England

__**The Teaching of Civics in England**__

By: Danielle Lerner flat

=**Country Overview** = England is a Parliamentary Monarchy which makes up the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain. England was first named during the 5th century after a Danish tribe called the "Angles", who settled in Central, Northern, and Eastern England. Another tribe called the "Saxons" settled in the south of England where the Angles had not taken over. This is why the period of English history is called "Anglo-Saxon". The Anglo Saxons lived in many small kingdoms, which slowly united, eventually creating the country of England. England became an official country in 1066.

Since 1801, the demographic composition of England has been measure by the decennial national census. The diversity of the land has changed drastically with the growing population and urbanization. England still remains a fairly Christian population, with about 70% of its residents claiming to belong to some variation of the Christian church including Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant and others. A fair number of people, however, consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic; approximately 15% of the inhabitants admit to having no religion at all. Other major religions found in England include Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism. The ethnic groups that make up the demographics in England are  White 88.2%, Asian 5.7%, Black 2.8%, Mixed 1.7%, Chinese 0.9%, other 0.7%. Finally, the total population within England is 51,446,000 and within the capital of London alone there are 7,556,900 people total.

=Context = In 2002 Citizenship, or civic education, was introduced as a mandatory subject in the English national curriculum. This followed the recommendations of the Crick Report which was released in 1998. Citizenship is currently taught as part of the school curriculum to all pupils aged 11–16 years old in English public schools. Children ages 5 – 11 years are also required to be introduced to citizenship curriculum, although it is more generalized than it is with older students. Civics is mixed into courses which focus on social and health education for the younger students. Although there were laws established which created a national standard for civics to be taught within schools, there was no guidance as to how long the educational process should take place per week, and there is no real supervision or regulation on how this course of study should be taught.

= **Subject Content Standards** =  The national curriculum which has been established for the teaching of citizenship in England contributes to the overall aims of the country. It establishes goals that children should develop in a specific well rounded manner. Students should become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens who make a //positive contribution// to society. The citizenship curriculum is based on key concepts such as democracy, justice, rights and responsibilities. At the same time maintaining national identity is vital while still embracing diversity. The national curriculum also has a goal of ensuring students develop the ability to process information and build skills such as the ability to think critically so that they can make well informed and responsible civic decisions. Finally, the national program of study for citizenship sets out to teach students a variety of information using a wide content area. This includes politics, parliament and government, how the legal system functions, the way in which the economy operates, the role of the media and propaganda, human rights, and international relations.

= **Materials** =  Teachers use a variety of methods to instruct citizenship in their classroom, as there is no real guidelines produced by the nation to explain to educators how to get these ideas across to their students. There is no national textbook used, but there are a variety of websites which are used to gain ideas and lessons for teachers. For example, [] is a website which has information and tips for teachers to convey citizenship information to their students. However, political and social issues are most often used to bring citizenship content to life and to help pupils develop key citizenship skills. In England, the ability to do research, have intellectual discussion and debate, as well as the ability to represent and understand the views of others, think critically, evaluate and reflect are vital skills to have and are admirable.

= **Nature of Curriculum** =  The citizenship curriculum in England desires that students develop their ability to participate in communities and society as informed, critical and responsible citizens. This exemplifies one of the goals of critical civic education, as it emphasizes being able to think critically in order to become a responsible citizen. There is also an emphasis on teaching how the government in England works to students which represents the sect of liberal civic education. At the same time, the curriculum expresses a desire for students to maintain their national identity which expresses republican civic education, and finally, there is a desire for students to accept and embrace diversity representing diversity civic education. England’s course of study does not express a clear cut concept of civic education but rather incorporates all of the branches of civics into it's curriculum. In England, t  he purpose of the citizenship program is to become an "active citizenship." This means that there is an overwhelming desire to teach students to work together and take practical action, using their citizenship knowledge and understanding to contribute to a better society. For example, after learning about human rights, diversity and inequality, the hope is that students might decide to set up a project to addres s racism in their school or local community.

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;"> **Main Issues and Challenges** = <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">One challenge that England faces is the fact that there is no national examination or formal assessment to find out what students are learning about civics or how effectively teachers are schooling their pupils on the topics. Additionally there are no formal textbooks identified by England to guide students (and teachers) in the learning process. Each school purchases their own individual text books from separate places in order to cover the basics required by the national curriculum. This creates a lack of coherency within English public schools. In conjunction with this, it is very difficult to find out what kind of activities and assignments teachers covered in the classroom in relation to citizenship education because the official curriculum does not explicitly express any guidelines or methods of instruction. This is left up to the discretion of the individual teachers.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Other problems that arise in England in relation to the teaching of civic education is the lack of national identity, social diversity and cohesion in general. Teachers have a lack of commitment often because of the fear of promoting bias or alienating groups of people within the community.

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;"> **Resources** = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. (2008). //Iea: iccs 2009//. Retrieved from http://www.iea.nl/icces.html

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Kerr, D. (1999):Citizenship Education: An International Comparison. International Review of <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks Paper 4. London: QCA.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Kerr, D. (1999): Re-examining citizenship Education in England. In: Torney-Purta, Judith; <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Schwille, John; Amadeo, Jo-Ann. eds. Civic Education Across Countries: Twenty-four Case Studies from the Civic Education Project. Amsterdam: Eburon Publishers for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Kerr, D. (1999): Re-examining Citizenship Education; The Case of England - National Case <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Study for IEA Citizenship Education Study Phase 1. Slough: NFER.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">The National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales. (2001). //Cels the citizenship education longitudinal study//. Retrieved from http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/projects/cels/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">World atlas. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/england/ukefacts.htm

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">World Press. (n.d.). //Democratic life//. Retrieved from http://www.democraticlife.org.uk/