For immediate release
CITIZENSHIP TEACHING – TIME FOR REVIEW?
Schools need to review the way they teach citizenship education, according to a new
report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
‘Making Citizenship Education Real’, the second Annual Report of the Citizenship
Education Longitudinal Study, also finds that although citizenship education is highly
successful in some schools, most schools have not as yet recognised the broad scope of
the subject. Provision is uneven, patchy and evolving and there is considerable work to
do in the majority of schools to develop effective education in this new area of the
curriculum.
Factors underlying successful citizenship in schools
Schools that have implemented citizenship successfully have taken a holistic and
coherent approach, developing citizenship education in the curriculum, in the school as a
community, and in partnership with the wider community.
Other success factors include:
 a clear, coherent and broad understanding of what is meant by citizenship
education
 a supportive school ethos;
 support from senior management and a dedicated and enthusiastic coordinator – a
‘citizenship champion’;
 equal status and value accorded to citizenship alongside other subjects;
 recognition of the need for staff training and development;
 sufficient time and resources and a range of delivery approaches;
 active involvement of students in school activities.
Action points
The report suggests that schools need to review how they teach citizenship education, two
years after the introduction of this new curriculum subject: “Every school needs to take a
fresh look at what they’re doing and see whether it’s right for their own students. They
need to consider how what they’re doing measures up to what’s going on in the most
successful schools, where there is a synergy between curriculum, ethos and community
approaches. There is an urgent need for review in those schools identified as minimalist
in their current approach,” said NFER’s David Kerr, one of the report’s authors.
Further recommendations are:



schools should adopt a holistic approach, encompassing not only moral and social
dimensions but also political literacy and concern with public policy issues;
policy makers need to adopt a broad, ‘developmental’ view of citizenship;
education, that highlights growing signs of progress alongside deficiencies;
recognition is required of the need for staff training and development.
Ends
15th June 2004
A summary of the report is attached and the full report is on NFER’s website at:
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/citlong.asp. For more information, please contact Gail
Goodwin, Media and Communications Manager on 01753 637159 or
g.goodwin@nfer.ac.uk
Notes to Editors
Making Citizenship Real is the second Annual Report of the nine-year Citizenship
Education Longitudinal Study, conducted by NFER on behalf of the DfES.
The study aims to identify, measure and evaluate the extent to which effective practice in
citizenship education develops in schools, so that it can be promoted widely.
The report outlines the emerging approaches to citizenship education in the year
following the introduction of statutory citizenship education into schools in September
2002. It sets out the findings of the first longitudinal survey, involving over 18,000 11
year old, their teachers and headteachers and in-depth visits to nine case study schools.
The findings establish a baseline of the attitudes of students, teachers and school leaders
to citizenship education in the first year following its statutory introduction.
The survey, based on a nationally representative sample of over 100 schools, identifies
four types of school approaches to citizenship education.
Progressing schools were developing citizenship education in the curriculum, school
community and wider community and were the most advanced in terms of citizenship
education provision.
Focused schools were concentrating almost exclusively on developing citizenship
education in the curriculum, but neglected to build opportunities for active citizenship in
the school and with the wider community.
Minimalist schools were at an early stage of development in terms of citizenship
education, used a limited range of delivery approaches and had relatively few extracurricular activities on offer.
Implicit schools were not yet focusing explicitly on citizenship in the curriculum,
although they provided opportunities for active citizenship. With a greater focus on
citizenship within the curriculum they have the potential to become progressing schools.
NFER recently published a first annual literature review for the Longitudinal Study as
well as a report on post-16 citizenship, The National Evaluation of Post-16 Citizenship
Development Projects. Both of these can be viewed on its site at
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/post16.asp