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Political Literacy

a critical part of the Citizenship curriculum made easy!

April 2010

Introduction...

In the run up to this election Citizenship teachers play a key role in helping young people understand concepts of democratic participation. This month ACT offers you ten practical ideas for teaching political literacy.

We are facing a democratic crisis - an unprecedented disengagement with our elected representatives, our democratic institutions and our ability to influence government. This is especially acute among young people. Yet a democracy relies on participation. If a democratic government is not elected by the majority of the people, can it be democratic?

One of the reasons for establishing citizenship in schools was to engage young people in public life. Government and politics are at the heart of citizenship education, yet some schools and teachers play down their significance because they are perceived as difficult to teach. (from Ofsted's Citizenship Established? Report 2010 )

Public faith in democracy and politicians is at an all-time low. Now is the time to convince young people that democracy matters!

But after 10 years of Citizenship education in schools, will our first-time voters turn out at the polls? If not can we continue to blame apathy - or do young people have other reasons for choosing not to engage with this exercise of national democracy?

Find out how to use the general election as an opportunity to teach about democracy, politics and government with ten ideas from ACT and related teaching resources...

In response to the crisis of democracy and in response to teachers' training needs, ACT welcomes you to our national conference:

This is a practical CPD day for everyone struggling to teach political literacy. BOOK A PLACE NOW

You will work with other teachers to share and create new resources to help your students build the skills and conviction to be politically literate and democratically effective. The best resources will be presented back to participants who will vote for a winning resource - hence Political X-Factor!

ACT will update you on all the latest developments in Citizenship education including the best new resources, the eight-level scale for assessment and the new primary curriculum.

There will also be an exhibition hall with free teaching resources to take back to school.

The impact citizenship education can have on the level of public engagement in politics cannot be underestimated. BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW

Use the election to teach about politics! Ten ideas from ACT...

1. Starter for ten...

Use a statement like "School should be compulsory for everyone until they reach 18" or "All taxes should be removed" and then ask them to think about the pros and cons in small groups. Have the question written on board when they walk in. You can divide them into small groups with one additional question per group. For example: "What sort of education should be offered to over-16s?", "Why do you want/not want to stay in school after 16? And why might someone else feel different?" "Why is education important?" "Who should decide what education is available for children and young people?"

Or if you're looking at taxes; "Who should pay for hospitals?" "What are the benefits of having a national broadcasting corporation?" "What should happen to you if you lose your job?" "What should happen to people who break the law?" This will help them think about what tax money goes towards paying for (hospitals, the BBC, job seeker allowance, prisons etc). If you want to explore taxation further, a good teaching resource is Paying for it

2. Where do you stand?

Use Votematch to find out where you stand and how you/ your class should vote to reflect their own political persuasions. This will open up the ideas for discussion and you can start to introduce debate around the issues.

The tool asks lots of questions like...

- People on job seeker's allowance who refuse a job should lose their benefits.

- We should build new nuclear power plants.

-Asylum seekers should be allowed to work in the UK while waiting for their application to be processed.

...and there are options to "agree", "disagree", "open-minded" or "skip the question". This will help you unpick some of the issues around the statements and help your class understand what are political issues. You can use this together with the "Political lucky dip" activity from the Democracy Handbook (see below) which is a 15-20 minute game that introduces the concept of politics and asks the class to consider which issues are, and are not, political. Votematch.co.uk

3. Find out what the political parties stand for by...

This is a great tool for comparing political parties' policies on the main issues.

1. Choose up to six parties whose policies you want to compare.

2. Choose the issue you want to know about.

Policies currently described include crime, defence, democracy, economy, education, environment, Europe, foreign policy, health, immigration, pensions/welfare and transport.

This gives a good general overview of the differences in party policy. The main policy comparison pages are based on a 'frequency of policy occurrence'. This means that the issues included for comparison have been mentioned most by the group of parties included.

(It may also help you cast your own vote in the election. I just looked up education policy and compared the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour, Greens and BNP. That made interesting reading! - ed.) Pocket Politics - comparison tool

4. Film clips of Democracy in Action

Democracy in Action is a series of BBC programmes which aim to bring politics to life for younger audiences (KS4) and explain complex issues in an engaging way using teenagers' contributions. Even electoral systems are explained in a fun way!

In a second programme, Democracy in Action explores modern European history, including the impact of the Berlin Wall and life under Communism, EU migration, and immigration to the UK.

Both programmes, which are one hour long, are available on i-player. They will soon be made available as small clips for teachers to use in classrooms to introduce topics.

