This is the presentation accompanying Professor Bob Fryer's Keynote speech

1. Learning Citizenship for
the 21st Century
European Schoolnet eTwinning
Conference
Lisbon 14 - 16 March 2013
Professor R. H. Fryer CBE
Chair, Campaign for Learning UK
Board Member NIACE UK
Board Member & Chief Learning Advisor Arch Agilisys
profbobfryer@live.co.uk

2. Agenda
 Why the current interest in citizenship
& lifelong learning?
 An era of profound change – ‘risk
society’
 Origins & forms of citizenship
 European ambitions for citizenship
education
 Social cohesion & diversity
 Policy & focus
 A ‘competence-based’ approach
 Informality , experience & participation
 Critical pedagogy
 Citizenship & ‘capability’
 Citizenship & the purposes of learning

3. Why the current interest in citizenship?
 Retreat from conventional,
electoral politics
 Youth alienation
 Break up/disappearance of
‘traditional’ communities
 Social fragmentation
 Decline of trades unions
 Rise of individualism,
individuation & ‘identity’
politics’
 Migration, ethnicity & social
integration
 Globalisation & its discontents
 New forms of and locales of
‘exclusion’ – e.g. ‘digital’
 Change, ambiguity, instability
& risk
 ‘New’ social movements

4. An era of profound & widespread
economic, social & cultural change
Global & national financial crises, ‘credit crunch’ &
recession
Long-run changes in social, political & cultural
institutions (Family, Politics, Consumption etc)
Restructuring of work, employment & industry
Shifts in personal & group identities & aspirations
A growing tendency for ‘choice’
An information & knowledge revolution
Continuing technological innovation
Greater localism within globalisation
Social fragmentation & division
New forms & expressions of citizenship

5. ‘Turbo Capitalism’:
an Age of Uncertainty & Insecurity?
“No jobs are guaranteed, no positions are
foolproof, no skills are of lasting utility,
experience and know-how turn into liability as
soon as they become assets, seductive careers
all too often prove to be suicide tracks. In
their present rendering, human rights do not
entail the acquisition of a right to a job,
however well performed , or - more generally -
the right to care and consideration for the
sake of past merits. Livelihood, social
position, acknowledgement of usefulness and
the entitlement to self-dignity may all vanish
together, overnight and without notice.”
Zygmunt Bauman, Postmodernity & its Discontents, page 22

6. ‘Risk Society’ (Beck)
Ubiquitous
Change
Unreliability Uncertainty
Unpredictability Un-sustainability
Risk Society
‘Fuzzy’
Boundaries Choice
Multiple & Beyond
Contested Information Conventions,
& Knowledge Rules & Structures

7. Some origins & key forms of citizenship
 Four key ‘moments’
The ancients: Greece &
Rome
American & French
revolutions
T H Marshall: citizenship &
social class
Late 20th/early 21st century
 Two or three variants?
 The liberal model
Marshall’s major revision
The critique of liberalism
 Civic Republicanism
 Communitarianism
See for example, Fryer, 2010, Promises of Freedom

8. Education for citizenship:
European ambitions
“Promoting equity, social
cohesion and active citizenship
through school education is… one
of the main objectives of the
current Strategic Framework for
European Cooperation in
Education and Training which
extends to 2020.”
Source: Androulla Vassiliou (Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture,
Multilingualism and Youth), Foreword to
Citizenship Education in Europe, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive
Agency, (Eurydice) 2012.

9. An European conception of modern
citizenship: the Eurydice Report
“This report derives from an evolved conception
of citizenship, acknowledging the fact that it
goes far beyond the simple legal relationship
between people and the state. This conception
of citizenship, which extends to citizens'
participation in the political, social and civil life
of society, is based on respect for a common set
of values at the heart of democratic societies,
and can be found in the definition of 'active
citizenship' (Hoskins et al., 2006) promoted at
European level.”
Source: Eurydice Report, 2012 p. 8

