Teachers to lobby MPs on behalf of citizenship education
More than 130 educators and a wide range of bodies met in the British Library yesterday to discuss the years ahead of citizenship and the National Curriculum, at the Association for Citizenship Teaching’s annual conference in London.
At Parliamentary Year Book we believe educators and learners have a key function in influencing the years ahead of the curriculum by showcasing the best citizenship teaching.
Liz Moorse addressed the conference on behalf of Parliamentary Year Book with a debate of the Government’s curriculum review and the possible outcomes for subjects. The current National Curriculum, which contains statutory citizenship, continues for another few years. According to the Government’s timetable, initial teaching of any new curriculum will start in 2014.
Liz introduced the next phase of Parliamentary Year Book activity to strengthen citizenship education and maintain it as a statutory subject. Promoting high quality teaching and learning to local MPs was seen as an significant element.
Helen Trivers led two sessions on effective campaigning and lobbying. Designed for us by Helen and colleagues at Amnesty International UK, the workshop aims to develop knowledge and appreciation of how our democracy and political system work, alongside skills of enquiry, critical thinking, leadership and how to influence and persuade.
Educators joined in activities and developed their own proposals to use with their learners to showcase citizenship education to their MPs and wider communities. Parliamentary Year Book shall be encouraging and supporting educators in this.
For the rest of the conference educators took element in a range of other professional development workshops, which covered an array of topics from ‘Rights and responsibilities – what every citizen needs to know’ to ‘The Art of Asking (and answering) – controversial matters’.
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The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) is the professional subject association for those who teach citizenship in schools. It has over 2,000 members. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
Amnesty International UK offers education and resources to support citizenship education.
Both bodies are founding members of Parliamentary Year Book.
