.

The ‘citizenship-rich’ school welcomes student and community involvement, and is innovative and inclusive in the way that it does so. This is a different kind of place in which to teach and learn: the developing of citizens, rather than just the qualifying of learners, is at the core of its mission. In such a setting, children and young people are seen as much more than citizens of tomorrow: they are recognised and treated as the learner-citizens of today, subject to, and enabled by, various laws and agreements (not least the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).

This recognition and engagement is further enabled by a range of initiatives that begin to recognise the status of young people and their families as citizens: the Every Child Matters agenda, the government’s new focus on family learning and parent education, and the growth of emotional literacy programmes.

Ten years ago much of this would have been portrayed as a low priority – a distraction, even – for schools. However, since the introduction of Citizenship to the National Curriculum, attitudes have begun to change. Schools that embrace citizenship-rich principles and champion student participation rarely turn back: many point to positive impacts on educational achievement, especially among those often seen as ‘hard to reach’.

And there may be a wider benefit. Deferential obedience is no longer the defining characteristic of adult-child relations, but society has struggled to define an alternative. Seeing the child or young person as a learner-citizen (a full citizen but one that is still developing) – rather than an ‘empty vessel’ or a threatening ‘youth’ – might be a starting point. After all, if education is not for effective, informed, engaged citizenship, what is it for?

The Citizenship Foundation has welcomed the report of the Educational and Skills Select Committee on the current state of play in Citizenship Education. (more…)

The Education and Skills Select Committee’s Report into Citizenship Education is due to be published on Thursday. It will look at the current state of play and make some recommendations.

The evidence submitted to the inquiry each by the Citizenship Foundation, the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT), CSV Education and the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER), is available to read on the Citizenship Foundation’s website.

Evidence submitted to the inquiry >>