10. EU Youth Strategy
The EU Youth Strategy 2010-2018 declared
fostering active citizenship, social inclusion and
solidarity among all young people as one of its
main objectives. The Strategy includes several
lines of action related to developing citizenship
in both formal and non-formal educational
activities, for example, ‘participation in civil
society and in representative democracy’ and
‘volunteering as a vehicle for social inclusion
and citizenship’.
Sources: Eurydice Report, 2012 p.7 & Council Resolution of 27 November 2009 on ‘a
renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field’ (2010-2018)

11. Policy and focus
“Promoting the active participation of European
citizens in EU policymaking will also be one of the
aims of the 2013 European Year of Citizens for
Europe.”
This will entail a focus on:
 Curriculum aims, approaches and organisation;
 Student and parent participation in school
governance;
 School culture and student participation in
society
 Student assessment, school evaluation and
education system performance; and
 Education, training and support for
 teachers and school heads
Source: Eurydice Report , p. 8

12. Cohesion & diversity through
values, knowledge & skills
European countries need citizens to be
engaged in social and political life not only
to ensure that basic democratic values
flourish but also to foster social cohesion at
a time of increasing social and cultural
diversity. In order to increase engagement
& participation, people must be equipped
with the right knowledge, skills and
attitudes.
Civic competences can enable individuals to
participate fully in civic life but they must
be based on sound knowledge of social
values and political concepts and
structures, as well as a commitment to
active democratic participation in society.
Source: Eurydice Report, 2012, p. 8

13. A “competence-
based” approach
“This competence-based approach calls for new ways
of organising teaching and learning in a number of
subject areas including citizenship education. A
greater focus on practical skills; a learning outcomes
approach; and new methods of assessment supported
by the continuing development of teachers‘ knowledge
and skills, are all crucial to the successful
implementation of key competences.
Furthermore, the European framework also demands
greater opportunities for students to actively
participate in, for example, school-based activities
with employers, youth groups, cultural activities and
civil society organisations.”
Sources: Eurydice Report, 2012 p. & EACEA/Eurydice, 2009. National testing of pupils in Europe
7

14. Key civic competences
The civic competences needed are:
A knowledge of basic democratic concepts
including an understanding of society and
social and political movements;
The European integration process and EU
structures; and
Major social developments, both past and
present.
Civic competences also require:
Skills such as critical thinking and
communication skills;
 Ability and willingness to participate
constructively in the public domain, including in
the decision-making process through voting.
Finally, a sense of belonging to society at
various levels, a respect for democratic values
and diversity as well as support for sustainable
development.
Source: Eurydice Report, p. 8

15. Towards a ‘citizenship
curriculum’
Four core, intertwined capabilities
•Digital capability
•Health capability
•Financial capability
•Civic capability
And should be combined together with employability (able to
obtain, perform effectively in, develop & apply skills in, ejoy
and progress in work) & ‘wider cultural development’
The fostering of these capabilities should constitute a
“minimum local offer which guarantees access to learning in
relation to them”.
Source: Learning Through Life, (Report of independent Inquiry into the Future of
lifelong learning), NIACE, 2009

16. Informal and experiential learning
“Students learn about citizenship not only in the
classroom but also through informal learning.
Citizenship education is therefore more effective if
it is supported by a school environment where
students are given the opportunity to experience
the values and principles of the democratic process
in action. All countries have introduced some form
of regulation to promote student participation in
school governance, whether in the form of class
representatives, student councils or student
representation on school governing bodies.
Source: Eurydice Report, p. 13

17. Learning Citizenship by
Participation in the Community
Most European countries support educational
institutions in providing their pupils & students
with opportunities to learn citizenship skills
outside school through a variety of programmes
& projects. Working with the local community,
discovering and experiencing democratic
participation in society & addressing topical
issues such as environmental protection, &
cooperation between generations & nations are
examples of activities supported by national
publicly-financed programmes. Finally, there are
political structures, mostly at secondary level,
intended to provide students with a forum for
discussion & to allow them to voice their
opinions on matters affecting them. Source: Eurydice
Report, p. 14

