Introduction to Active Citizenship

1. Introduction to Active Citizenship Paul Allender Day 1

2. Introductions Turn to the person next to you, introduce yourselves to each other and talk about how you travelled here today.

3. Aims and Learning Outcomes • Aims: • To introduce you to a range of ideas about and definitions ofactive citizenship; • To encourage and motivate you to discuss these ideas – in theory and in practice; • To explore the issues involved in the practical implementation of active citizenship; • To explore the ideas of you being active citizens and being active citizenship tutors. • Learning Outcomes: • You to define what is meant by active citizenship; • To critically engage with these ideas/definitions in relation to their practical implementation; • To consider the usefulness of ‘active learning for active citizenship’; • You to begin to develop some personal ‘tools’ for active citizenship; • Explore the idea of you being potential active citizenship tutors.

4. What is active citizenship? • Active citizenship is a term that has been used in recent years to mean a number of things. • We will look at a variety of approaches and perspectives on active citizenship and will do so in an interactive and inclusive way: active learning. • So, the model of learning employed on this course will reflect the concept of active citizenship: active learning for active citizenship.

5. Exercise 1 – What does the term ‘active citizenship’ mean to you? There are no wrong answers and what you say and discuss will reflect where you are coming from in relation to this subject. Are you an ‘active citizen’? What does it mean to you?

6. Active Citizenship Let’s look at the two word separately: ‘Active’ and ‘Citizenship’ What do they mean to you?

7. ‘Active’ The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as: “consisting in or marked by action; energetic; diligent...” ‘Citizenship’ “a member of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized...”

8. Active Citizenship One simple idea of active citizenship then is that of participation in public affairs: “If we are to have a healthy democracy we need to support each other in identifying the issues that concern us, and develop the confidence and skills to make a difference to the world around us.” (Woodward 2004)

9. Wikipedia definition “Active citizenship generally refers to a philosophy espoused by some organizations and educational institutions. It often states that members of companies or nation-states have certain roles and responsibilities to society and the environment, although those members may not have specific governing roles. Active citizenship can be seen as an articulation of the debate over rights versus responsibilities. If a body gives rights to the people under its remit, then those same people might have certain responsibilities to uphold. This would be most obvious at a country or nation-state level, but could also be wider, such as global citizenship. The implication is that an active citizen is one who exercises both their rights and responsibilities in a balanced way.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_citizenship)

10. Tea/CoffeeBreak

11. Active Learning In recent years the concept of active citizenship has been directly linked to learning approaches and this is most obviously the case in the organization Active Learning for Active Citizenship (ALAC) which was founded in 2004 and was the forerunner of Take Part.

12. The national framework for active learning for active citizenship “Active learning for active citizenship is: • a flexible approach to personal and community development through experiential learning (learning through experience and reflection) in group settings. It offers proven strategies to build stronger communities through promoting personal effectiveness, social enterprise and lifelong learning; • shaped by the values of participation, co-operation, social justice and equality with diversity. These values require the work to be: (i) community based, (ii) learner centred, and (iii) developed through active and reflective learning; (http://www.takepart.org/assets/documents/take-part-framework/)

13. Michela Cecchini “Citizenship learning is:  • social learning (learning in society, about society, for society) • based on experience and practice, through learning by doing, through exploration, action and cooperation • implies the democratisation of learning by focusing on the learner, valuing his/her situation and experience, fostering his/her autonomy and responsibility in the learning process • is achieved through multiple, interconnected, transversal learning approaches, for example through civic education, human rights education, intercultural education, education for peace, global education and media education.” (Cecchini, 2003)

14. Exercise 2 Do you think that education and training, such as this course, can lead to more active citizenship ? Are there any barriers or constraints to this happening ? That is, are there any other factors than education and training that might play a part here ?

15. ALAC • The overall aim of Active Learning for Active Citizenship is to develop engaged and critical communities of people who will take part in the decision-making structures processes and structures within their localities and maybe also at a national and international level. It is believed that this will lead to a wider empowerment of individuals and communities. • As such, active citizenship is a ‘values-based’ idea and practice. What do we mean by this?

16. Active citizenship, on this course, means learning about how to take part in politics at different levels including: • How the political system works, locally to globally, the decision-making processes, people and power structures; • Developing the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage with the political processes at different levels. Three core ideas are at the centre of active citizenship education: • The critical and engaged citizen, confident to ask ‘why?’, seeking the facts and challenging and changing things; • A commitment to social justice, equality and inclusion; • A commitment to openness and accountability in public affairs, with easy access to information, debate and decision-making.

17. Oxfam’s definition of a ‘global citizen’ Someone who:  • is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen; • respects and values diversity; • has an understanding of how the world works; • is outraged by social injustice; • participates in the community at a range of levels, from the local to the global; • is willing to act to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place; • takes responsibility for their actions.

18. Lunch

19. Social justice, participation, equality, diversity and co-operation Exercise 3 – What do these values mean when we put them into practice? What might get in the way of us doing this? Look at the case studies.

20. Active citizenship While the government’s citizenship agenda tends to focus upon the ‘rights and responsibilities’ approach, active citizenship goes beyond this traditional framing of the issue and concentrates upon the active element. A good citizen may well vote in elections as part of their engagement with and responsibilities within civil society. However, as the Take Part, Active Citizenship website states:   “For many people, ‘citizenship’ is the embodiment of the rights and responsibilities that they are due, and owe, from living in a particular nation state. For Take Part though, this is not enough. Firstly, of course, we must add the term active to citizen, with the fundamental implication that citizens should be actively involved in the mechanisms of governance. This active involvement does not stop with voting, or even with volunteering, because both of these activities can be carried out ‘within the rules’, without challenging existing structures to do things differently.”

21. “Active citizenship is concerned with more than learning ‘the rules of the game’ and how to participate within existing models and structures. From Take Part’s perspective, active citizenship should be defined more broadly to encompass active learning for political literacy and empowerment, addressing structures and relations of power and working to change these, where necessary, in the pursuit of social inclusion and social justice agendas (Lister 1997). It also relates to how people can promote community cohesion and social solidarity, thereby strengthening civil society as well as empowering individual citizens.”

22. Exercise 4 What is political literacy? What are ‘structures and relations of power’? What do you understand by the terms ‘empowerment, social inclusion and social justice’? Can you think of some examples?

23. In conclusion... So, going beyond the more traditional approaches may well mean taking action to address inequalities, challenge power structures and working for change within society. And these things are not easy!

24. Activity for break We would like you to go away and think about some issues and concerns within your own life or that of a close friend or colleague and how they might be addressed by active engagement. We are not asking you to come up with a ‘solution’ to these issues but instead to think about what the active citizenship agenda might offer as regards trying to begin to address them.  Write some brief notes down and bring them to the next session. Important – Don’t reveal anything that you don’t feel comfortable talking about within this group.

25. Alternatively... Think about how active involvement might begin to address some of the issues in the case studies I’ve provided you with. Choose one or two to focus upon. Write some brief notes on your thoughts.