An earlier programme was first broadcast last year and covered 4 themes: UK Politics, the Media and Politics, the European Union and World Political Systems. The programme has since been made available in clip form through BBC Learning, and in longer form via BBC Democracy Live.

Democracy in Action

5. Show them democracy in practice

You cannot teach young people about democracy in a vacuum. You have to show them how it’s done. I hope I’m preaching to the converted here, but there’s no point telling them that they have no say in how the school is run at the same time as teaching them to understand democracy and how the country’s run. If they’re going to get any kind of understanding of democracy they need to experience it. If you don't already have a functioning and powerful school council then get one. Here's how: School Councils UK

Use democratic processes in school for elections, referenda, consultations etc. Mi-Voice Participation is offering its services to ACT members for FREE (we think this is jammy). Mi-voice is a secure electronic voting and consultation tool for teachers to run democratic events in school. Once you've set-up the "event" pupils can take part online or by sending a text message. Contact ACT to sign up. See Mi-Voice Website for details

6. Use the Electoral Commission Resources

The Electoral Commission have some excellent resources including the Democracy Cookbook which has lots of "recipes" for small group work etc. ACT really recommends this as an excellent teaching resource.

They also have practical resources like explaining to young people how to get on the electoral roll. And posters that you can use in the classroom or around the school.

There's also great information about how to organise political speed dating or arrange a democracy day or run a politics workshop.

Scroll to the resources and the case studies from schools, youth groups and LAs across the country. These are in the three columns at the bottom of this page.

7. Organise a mock election

This can be in a Citizenship class, or a year group or a whole school exercise. It does not HAVE to be a suspended timetable day.

Your pupils may not be old enough to participate in the actual election, but they can join in online or at a mock election at school. Register your school with Y Vote and you'll receive support and additional resources for hosting a mock election including pre- and post-election lesson plans.

Y Vote Mock Elections engage students with the political, social and moral issues that concern them by giving them the opportunity to stand as party candidates, speech writers and canvassers in a mock election. This is an excellent introduction to the mechanics and issues involved in an election. mockelections.co.uk

8a. Post-16 political literacy - first time voters!

ACT recommends this resource from the LSN Post-16 Citizenship team. Voting and Elections Turnout at elections is getting worse. There were five million fewer voters in the General Election of 2001 than turned out in 1997. A slight improvement for the 2005 election (61.4%) is no cause for complacency, since just over 17 million of those registered to vote decided not to do so. Voting turnout is particularly low for young people, and the Electoral Commission has suggested that there appears to be a ‘cohort effect – i.e. a generation apparently carrying forward their non-voting as they get older.’

8b. Election issues ARE youth issues! (pre-16)

Young people under the age of 18 may not be voting in the next General Election but this does not mean their voices should not be heard! Help young people to get their voices heard in the General Election by using these THREE FREE LESSON PLANS and an assembly published by The Co-operative as part of the Votes at 16 campaign.

The Co-operative has joined the Votes at 16 Coalition to campaign for the voting age to be lowered to help boost democratic and parliamentary renewal in the UK and energise young people to better engage in society. Free lesson plans and assembly available to download free from the Co-operative website.

9. How to handle political extremism?

When you're teaching about voting, elections and democracy you may find that political extremism is brought up. This can be a very difficult subject to handle for the teacher and it's an important one to handle well.

ACT and the Citizenship Foundation have written some guidance for schools on how to deal with political extremism. It's based on the true story of a school in the North of England which was having a mock general election. Students had worked on the election processes and nominated their own candidates etc. Parliamentary candidates from the mainstream parties (Labour, LibDem and Conservative) were invited to the school to help teach about campaigning methods and the election process.

When some parents and the local British National Party (BNP) candidate himself complained that the BNP had not been invited, the head was forced to answer claims that she was being undemocratic.

Living with Radical Groups in a Democratic World - guidance for schools

10. Take them to Parliament!

What better place to teach about government, representation and political institutions than at parliament itself?!

The Parliamentary Education Service host school visits which are really inspirational for pupils. It would be a great idea to organise a trip to Parliament after the election to meet the new MPs and feel the buzz. (They're fully booked until July so book a trip for the new school year). They host great workshops on elections and voting, on making your voice heard etc.

They also have fantastic online resources including great games for kids and lesson plans for teachers.

Finally, if you don't feel quite up to speed enough to teach political literacy at school they can come to your school and give you teacher training! And if you can't visit Parliament (health and safety, cost, travel time etc) then Parliament can visit you.

Parliament Education homepage