18. What kind of ‘participation’ in what forms
of democracy’?
 ‘Thick’ or ‘thin’ democracy?
 Taking part counts
 Multi-dimensional & multiple
forms of engagement
 Deliberation, discourse, &
action
 Agency, empowerment &
‘voice’
 Critical awareness
 Emancipation, liberation &
autonomy
 Beware of unsavoury
manifestations of community or
‘us’

19. Critical pedagogy - becoming ‘noisy &
fractious’
Critical pedagogy aims:
“… to enable learners to go beyond thinking in order to
enable them as citizens to act as engaged agents in
their various worlds, giving voice to their hopes and
ambitions for change and improvement”. (Giroux
2007: 1-5)
It is about fostering “a language of critique and
possibility”. (Giroux 2005: 211) in which the aim
must be “to provide students with the knowledge
and skills they need to learn how to deliberate,
make judgements and exercise choice”. (Giroux:
2007: 1)
It promises to engender what Barber (1998) regards as
the true mark of an activist democracy - a “noisy
and fractious citizenry”.

20. Citizenship, capability & learning
For democracy to thrive, Nussbaum suggests developing ten capabilities that determine
‘what people actually are and what they are able to be’, namely:
 Life – able to live a full human life of normal length;
 Bodily health – able to enjoy bodily health, including adequate nourishment and
capacity for reproduction;
 Bodily integrity – able to move freely and safely from place to place;
 Sense, imagination and thought – able to make full use of the senses to
experience, think, reason, imagine and create;
 Emotion – able to experience attachment to people, things and experiences and to
express feelings of love, longing, grieving and justifiable anger;
 Practical reasoning – able to conceive of the good life and to engage in critical
reflection;
 Affiliation – able to live with others in mutual respect, understanding the position of
and worth of ‘others’, and establishing the basis of self-respect and non-
discrimination;
 Other species – having respect for animals and plants;
 Play – ability to laugh and enjoy recreational and playful activity; and
 Environmental control – able to engage with the processes and choices that affect
our political and material lives, including rights of political participation, property
holding and employment.

21. An emergent model of learning
Domain Traditional Emergent
Study Education Learning
Locale School/other Everywhere – work,
institution home etc
Time Childhood/early Lifelong & life-wide
adulthood
Style Teacher centred Learner-driven
Delivery Face-to-face Distance & ‘e’
Target Group Universal to max Specific & mass
school age -elite
Focus Theory/abstract Practice
Discipline Single Multi-disciplinary
Mode Learning by rote Reflective
Form Instructional Constructivist
Purpose Qualification Action/
application
Source: Jarvis 2001 & Fryer 2010

22. Teacher education & training for
pupils’ citizenship education
“… More efforts are needed to strengthen teachers'
competences in teaching citizenship. Opportunities to be
trained as a specialist teacher of citizenship education
are still not common; they are available only in Austria
and the UK(England) either through CPD or through
initial teacher education programmes. The qualifications
required to teach citizenship education are mainly
generalist at primary level, while at secondary level the
area of citizenship education is generally integrated
within initial teacher education courses for specialists
in history, geography, philosophy, ethics/religion, social
sciences or economics.
Source: Eurydice Report, p. 15

23. Citizenship & the core purposes of learning
According to the celebrated Jacques Delors
Commission on Lifelong Learning, The
Treasure Within
1) Learning to Know (learning to learn, general
knowledge & understanding)
2) Learning to Do (skills, competence, practical
ability in a variety of settings)
3) Learning to Live Together (tolerance,
mutual understanding, interdependence)
4) Learning to Be (personal autonomy &
responsibility, memory, aesthetics, ethics,
communication & physical capacity)
* Recent scholarship suggests adding:
Learning to Sustain

24. Raymond Williams’ three vital functions
of learning in periods of rapid &
widespread social change
1. For Making Sense of Change - Information, ideas,
knowledge, concepts, understandings, insights, theories, a
critical & challenging mind
2. For Adapting to Change - Maximising benefits & minimising
costs, making the most of change, capturing & applying
knowledge
3. For Shaping Change - As authors of change rather than its
Victims, navigating risk & uncertainty, at the heart of
citizenship for the 20th century & the democratic project