A Dynamic Citizenship Education for the New Public School

Abstract

Currently in the United Kingdom, citizenship provision is meagre and, where it appears in schools, it is heavily biased towards the theoretical. This article acknowledges that citizenship education needs a theoretical aspect but argues that the new public school should complement this with more dynamic, experiential learning. The proposal focuses on a democratic way of managing political conflict, the complex practice of compromise. It considers three essential features of a good compromise: mutual respect; coping with seemingly second-best choices; and recognising sacrifice. Drawing on these elements, it argues, the new public school can offer a dynamic citizenship education through its organisation, structure and ethos. In a supportive learning environment, school students can learn attitudes of respect, empathy towards others and ways of dealing with conflict by non-violent means, develop social imagination in exploring creative and ingenious solutions to conflict and learn to cope, collegially, with disappointed hopes.