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Free Schools are a missed opportunity to build Citizen Schools

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The current government missed the opportunity in its free school policy to develop schools that ‘create a democratic culture’ through their ‘role as a civic institution’, according to a report from the IPPR think-tank.

It gave communities ‘the chance to engage with the planning of new provision’ but did not put in place anything that would ‘encourage strong citizen relationships once the school gates open for the first time.’

The report argues that by ‘hardwiring’ into their culture processes that make ‘embedding citizenship’ into ‘a vital element’ of their governance, schools can enable better outcomes for students and their local community.

Reports from the report’s four case study schools indicate that creating a citizenship culture had ‘changed the way in which their students approached their learning.’ This is because it helped them develop ‘a sense of agency: a feeling that they can shape the world around them through taking civic action with others.’

‘We inherited passive learners,’ the director of maths, science and technology at the RSA Academy in Tipton is quoted as saying, students who were spoon-fed, done to, and therefore didn’t really take responsibility for teir own actions, and didn’t take responsibility for their own learning.’

The report shows that students at all four case study schools became practised at ‘acquiring and using skills of organizing, listening, pressuring, negotiating, compromising, leading, speaking and participating in decision-making processes.’

The authors suggest it is important for every element in the school community to be recognized ‘as a reciprocal element of the school’s body politic,’ while recognizing that ‘the power of these groups will not always be equal, and need not be.’

‘We argue,’ they say, ‘that schools make ideal sites for the development of citizenship because they are necessarily public institutions. They develop governing structures and a local culture with the aim of reconciling differences and conflicts.’

Citizen Schools: Learning to rebuild democracy by Jamie Audsley, Clyde Chitty, Jim O’Connell, David Watson, Jane Wills can be downloaded from here

 


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