This document discusses active citizenship, which involves students choosing a social issue to research, taking action on, and reflecting upon. It promotes character education, democratic decision making, and thinking globally and locally. Active citizenship is experiential, authentic, and increases civic engagement. It involves justice, participation, and personal responsibility. The document outlines steps for meaningful action projects and provides examples, challenges, and tips for implementation.

1. ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
Working and Growing together in a Global Village
Jeremy Black
Geoff Groholski
Heather Reid

2. WHAT IS ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP?
• Character education: values/promotes caring, respect, empathy
• Choosing an issue that is important to the group (democracy in the room)
• Visioning, researching, acting, and reflecting
• Not a linear experience
• Research into root causes, multiple perspectives,
and stakeholders
• Meaningful engagement
• Promoting students to think locally and globally

3. WHY DO IT?
• Experiential (cater to different learning styles)
• Authentic, relevant , meaningful opportunities and for taking responsibility
• Can creates relationship between the people in the school and the wider
community
• Increases likelihood that students will
engage in future action projects
• Values cultural diversity

4. WHY DO IT?
• Can be multi-disciplinary although it is often embedded within social studies
• Follows a problem-based approach (you identify a problem and actively seek a
realistic solution)
• Covers the three broad areas of curriculum: life-long learning, social responsibility,
and engaged citizenship
• Promotes metacognitive thinking
skills and has been correlated with
increased cognitive achievement

5. CATEGORIES OF CITIZENSHIP
1. Justice-oriented:
• Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice (gets involved in social movements)
2. Participatory:
• Organizes community efforts
to care for those in need
3. Personally Responsible:
• Volunteers, recycles

6. STEPS FOR TAKING MEANINGFUL
1.
ACTION
Describe a good citizen:
• What does it look, feel, sound like?
2. Raise awareness:
• Have students document issues they see around them (internet, the news, school)
• Generate a list in the classroom
3. Class will choose an issue:
• Class will democratically choose the issue from the generated list and state the problem to
addressed
4. Build Motivation:
• Research, create an individual written/visual response to the question “Why care?”

7. STEPS FOR TAKING MEANINGFUL
ACTION
5. Form the group:
• Groups will be decided based on using the categories of citizenship OR based on similar interests
6. Investigate:
• 5Ws/how, information needs (resources), categorizing causes, explore options for possible
solutions and potential consequences of those solutions
7. Make a plan:
• Define parameters (develop timelines, deciding and defining roles and responsibilities of the group,
revise as necessary)
8. Define Success:
• Choose a goal for success that is realistic, constructive, appropriate, and motivating

8. STEPS FOR TAKING MEANINGFUL
ACTION
9. Identify Barriers:
• Identify barriers and then devise methods to deal with them
10. Teach Skills:
• Decide what skills and knowledge students need to complete the project, which you may have to
teach them explicitly
11. DO IT!!!:
• Check in with your action plan and continue to revise
• Have students write reflections (i.e. Why do you think you are an effective group member? What
do you think you could do differently?)

9. TIPS
1.Take only Positive Positions:
• Saying what you are for not against
2. Listen to all Peoples’ Views:
• Facilitate deliberative dialogue amongst
students (listen to all views/alternatives)
3. Avoid Stereotyping:
• Do not lump individuals into a category
4. Accept Responsibility:
• Make sure students know that there will be no blaming the others if there is a lack of
success

10. 5. Be Persistent:
TIPS
• Remind students that complex
issues take time.
6. Act:
• Micro-movements are better than
no movements
7. Assessment
• Ongoing
8. Celebrate
• Celebrate milestones along the way to maintain motivation

11. EXAMPLES OF ACTION
Direct Action:
• Supplying schools around the world
(project love)
• Building awareness in the school
• Adopting a salmon stream
Indirect Action:
• Fundraising to help build a school
(www.freethechildren.com)
• Helping to reduce blindness in Nepal
• Writing for the local newspaper

12. ACTIVITY
1. Turn and Talk:
At your tables, you have 1 minute to discuss with your colleagues
the pros and cons to implement this model of learning?
2. Turn and Talk:
Do you think this is a more progressive or more orthodox
approach to teaching?

13. FINAL ACTIVITY
10 x 10 Challenge
(www.freethechildren.com)

14. REFERENCES
Burgess, T., (2003). Engaging students in sustainable action projects: workshop
participant guide.
Case, R., Falk, C., Smith, N., Werner., (2004). Active citizenship: Student action projects.
Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium
Ponder, J., Lewis-Ferrel, G. (2009). The butterfly effect: The impact of citizenship education.
California: Heldref

15. CHALLENGES OF ACTIVE
•
CITIZENSHIP
Lack of control
• Not enough clarity or guidelines on how to implement active citizenship
• Not enough teacher training
• Classroom organization
• Physical organization of schools—lack of systematic support
• Meeting curricular policies
• Effective time management for the teacher and student (hard to complete in 50 minutes)
• Conflict with teacher pedagogy and beliefs on teaching
• Learners having difficulty generating questions of inquiry
• Learners having difficulty with transforming data

16. CHALLENGES OF ACTIVE
CITIZENSHIP
• Learners having difficulty constructing a logical argument
• Learners struggling with sustaining their motivation with the inquiry
• Not enough accessibility to technology
• Increase of political pressure to meet learning outcomes
• Can only cover depth not breadth of the curriculum
• Teachers not showing their full expertise
• A fear of fundamental concepts would be left out
• Students restrict the different teaching styles--if students are given power in the learning environment then they may
put the pressure for the teacher to control them again
• Assessment— difficult in knowing/testing students factual knowledge