Professor John Annette, Professor of Citizenship and Lifelong
Learning, Pro Vice Master
Birkbeck, University of London

“What needs to happen to empower the student to feel part and to be an active part of his or her society?
What need you to learn and must you be able to do- and feel- to contribute to societal learning?
What are the skills of civic and political participation, and where do they appear in the curriculum of higher education? It will be necessary to keep asking these questions to sustain a relevant and effective lifelong
curriculum.”
Chris Dukes, “Towards a Lifelong Curriculum,” in
Repositioning Higher Education, P.Coffield and
B.Williamson, SRHE/OU Press,1997

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Education for ‘Democratic Citizenship’ as well as ‘Active Citizenship’
How do people learn democracy by doing it? Where is the learning in volunteering and civic engagement?
Linking political knowledge with the development of civic skills and political understanding through volunteering and civic engagement
Can ‘Democratic Engagement’ provide a pedagogy for a lifelong learning for democratic citizenship?

Underlying Concepts of Citizenship
2.
1.
3.
Liberal individualism (rights)- consumer citizenship/human capital/membership
Communitarian good-active citizenship/social capital
Democratic /
(responsibility/volunteering)-
Civic Republican - (civic engagement)- democratic citizenship/learning for citizenship as civic engagement
4. Cosmopolitan/European citizenship social movements and global civil society action
John Annette, ”Community, Politics and Citizenship
Education,” in Andrew Lockyer, Bernard Crick and
John Annette, eds., Education for Democratic
Citizenship, Ashgate, 2003

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Linking Informal with Non-formal and
Formal Learning for democratic citizenship
Partnership Working between Higher
Education CE/LLL and the Voluntary/Community
Sector
Recognition of the Diversity of voices and importance of Dialogue
Civic Listening in everyday talk
Where is the ‘political’ in volunteering so that it becomes civic engagement?

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Power Inquirywww.powerinquiry.org.uk
Beyond the Ballot - 57 democratic innovations from
 around the world. (2005)
Involvewww.involving.org
People and Participation: How to Put Citizens at the
Heart of Decision Making (2005)
 CIVICUSwww.civicus.org
World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance of civil society organisations.

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It is a joint research project being led by
NCVO in partnership with the Institute for
Volunteering Research (IVR) and Involve.
The project aims to explore how and why people get involved and stay involved in different forms of participation over the course of their lives. Participation means many things to many different people. The project will look at participation in a very broad sense and consider the act of taking part in a wide range of social or civic activities.
www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk

LADDER of PARTICIPATION
PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN POLICY
MAKING
CONSULTATION ON POLICY MAKING
CONSULATION ON POLICY
IMPLEMENTATION
INFORMATION ON POLICY

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Structured learning activities
Civic Literacy (‘useful knowledge’)
Civic Discourse- Communication skills
Civic Thinking- Analytical Skills
Civic Understanding- Intercultural skills
Civic Action- team working and leadership
Civic Listening- Gender, Race and
Ethnicity, Social Class, Age,etc.

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Institutional Design- citizens juries, citizens panels, visioning, deliberative polling, study circles,etc. (Consultation or
Participation?)
Deliberative Opinion Poll (James Fiskin)
Participatory Budgeting (Porto Allegre)-is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, in which ordinary city residents decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget .
John Gastil and Peter Levine, eds., The
Deliberative Democracy Handbook, Jossey Bass,
2006

1. Community Based Learning or Service Learning or Learning through Volunteering
2. Structured Learning Experience with Measurable
Learning Outcomes
3. Experiential Learning and Reflection
(cf. David Kolb, David Boud,etc.)
4. Learning through Community Partnerships
5. Learning for Key Skills and Active Citizenship cf. John Annette, ed., Civic Engagement and
Higher Education, special issue British Journal of
Education Studies , December 2010

1. Campus Compact (www.compact.org)
2. Barbara Jacoby, Service-Learning in Higher
Education,Jossey-Bass,1996
3. Janet Eyler and Dwight Giles,Where’s the
Learning in Service Learning? Jossey-Bass,1999
4. Kerry Strand,et.al.., Community Based Research and Higher Education ,Jossey-Bass,2003
5. International Association for Research on
Service-learning and Community Engagement
(IARSLCE).www.researchslce.org
6. Michigan Journal of Community Service
Learning (www.mjcsl.umich.edu)

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‘ Active Learning for Active
Citizenship’- national pilot programme
1. Home Office-Civil Renewal Unit (now
Department for Communities and Local
Government)
2. Learning Partnerships for Active
Citizenship ( 8 Regional HUBS)- Schools,
FE Colleges, HE (Continuing Education)
3. Links to local and national voluntary sector?
4. Links to Local Government and
Neighbourhood/Urban Renewal
Programmes
5. Neighbourhood governance activities?

ALAC, Lifelong Learning and Active Citizenship(2004)
1. Learning that is inclusive, pluralist, reflexive and active
2. Linking the informal(everyday life), the non-formal(participation) and the formal
(training/education) modes of learning
3. Experiential learning- participation as a reflective and critical process leading to action
4. Learning outcomes of democratic knowledge, skills and understanding cf. Pam Coare and Rennie Johnston,eds., Adult
Learning, citizenship and community voices ,
NIACE,2003

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An evaluation report of the ALAC pilot by
Professor Marjorie Mayo and Dr Alison
Rooke, Home Office, 2006
 http://www.takepart.org/further-reading/

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The aim is to provide programmes of active learning that enable people to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to become empowered citizens – citizens who are able to make an active contribution to their communities and influence public policies and services.
Take Part is supported by the Department for
Communities and Local Government .

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The national framework for active learning for active citizenship, including principles, case studies, good practice advice and guidance on how to run citizenship learning programmes for adults
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Cf. www.takepart.org/framework-foractive-learning/

Taking Part: Active Learning for Active
Citizenship and beyond, eds., M.Mayo and J.Annette, NIACE- 2010
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Professor John Annette, Birkbeck College and Professor Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths
College- University of London
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Introduction by Henry Tam, Department for Communities and Local Government,
Visiting Professor Birkbeck, University of
London

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CEV European Volunteer Centre-Symposium -
"Volunteering and Active Citizenship - two sides of the same coin?" - Berlin, Germany:
19/10/2011 - 21/10/2011
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ESREA Research Networks on: History of Adult
Education and Training in Europeand Active
Democratic Citizenship and Adult Learning networks Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of
Education and Psychology Budapest, Hungary -
Conference to be held in Budapest, Hungary
16 – 18 June 2011 ‘Adult Education and
Citizenship- Relations in Space and Time’

the fundamental problem facing civil society is the challenge of providing citizens with
“ the literacy required to live in a civil society, the competence to participate in democratic communities, the ability to think critically and pluralist world, the empathy that permits us to hear and thus accommodate others, all involve
in a that must be acquired.
”
(Barber, Benjamin, An Aristocracy of Everyone,
Oxford University Press,1992 )