Citizenship and democracy

Contact: Kay Livingston ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

01/01/2004 - 31/12/2008

Project leader: Kay Livingston
Senior Research Fellow: Jane Brown

This research aims to place an understanding of citizenship education in the Scottish policy context; examine the concept of citizenship; and explore the implementation of citizenship at school level.

A literature review is now completeA policy review is underway. Members of the policy review group are working towards a publication, focusing on management in key policy documents on education for citizenship.

One AERS Research Fellow is currently attached to this project.

Update to Project 2 ‘Citizenship & Democracy’

Policy review

The work of the ‘Policy Writing Group’, led by Alan Britton (Glasgow University) is now well underway. The group are now preparing a paper for publication on the coverage of management in key Scottish policy initiatives. Please find attached paper presented on behalf of the group at the SMG dissemination seminar (14 June, University of Edinburgh). 

The policy documents reviewed are:

Black, P. and Dylan, W. (1998) Inside the Black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Accessed online at: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm, in August 2008.

Case studies in schools

The ‘Case Study Group’ has three projects in various stages of progress. Fieldwork in one of the case studies is now complete. It explores education for citizenship and the role of drama and story telling in the early years. Another study, on pupil transitions (from primary to secondary) and citizenship education, is in progress. The third case study, investigating the views of LAcouncillors and Local Authority policy frameworks, is also underway.  

Citizenship and marginalised groups

Dr June Mitchell, from the University of Strathclyde, is carrying out research on citizenship and marginalised pupil groups. The first phase, on disaffected pupils, is now complete. 

Conference presentations 2007

This year members of the project are presenting at ‘Thinking Voices’, Cardiff (July 2007); BERA (September 2007); in addition to presenting a paper at SERA (November 2007).

Thank you,

Jane and Kay

Dissemination:

The Colloquium Harnessing What We Know was held at the University of Strathclyde, in February 2006:

• Maitles, Henry (2005) "We don't learn democracy - we live it", presented at the SMG Colloquium Citizenship and Democracy: Harnessing What We Know, held in Glasgow, Faculty of Education, Jordanhill Campus, University of Strathclyde, on 21^st February
• Powell, Mandy (2005) "Desperately seeking citizenship: does the development of media education in Scotland have anything to offer?", presented at the SMG Colloquium Citizenship and Democracy: Harnessing What We Know, held in Glasgow, Faculty of Education, Jordanhill Campus, University of Strathclyde, on 21^st February
• Deuchar, Ross (2005) "Not only this but also that!: the political and social motivations underpinning enterprise and citizenship education", presented at the SMG Colloquium Citizenship and Democracy: Harnessing What We Know, held in Glasgow, Faculty of Education, Jordanhill Campus, University of Strathclyde, on 21^st February
• Blee, Harry and Alan Britton (2005) "Global citizenship and initial teacher Education: perceptions of BEd students on completion of their course at the University of Glasgow", presented at the SMG Colloquium Citizenship and Democracy: Harnessing What We Know, held in Glasgow, Faculty of Education, Jordanhill Campus, University of Strathclyde, on 21^st February

The Seminar The Implementation of Citizenship Education in Scottish Schools: Making Connections with the Current Policy Context was held at Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, in June 2006:

• Deuchar, Ross and Jane Brown (2006) "Key findings from the literature review", presented at the SMG Seminar The Implementation of Citizenship Education in Scottish Schools: Making Connections with the Current Policy Context, held in Edinburgh, The Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, on 16^th June

• Britton, Alan (2006) "Management and governance: what do the key policy documents say?", presented at the SMG Seminar The Implementation of Citizenship Education in Scottish Schools: Making Connections with the Current Policy Context, held in Edinburgh, The Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, on 16^th June

• Livingston, Kay (2006) "Literature and policy reviews: an overview", presented at the SMG Seminar The Implementation of Citizenship Education in Scottish Schools: Making Connections with the Current Policy Context, held in Edinburgh, The Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, on 16^th June

The Symposium Implementing Citizenship Education in Scotland: Meeting the Challenge was presented at SERA (Scottish Educational Research Association), in Perth, November 2006:

• Petrie, Margaret and Margaret Penketh (2006)"Responsible citizenship and the Curriculum for Excellence", accepted for the Symposium Implementing Citizenship Education in Scotland: Meeting the challenge, at SERA Conference, held in Perth, Royal George Hotel, on 23^rd November
• Livingston, Kay (2006) "A critical review of methodologies used in the research of citizenship education", accepted for the Symposium Implementing Citizenship Education in Scotland: Meeting the challenge, at SERA Conference, held in Perth, Royal George Hotel, on 23^rd November
• Maitles, Henry and Ross Deuchar (2006) "We don't learn democracy, we live it!: participation and democratic practice in schools", accepted for the Symposium Implementing Citizenship Education in Scotland: Meeting the challenge, at SERA Conference, held in Perth, Royal George Hotel, on 23^rd November
• Britton, Alan and Jane Brown (2006) &"Implementing citizenship education in Scotland: seeking out the 'management' and 'governance' in key policy initiatives", accepted for the Symposium Implementing Citizenship Education in Scotland: Meeting the challenge, at SERA Conference, held in Perth, Royal George Hotel, on 23^rd November
• Petrie, Margaret and Margaret Penketh (2006) "Citizenship education: exploring the concept and models of implementation", presented at ECER (European Council for Educational Research), Postgraduate and New Researchers' Pre-Conference, held in Geneva, on 11^th -12^th September