OVERVIEW
ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP TODAY TRAINING MANUAL
Learning to take an active role in society means developing a new vision of education that will enable young people to explore different ways of being a citizen. Everyday Active Citizens provides many examples of this, from ways of taking a more active part in classroom learning, to supporting each other's learning as pupils, to looking how structures in the school can help develop active involvement, to active involvement in the community.
The Institute for Citizenship worked together with young people, community groups, youth organisations, local authorities and schools from the London, Luton and Halton over a two-year period. Using an integrated approach that links formal and informal education, the Institute for Citizenship developed practical active citizenship programmes that would enable schools and organisations working with young people to respond effectively to Key Stages 3 and 4 of the National Curriculum subject Citizenship. This training manual was developed alongside the two year-pilot programmes.
Throughout the pilots, the Institute for Citizenship encouraged critical evaluation by the participants and partner organizations, in order to develop a resource that is both flexible and user-friendly.
The aim of the ACT! Training Manual is to assist teachers and facilitators working with groups of young people in the delivery of active citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4. The training sessions aim to equip young people with the appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding to participate meaningfully and effectively in the decisions and issues that affect them as well as supporting young people in planning, doing and reviewing an active citizenship project in their school or local community.
It is important to note that there is not one ideal method and each piece of work, project or setting will have different possibilities and involve different forms of participation. Clearly, the goal is to move away from processes where young people are manipulated and participation is tokenistic, towards meaningful, real involvement in decision-making processes.
Promoting active citizenship and encouraging participation amongst young people within their communities can be of benefit to all involved, as the following case studies from the two-year pilot clearly show:
The ACT! group from Ashley School in Widnes, Cheshire formed a mixed age and gender group on the 22 February 2002. After a series of training sessions, the group decided that their main issue was smoking amongst young people and chose to work on an anti-smoking campaign within the school, with the possibility of taking the campaign out to the wider community. Since inception the group have formalised themselves and elected a Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer. To date, the ACT! group have:
|
The ACT! Group from Haggerston Youth Group in London started work in the Summer 2001 and met every two weeks to develop their role within their community. During the pilot the group have:
|