The latest report from the DfES-funded Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study was recently published. Providing an overview and update on the state and status of citizenship education in Secondary schools in England, it sets out key recommendations to ensure its future success as a curriculum subject. The recommendations are positioned within current debates about citizenship and diversity and the relationship of citizenship to national strategies concerning participation and personalised learning. An authoritative new report from NFER questions some of the recommendations on the future of citizenship education in the Ajegbo Review. The report, "Vision versus Pragmatism: Citizenship in the Secondary School", demonstrates that the Ajegbo recommendations will not raise the standing of citizenship unless the wider underlying structural challenges of citizenship's status and visibility, and its relationship with national strategies, are addressed. Findings that shed light on the findings of the Ajegbo Review In support of the Ajegbo findings, "Vision versus Pragmatism" finds that the teaching of diversity and identity has a key place in the citizenship curriculum. However, rather than finding that this subject area was neglected due to a lack of teacher confidence, students in our study were keen to learn about this area and the large majority of teachers stated that they were somewhat or very confident in teaching about different cultures, ethnic groups and human rights. Conversely, our study found that teaching staff often lack knowledge or confidence in teaching lessons related to political systems and processes and the skills in making such a dry subject interesting and relevant for students. If schools are struggling to cover all the citizenship topics in the current programmes of study, particularly the political literacy strand, will the addition of a new fourth strand 'Identity and Diversity: Living Together in the UK' improve this situation? Additional support for the Ajegbo findings in "Vision versus Pragmatism" include: * the problems associated with the teaching of the subject by non-specialists; * the lack of training opportunities for teachers (around half of teachers who are involved in the delivery of citizenship have still not received any training in the subject area) and * a lack of opportunity/vision to connect citizenship into wider school and community level initiatives. All of these have contributed to an overall decline in the status, visibility and credibility of citizenship education in many schools in our research. There is some good news, however. Our sample schools show that a large number are countering these trends - what we term 'citizenship rich' schools where students not only express high levels of efficacy and show high levels of participation, but citizenship education is also viewed as a strong and central subject within the curriculum. It is encouraging to note that the largest single group of schools in our sample (36 per cent) fits with this type. Delivery of citizenship education The Ajegbo Review suggests a series of ways in which to raise the status, visibility and credibility of citizenship including a preferred model of discrete delivery and the creation of a full-GCSE. In contrast, "Vision versus Pragmatism" suggests that altering such structural aspects of delivery may not have wholly positive results. Although delivery of citizenship as a discrete subject appears to have many natural advantages to recommend it, it can: * encourage more traditional teaching and learning approaches that limit the ability to introduce active/interactive methods; * promote more traditional assessment practices based around tests and examinations that limit opportunities for self-assessment and peer assessment and; * limit flexibility, through the topics covered, to be able to respond to current and topical events as they arise. The experiences of our Study schools suggest that delivery model is not the only determining factor as to the effectiveness of citizenship. Rather, any model of delivery, whether it be discrete, through PSHE modules or cross-curricular, is likely to be effective if citizenship: * is taught by small, dedicated teams * has strong and clear leadership and direction * is well supported through up-to-date, accessible lesson plans and resources. Links with policy initiatives Discrete delivery of citizenship as a curriculum subject could also undermine the potential links between citizenship education and wider policy initiatives. Indeed, these wider initiatives offer opportunities and potential for citizenship to play a central role in many schools beyond its subject curriculum. To ignore this may increase the challenges facing citizenship: if such links are not recognised it may be viewed as a competitor with wider initiatives for scarce resources. The discrete model, in short, may prove counter productive to the Ajegbo Review's recommendation that citizenship should feed into opportunities for student voice, a more inclusive school ethos and greater school-community links. Links in these areas that currently exist tend to be implicit rather than explicit; evidenced through some of the subtle shifts that are taking place in approaches to the citizenship delivery including: *a move to more active teaching and learning approaches based around discussion, debate and small group work; *increased opportunities for student voice in and beyond classrooms; *increased use of ICT; *the use of a wider range of assessment techniques involving self-assessment, peer assessment and presentations. To offset any competition between citizenship education and general educational policy initiatives it is imperative that the connections between them are made explicit to all involved. NFER's Elizabeth Cleaver said: "What is required is recognition of the need to address the structural challenges facing citizenship in schools. Without this, any proposed revisions to the delivery of citizenship education will merely exchange the current set of implementation challenges with a different set." Schools would then be left to find a new balance between vision and pragmatism as they approach any proposed revisions from the starting point of their current delivery model. The positive outcomes of citizenship education, to date, could be engulfed in the wake of the national strategies and other school-level initiatives and its status, visibility and credibility could be further undermined. Copies of the Research Brief and full report can be found at: * Research Brief: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RB845.pdf * Full Report: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR845.pdf Sue Stoddart Project Administrator Research and Evaluation Slough Research Evaluation and Information Department (REID) National Foundation for Educational Research The Mere Upton Park Slough SL1 2DQ, UK Reg. 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