Democratic talk: from discussion to deliberation
London, England, 2018

Educators from the five nations gathered in London in January 2018 for the Five Nations Network annual conference. The aims of this conference were to:

• Discuss the role and effectiveness of using different forms of democratic talk and deliberation in citizenship teaching
• Explore different approaches and pedagogies in developing pupils’ critical understanding of controversial and sensitive issues currently facing society
• Debate the changing curriculum opportunities for citizenship teaching in the five nations
• Encourage new thinking and learning about citizenship education and practice and promote dialogue and collaboration across the five nations.

Download the conference programme

In advance of the conference, delegates were provided with a paper, 'Thinking about deliberation', written by Lee Jerome, Associate Professor of Education, Middlesex University and England Country Lead.

Keynote, plenary sessions and workshops

• Dr Eilís Ward delivered the opening keynote 'Democratic Deliberation: Inside and Outside'.
• Leela Koenig at The English-Speaking Union led a session on practical approaches for placing oracy at the heart of teaching and learning to help students develop the ability to critically analyse the world around them.
• David Carr at Parliament's Education Service led a session on 'Your Students and the UK Parliament'.
• A series of four workshops explored pedagogies and strategies around critical oracy and dialogue.

Keynote film and workshop resources

Five Nations Development Projects

Three short, focused Five Nations Development Projects (FNDPs) were funded in advance of the conference to allow teachers in schools to take forward a range of citizenship and values education projects.

​Three teachers attended the conference and shared their findings through poster presentations. Five Nations Development Projects