Following are some broader human rights issues that are linked with examples of children’s everyday experiences and can be used to illustrate concepts in ways that children can relate to, and provide opportunities for discussion. (Fountain, 1990)
- Prejudice: children calling each other names based on racial or cultural differences
- Discrimination: excluding others from play or refusing to work with them
- Resource distribution: Arguing over materials, going without something
- Conflict: Fighting and arguments, aggressive behaviour
- Choice and action: Children deciding for themselves what activities to take part in or being involved in planning what they would like to do.
Cross phase
- English: using stories for discussion e.g. Cinderella- issues about fairness and equality.
- Maths: using newspaper to monitor information about human rights and represent the findings mathematically
- ICT: use search engines on the internet to research about children’s right and responsibility.
- History: the Victorians- child labour; emigration; rights of women.
- Geography: water, food and other basic rights.
- RE: learning about religious leaders past and present who have spoken out for the defence of freedom of other e.g. Martin Luther king, Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi.
Adapted from Brown, N (1996) Our world - our rights: teaching about rights and responsibilities in the primary school, & united nations (1989) teaching human rights for primary and secondary schools.
REFERENCES
Brown, Margot. (1996) Our world - our rights : teaching about rights and responsibilities in the primary school. London : Amnesty International.
Crick, Bernard. (1998) Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools: Final report of the Advisory Group for Citizenship Education (the Crick Report). QCA.
DfEE (1999) Framework for personal, social and health education and citizenship at key stage 1 and 2 in the National Curriculum Handbook for Primary teachers in England. QCA
Fountain, Susan. (1990) learning together, Global Education4-7. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes.
Holden, C. (2003) Citizenship in the Primary school: Going Beyond Circle Time. Pastoral care in Education, 21 (3),24-29
Kerr, David.(1998). Citizenship education in primary schools : a national survey commissioned by the Institute for Citizenship Studies about opportunities for citizenship education and community involvement in primary schools, final report . QCA
Klein, Reva . (2001) Citizens by right : citizenship education in primary schools :
Stoke-on-Trent : Trentham and Save the Children.
Lister, I. (1984) Teaching and learning about human rights. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Starkey, H. (1992) Back to Basic Values: Education for justice and peace in the world, Journal of Moral Education, 21(3), 195-92
United Nations.(1989) Teaching human rights : practical activities for primary and secondary schools. New York : United Nations.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Declaration of children’s Rights
Appendix 2: resources for lesson on “wants and needs”
Appendix 3: Key topics for Citizenship for Key stage2
Appendix 4: Notes on citizenship at Marlborough first & Middle school in relation to literature
Appendix 5: Current citizenship Policy at Marlborough School
Appendix 6: Anti bullying policy.
Appendix 7: support for professional standards for QTS
Appendix 4
During ATSE citizenship was taught as part of PSE and through assemblies. Circle time was the only means of delivering both PSHE and citizenship, which, incidentally was rarely carried out. Teachers often used this time to catch up for the core subjects. However, this was partly due to time pressure and the individual teachers view of citizenship. Currently there was no citizenship policy in place and the scheme (Passport) used by the school lacked the key elements of citizenship education. The golden rules, the weekly assemblies and the introduction of the school council was deemed enough by the staff to think that the school was providing effective citizenship education ( see below) Having no exposure to “good “citizenship lesson, the scheme of work unit plans provided me with the knowledge and the understanding of what was required of citizenship education.
Golden rules
Do be gentle Do not hurt others
Do be kind Do not hurt others feelings
Do be polite Do not be rude
Do be honest Do not cover up the truth.
Do work hard Do not waste time
Do look after property Do not interrupt
EXAMPLE OF AN ASSEMBLY WHICH FOCOUSES ON ONE OF THE GOLDEN RULES:
There is a table in the middle of the hall with air freshener and a candle. The head teacher sprays the air freshener and asks the children, if she wanted to, can she put the air freshener back into the can. The essence of the assembly was to think before you say something. Sometimes people say nasty things and then they are sorry, unfortunately it is far too late, the damage has already been done and the words that hurt other peoples’ feeling cannot be taken back.
Citizenship is a statutory subject in the secondary curriculum in England and is recommended for primary schools. But there seems to be confusion within literature as what we mean by the term citizenship (Crick report 1998). In order to teach effective citizenship, we as teachers need to understand what it entails. Initially I understood citizenship education to be teaching children to be law abiding all compliance who respect others within the local community. I was not aware that citizenship encompasses topics such as the environment, respecting property and learning about rights and duty. In essence citizenship has three strands: social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy. Central to social and moral education is the development of children’s value system. Children should be learning from the very beginning self confidence and socially and morally responsible behaviour both in and beyond the classroom, both towards those in authority and towards each other (this is an essential pre-condition for citizenship). According to Holden (2003) Key issues for social and moral education are:
- How can we help children to value their own work, their own identity and their own cultural background?
