Educator group welcome call for citizenship education
A group of educators has welcomed the Constitutional Advisory Panel's call for a national strategy for civic and
citizenship education in schools. but argues that it needs to be part of a broader effort to better enable young people
as effective citizens of their communities.
"One of the key purposes of schools is to equip children to participate in, and help shape, their communities -- from
local to global," says Ced Simpson from the recently-formed Educating for Citizenship steering group. "This
understanding needs to guide the whole school curriculum and the way schools are organised, not just a few isolated
social studies topics."
"The available evidence suggests strongly that civics and citizenship education needs to start with young people's
current role and concerns as citizens, developing understanding of relevant institutions and processes, and providing
opportunities to take effective action on those concerns. It begins with the opportunities children have to think about
and help shape their own learning community."
The group, which includes some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field, says that there are many examples
of outstanding learning for citizenship in New Zealand schools, but the "citizenship education" theme is not clear in
the national curricula, and experience and success is rarely shared between schools and within the education system
generally. Educating for Citizenship is being developed as a framework for schools and teachers to address this.
ENDS