Voices blog

In one of the UK GovCamp sessions last week we discussed the use of digital tools and third sector organisations in public service delivery.

I recorded most of the session. At some point I will try to write it up, but for now you can listen to the audio and read the transcript.

The transcript is mainly intact, but occasionally I was unable to make sense of a word or two. Therefore it’s in a wiki so that you can correct my errors if you so wish.

I was a little slow to start the recording, so it joins the discussion as we address the issues of voluntary groups taking on some aspects of public services. The transcript begins as someone from the police is explaining how they worked with a group of Street Pastors.

Cross-posted from citizensheep.com

Tomorrow we launch the latest research into the impact of citizenship education. It looks at the understanding and behaviour of those who were the first to receive Citizenship from age 11. It was taken after they had been able to vote for the first time, at the General Election of 2010.

The launch will be in the House of Commons and all MPs and Lords are invited.

It comes at a timely point after the Curriculum Review published on 20th Decemebr 2011 recommended a change in the status of citizenship education.

The Review created two new categories within the statutory curriculum: both intended to free up teachers’ discretion around their subject delivery. They move the choice of course content into the hands of teachers within each school.

The top tier of content-defined curriculum will still be called the ‘National Curriculum’, and the next two, more localised tiers will be the Basic Curriculum and the Local Curriculum. So Citizenship remains in the statutory curriculum, but is in the latter two categories.

The government will prescribe the content of the National Curriculum (not the Basic or Local) under its traditional Programmes of Study which define what all students should know. This time the skills that students should develop will not be included as educational outcomes. The revised curriculum is conceived around knowledge.

The distinction is never that simple of course.

For example: knowledge for citizenship would be different to knowledge about citizenship. Knowledge about the conclusions that our society has drawn from history would be different to knowledge about things that have happened. Knowledge relating to human geography is very different from countries and climates…

It is an unenviable task to sort all that out and I would happily credit Michael Gove with having both the intellect and dynamism to take on that battle: more than most Education Secretaries of our time.

We have a fundamental gripe though.

We think that there really is an omission here. It has come in deciding that Citizenship has no core knowledge that every member of the next generation needs to have: what the Review has called ‘socially valuable’ or ‘powerful knowledge’. Knowledge that unlocks doors and perspective for other knowledge and that facilitates development of the intellect, of understanding and of capabilities. Basically for citizenship: contextualising knowledge you won’t get anywhere else.

The research backs this up – not necessarily by showing how refined the most civically active can become – but by illustrating how far on the outside some can be left.

Every morning I walk past one of the anti-capitalism camps in the City of London, and at night I often tune into TV shows talking about the limits of capitalism. This weekend’s BBC News featured an article about the Occupy movement being invited to talk to citizenship classes in a school near where I live. These are live issues relating to the need to transform the system in a country that is rapidly choosing neither capitalism nor socialism.

What will it choose and how will we choose?

Young people need fundamental knowledge here. They have to grasp how two ecosystems work. The two that they are being handed as a debt burden from the previous generation. Two very complex and intertwined ecosystems. The first is the global economy and the second is the global climate.

But the choices that they will face will not be technical. They will be social. Everyday life-choices that will see some join the next equivalent of the English Defence League and others downgrade their lifestyle or demand restraint on others’ freedoms. Choices that will set citizen against citizen and demand of us a refined capability to manage the argument in a potentially more divided nation.

It is hard to believe that such life choices should not be part of education. No offence to History, but surely more important than Geronimo and the colonisation of the American West (illustrative though they may be).

We’re not holding out for Citizenship as the only subject that one could possibly use to teach such issues – but to say that it isn’t something everyone in the next generation needn’t have a grasp of, and isn’t fundamentally powerful knowledge… well, no offence to RE: but it beggars belief.

Charlotte Doer is a lawyer at McDermot Will & Emery. The firm joined the Lawyers in Schools programme for the first time this year and is working with London Nautical School in Lambeth.

As a lawyer, you get used to sitting in rooms and talking and negotiating with adults, so I was not sure how my skills would translate to a group of 14-15 year old secondary school students. Also, I was not completely able to rid myself of thoughts of the “youth stereotype” and I wondered how responsive a group of school students would be to learning and discussing the law. As it turns out, I was instantly impressed.

Our first activity was to discuss the minimum age for certain activities and I was astounded when one of the boys launched into an explanation of why he thought the minimum age for voting in local elections should be 16 as he thought that it would give students of that age a chance to begin to get involved in politics and ready themselves for national elections, and it would also reflect the fact that a lot of local government programmes and schemes impact directly on students of his age. I was struck by the student’s thoughtful consideration of the subject, and immediately felt excited about what was to come. I was not disappointed. The 50 minutes or so was taken up with each of the students contributing whole heartedly to the discussion. Even those students that had appeared a little apprehensive to begin with spoke out when an issue important to them was raised.

Although the students were lively they were also respectful of each other and I did not have to reprimand any student for talking over another. I was particularly impressed by students applying what we had been discussing to real world situations. I had started the session with some trepidation but I ended it with a sense of excitement about what the remaining sessions would hold. I’m grateful for programmes like Lawyers in Schools which recognise how crucial it is for today’s students to understand and engage with fundamental civic and legal issues.

Before Christmas the government changed the timetable for its Curriculum Review.

This time though it’s in a number of wordy paragraphs rather than a clear table, so I’ve taken the liberty of simplifying it.

December 2011

Ministers were recommended the subjects that should have Programmes of Study (other than English, mathematics, science and physical education). Citizenship was not one of the subjects recommended.

Early 2012

Public consultation on the draft Programmes of Study.

Early 2012 (after the consultation, presumably)

Work begins on developing the Programmes of Study.

Autumn 2012

Ministers consider the draft Programmes of Study.

September 2012

The new Programmes of Study for English, mathematics, science and physical education will be available to schools.

Early 2013

Public consultation on the draft Programmes of Study for the remaining subjects.

September 2013

Maintained schools start teaching the first batch of Programmes of Study (ie for English, mathematics, science and physical education).

New Programmes of Study for the remaining subjects are made available to schools.

September 2014

Maintained schools start teaching the second and final batch of Programmes of Study.

Earlier this week, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg claimed that the legal profession “is not doing enough” to make itself more representative of society.

(See ‘Clegg: legal profession is not doing enough on social mobility‘ on legalfutures.co.uk.)

The Citizenship Foundation has worked on developing young people’s knowledge and understanding of the law for over twenty years, with considerable input from the legal profession.

We have a tremendous amount of support from both individuals and organisations. They are committed to raising not only young people’s awareness of the law but also their aspirations towards a career in law.

Every year we engage nearly 10,000 young people in the law and legal system. They are from non-fee-paying schools, often from inner-city areas of high deprivation and from a diverse range of backgrounds.

These programmes are supported annually by a huge network of legal volunteers including over 500 solicitors, 300 barrister and advocate volunteers, 800 magistrates and 80 judges.

The work is supported generously by many bodies within the sector, including The Law Society, The Bar Council, The Magistrates’ Association, The Faculty of Advocates, Bar Library of Northern Ireland, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and over 30 law firms and in-house legal teams.

While diversity within the profession is a significant issue, it is important to recognise just how much the profession is already doing to improve the situation.