- How can we ensure that the social and moral issues we raise as teachers for discussion are those most relevant to children lives?
- How can we foster in each child values that are based on truth, justice and sense of duty?
- How do we deal with children who express a values system that is different from our own?
The second strand of citizenship is that of understanding and involvement in the community. This strand is more challenging for primary school, whilst social and moral education has been central to most primary education, teaching about the community and community involvement has had a lower profile. (Kerr report 1998) At Marlborough I was informed that there are visits to Local places of worship and visits are arranged from the Police and fire station. However, this does not meet the needs of the Citizenship curriculum which states that pupils should “contribute fully to the life of their school and communities” and should know about “their responsibilities, rights and duties as individuals and members of communities (DfEE, 1999: 136). To engage children in their school lives Marlborough Middle school has recently formed a school council to offer children an opportunity to discuss and make decisions about issues that affect them, their classes and their school. As I was unable to attend any meetings, I cannot comment on agenda or what issues were raised. However, teachers did not take the school council seriously, and meeting were often cancelled or re-scheduled. Furthermore, the councillors for each class did not have the opportunity to feed back to classes or to discuss any other issues for the next meetings. Circle time (which was scheduled for half an hour in the weekly timetable) was the official time dedicated to raise issues for the councillor to address at the next meeting; however, on many occasions this half hour was used to catch up on either core subject or the foundation subject curriculum. The school council in this case was significant only to the councillors; rest of the children in the school was almost oblivious to aims and the purpose of school council. School councils are important but not sufficient (for offering possibilities for raising one’s own concern, for debate and conflict resolution) because although children may elect their representative, not every child can experience the school council itself.
The third strand for citizenship is teaching political literacy and the Law again like the second strand this strand is completely dismissed in primary schools with the view that children are too young to address politically literacy and is best left to secondary schools. However, there is clear guidance that at key stage 1, children should be taught to “take part in simple debate about topical issues” and consider “simple political issues” and at key stage 2 children should be taught “to research, discuss and debate topical issues, problems and events,... what democracy is and about the basic institution that support it locally and nationally” (DfEE/QCA, 1999 P137-139). I did not see any evidence of addressing this strand in Marlborough.
Active and responsible citizenship is not just about individuals having a sense of belonging to, and functioning in, communities. It is also an aspect of corporate or institutional life. Just as a key facet of each individual's citizenship should be a caring and responsible use of material and financial resources, business organisations also have a responsibility, as 'corporate citizens', to achieve their economic goals in ways that are consistent with sustainable development and with the health and welfare of communities.
conclusion
The citizenship that formal education should seek to promote and foster needs to be thoughtful and responsible - rooted in and expressive of, a respectful and caring disposition in relation to people, human society generally, the natural world and the environment. It should also be active, in the sense of people being able to act and participate in various communities, wherever it seems to them desirable or appropriate to do so. There are important implications for schools of this view of citizenship. Approaches to all aspects of education for citizenship in the classroom, or the wider life of the school or community should be informed by the awareness that citizenship is best learnt through experience and interaction with others. In short, learning about citizenship is best achieved by being an active citizen.
Another implication is that young people and their parents or carers should be routinely involved in school development planning and other areas of school decision making. Also, because citizenship is a lifelong process, young people's learning experiences should encourage them to be disposed to be active and responsible citizens both now and later in their lives.
Clearly, Marlborough is attempting to actively involve children through the introduction school council; however the interpretation of citizenship education is very limited. There are opportunities for teachers to incorporate many aspects of citizenship into their existing teaching by extending and adapting what is already taught (to overcome time restriction in the timetable). However, the school urgently requires a scheme of work for citizenship which takes into consideration of the local community and would provide clear framework and consistency across school. This then needs to be communicated to teachers as I felt some clarification was required between PSHE and citizenship, as many classes (certainly both of the years 4) were not delivering the citizenship curriculum. This is consistent with finding of David Kerrs’ report (1998), where 27% of primary schools were not addressing the theme of citizenship and was the area where the greatest difficulties were being experienced by schools.
Anti- Bullying Policy at Marlborough
The policy is out of date, and needs revising urgently. Generally when bullying did occur (if it was name calling) then it was dealt with the class teacher, however if there was physical harm then the Head teacher dealt with. I am not aware who was involved in writing this policy; however everyone concerned with the school, these include teachers, classroom assistant, kitchen staff, dinner and playground supervisors, caretakers, parents, and the local community members should be involved for the next revised policy. This shows the school’s commitment to its principles and provides a reference point for children, staff and parents. While having policies is important, they will only have validity and credibility if they are implemented. For example the golden rules- are they applicable to everyone, or is there one set for children and another for teacher and other adults? (Klien 2001).
