Seminar Resources
A series of five seminars and workshops were provided from participants across the five nations.
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Hypocrite or Hero? Thinking about the relationship between being a citizen and teaching citizenship.
Facilitated by Dr Lee Jerome, Middlesex University Citizenship seeks to provide young people with a more optimistic sense that politics is both something they can do and a route to improving the world. But, there’s a problem, and that problem is us – the citizenship teachers. Critical pedagogy positions teachers as crucial to promoting social justice and yet the literature is replete with examples of teachers’ conservatism, their compliance in the face of authority and their prejudice, and schools routinely reproduce inequality and promote a narrow individualistic form of competition. In this context, are citizenship teachers the hypocrites within the system, shouting for an alternative whilst carefully kow-towing to the managerialism which stifles democratic deliberation and action? In this seminar, participants explored some of the international research literature to think about the relationship between teachers’ identities as citizens and as teachers of citizenship in the search for some conceptual tools they might use to critically interrogate their own beliefs and actions. Download the paper that accompanied this seminar Download the presentation accompanying the seminar |
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Exploring migration through portraiture
Facilitated by Pippa Couch, National Portrait Gallery Pippa built on an article written in collaboration with Gavin Baldwin, Middlesex University, to develop activities to facilitate discussions about Migration and Identity. The article was published in the Autumn 2015 edition of 'Teaching Citizenship'. Using examples from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, participants engaged with ‘How to read a Portrait’, ‘Making Portraits Talk’, ‘Migration, Image and Identity’, ‘Portraiture and the Celebration of Diversity’, and ‘Portraits for Active Citizenship’. These activities were used to facilitate discussions about Migration and Power, Justice, Equalities and the Media. Participants were given the opportunity to relate these activities and discussions to their own teaching practices. Download the presentation accompanying the seminar |
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Teaching Controversial Issues in Challenging Times
Facilitated by Elaine Watts, University of Strathclyde Controversial issues can arise in any classroom or in any subject context and yet teachers and youth workers report feelings of unease about how to deal with them. It has long been argued that democracy requires an informed citizenry. This interactive workshop considered the important role that teaching ‘controversial’ issues has in developing many of the skills young people require to become informed democratic global citizens. Download the presentation accompanying the seminar |
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Against the Grain: Engaging citizenship in challenging circumstances.
Facilitated by Dr Kevin Smith, Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research Data & Methods, Cardiff University Kevin shared his experiences as a middle school technology teacher in the United States and his attempts to engage pupils in critical investigations of culture, society, politics and more. He used vignettes to detail the successes and challenges the learners and he faced in schools where critical perspectives were not embraced. In his approach to teaching and learning, he sought to disrupt and challenge the 'official' school curriculum and reject the objectification of pupils as simple receivers of information. This was made possible by introducing pupils to basic concepts of critical theory and co-developing with them a distinctive approach to learning that featured critical investigations of personal interests and culminated in a "call to action" to implement what they've learned both at school and in their everyday lives. Participants were invited to discuss how socially-just and critically oriented approaches to curriculum developing and teaching might be enacted in their own schools. Download paper by Kevin Smith: 'Covert Critique. Critical pedagogy “under the radar” in a suburban middle school.' |
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Citizenship Across the Nations
Facilitated by Rosamonde Birch, Growing Sustainable Futures CIC, and Karl Sweeney, (formerly) Plymouth City Council This seminar used the findings from a Five Nations funded project ‘Who am I, What does nationality mean?’ to explore the theme of identity and citizenship. The project involved a collaboration between three schools from Northern Ireland, Wales and England. Teachers used web based media and creative workshops to explore the significance of a range of concepts including nationhood and nationality and to develop young people's vision of their ideal Citizenship curriculum. Participants were encouraged to reflect on the issues raised through the session for their own teaching practice. Download the presentation accompanying the seminar |