Week 2: Blog 1 –
Developing Active Citizens within the Classroom
As Smith and Smale (2006, as cited in Smale, 2009) argued,
children are rarely given the opportunity to contribute and provide insight
into important community topics and change. Children’s ideas and suggestions,
although valuable, are often ignored. However, it is extremely important that
we as teachers and parents, remember that children are valuable members within
society, who need to be both listened to and accepted as citizens in the
community. Article 12 of the United Nation even states that;
“Children
have the right to say what they think should happen when adults are making
decisions that affect them [or their community] and to have their opinions
taken into account.” (UNICEF, n.d.)
In order for this to happen though, students need to be
taught what it means to be an active citizen, respectfully being involved
within society, politics and positive change, and given the tools in which they
need to be involved within community projects. Therefore, whilst following the
Australian curriculum, this term we will be undergoing a unit of work on
citizenship and what it means to be an active citizen. This unit of work has
been adapted from Civics and Citizenship Education (n.d.)
The Unit
This unit of work will begin with students listening to ‘The
Community Song’ which has been provided for you to listen to (Have Fun
Teaching, 2012); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O7NoYtYX10). This song provides
students with the basic stepping stones to learning and understanding ‘active
citizenship’. The teacher will then facilitate a class discussion about what it
means to be an active citizen, allowing students to collaborate with the peers
whilst being scaffolded by the teacher. Although the teacher has an important
role within class discussion the students are given the opportunity to listen
and contribute their ideas and opinions (Morcom, 2016).
Using the knowledge that students have developed within the
previous learning experience students with collaborate with their community and
collect information regarding a space that is neglected (ACHASSI023). For example, the
local park, a playground near their school or a community garden.
Students will then design an action plans (See figure 1), within small
groups in which they identify ways they can care for the space that they have
chosen or who they can contact regarding the upkeep and care of the area (ACHASSI026). Ways in which students may be able to care for
the space that they choose to discuss may be; picking up litter, planting a
community garden or performing basic gardening on overgrown garden areas. On
the other hand, student’s may decide to contact their local council regarding
maintenance that needs to be perform on equipment within the area, or contact a
local conservationist groups, such as Green Army.
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| Figure 1. Action plan example for children to create their plans on. Retrieved from http://mishawilson.com/your-action-plan-for-success-in-2015/ |
The final phase of the learning experience is for students
to implement the action plans that they have developed. By implementing their
plan within a real life setting students develop their communication skills
with the outside community as well as have a hands on experience in what it
means to be an active citizen.
References:
Akar, B. (2016). Learning active citizenship:
conflicts between student’s conceptualisations of citizenship and classroom learning experiences in Lebanon. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37, 288–312. doi:
10.1080/01425692.2014.916603 Civics and Citizenship. (n.d.). Active Citizenship: Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/cce_active_citizenship_introduction,22573.html
Have Fun Teaching. (2012). The community song. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O7NoYtYX10
Morcom, V. (2016). Scaffolding peer collaboration through values education: Social and reflective practices from a primary classroom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41, 81–99.
Smale, J. (2009). Children’s participation in urban settings: respecting children as active citizens. Retrieved from http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/conference-paper-childrens-particpation- urban-settings-apr2009.pdf
UNICEF. (n.d.). A simplified version of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org.au/Upload/UNICEF
