Learning and Citizenship: Pupils’ Perceptions in a Local Authority Raising Achievement Strategy

Abstract

This paper discusses pupils’ implicit and explicit ideas about citizenship education from a study in which children aged 11 and 14 were interviewed in groups about classroom learning and teaching, and about wider experiences of learning, encompassing community involvement, preparation for parenthood and citizenship. Pupils were invited to consider the relevance to their experiences of statements based on local authority ‘raising achievement process targets’. Pupils sought to widen their opportunities to be involved in decisions about their learning and about school life. They adopted a social and moral interpretation of citizenship, however, and in spite of awareness of social problems, tended to reject the relevance to themselves of political understanding. The findings are considered at a time of renewed public commitment to education for citizenship at national and local levels.