Episode 8: Conversation about citizenship education with PGCE Student Teachers

Jul 9
26 min read

Updated: Aug 2

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TRANSCRIPT

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (00:04)

Hello, listeners. Welcome to the latest episode of conversation for citizenship. This is a Stella Cheong from University College London. And I'm delighted to welcome UCL PGCE citizenship students, Ella, Davide, Daniel, Jennifer and Seren who are joining us today. I'm pleased to talk to you all about citizenship education as well as your thoughts and teaching experiences relating to PGCE citizenship education at the Institute of Education, the active citizenship programme and so on. So, could you briefly introduce yourselves and say why you have engaged in the teacher training programmes and in particular why citizenship education? Seren?

Seren Esmanoglu (01:02)

Okay, my name is Seren, I graduated from the City University of London with a law degree and a master's degree in international human rights. During my master's degree, I had the opportunity to teach both law and politics at a level as an unqualified teacher. And this assessment essentially allowed me to discover my passion for teaching, which then identified it to take on my teacher training course for citizens. citizenship education essentially allows my students to have an in-depth look into the wider world and essentially to discuss social issues within a safe environment, essentially, where pupils can analyse debate and critically think to make connections between past events, and how they are still relevant today, and how this essentially impacts them and or their community. And citizenship education prepares students to embark on new challenges and trigger change within their society giving them a voice. So that's essentially my answer to that question.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong: Wonderful. And next?

Daniel Holt (02:14)

Hi, I'm Dan and I'm a graduate student with a degree in law like Seren. Citizenship wasn't actually taught at my school, even though I was in education when it was introduced into the national curriculum. So, I've always wanted to teach and work with young people. And this has come from leading educational drama workshops and tutoring my younger brother over lockdown. The appeal of teaching citizenship specifically came from my knowledge of the law through my undergrad degree, my interest in politics and my passion for activism and that stemmed from attending meetings, interviews, campaigning and protesting for fair treatment of university students over lockdown. So essentially, passing on this passion and agency to students is something that I'm hoping to take on in my career. And that reason why I got into teaching citizenship.

Davide Zancan (03:11)

Hi, I'm Davide, I'm Italian. But I grew up in the UK, the US, New Zealand and Australia. So quite an international student. And at the age of 29 after a corporate career, which was absolutely soul crushing, I realised that teaching was what I enjoyed the most and what I thought was most morally worthwhile. So, the right thing to do, is where you could actually make an impact. So, citizenship was kind of the natural subject for me as I have a degree in Political Science from the University of Milan, and then a master's in political theory from the LSE. So, the last year is essentially the moral dimension of politics. So, the right and wrong behind it and for me, what matters the most in citizenship education is forming pupils who learn how to act as citizens because of the values they have, because of their own sense of right and wrong. So that's the basis of what should be developed for students in citizenship.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (04:15): Lovely, and Jennifer!

Jennifer Pole (04:21)

Hi, my name is Jennifer. And I have a degree from the University of Nottingham in Sociology and Social Policy. So, I wanted to do the social policy side to see about the welfare state and things like that which kind of feeds into things with citizenship. In my school, we didn't have citizenship education, but at A- Level we could have taken government and politics. But because not enough students volunteered to do that course, they didn't run it. So that would have been the first opportunity to kind of learn about the politics of the country. Learn about how the government is created, for example, which, unfortunately, it wasn't able to do, but my school did have quite a lot of volunteering opportunities. So, we were able to go into old people's homes and liaise with them, teach them how to play sports, for example. So, there was kind of active citizenship elements within the school that they probably didn't classify or state that we are actively doing a citizenship education. And I find that citizenship is important because students learn about topics that they need to know, if you're working in an office environment, for example, you naturally talk about the news and things like that. So, it is an important skill to kind of know about and I also worked in a county court for a number of years. So financial education especially is really important to me because I've seen what can happen to people when it's too late and there's no intervention to help them really. So yeah.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (05:53): Great, thank you, Jennifer, and last, Ella?

Ella Rattan (05:58)

Hi, so I graduated from the University of Manchester in politics, philosophy and economics. So, doing these three subjects, I really enjoyed the politics element. And then after university, I tried marketing for a bit. And then through lockdown, I got into tutoring and realise the importance of having those connections with people and seeing them progress as well as yourself. And (um) I believe that it's really important to understand your values, and then decide a career that fits with your values, and more. So I decided to follow a family tradition, which was a career in teaching and education to impact future generations. I believe teaching citizenship offers the opportunity to engage and interact with people daily and study the ever-evolving world through events and discussing news. So as Jennifer mentioned, I think it's really important that young people grow up confident to discuss the news around them. And to be engaging with this from a young age, we'll help them develop their own critical lens in life. And also, lastly, the expansive subject matter creates opportunities, providing a framework for outside-the-box thinking. So, I think the subject itself lends itself quite creatively to the classroom through discussions and debates. And it's quite interactive in that sense.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (07:32)

Brilliant, thank you. Thank you so much. So, my next question is about teaching citizenship. As I told you, our podcast has an international audience, and reach, so could you perhaps talk about some specific issues or topics that needed to be addressed by citizenship education teachers and scholars?

Davide Zancan (08:12)

So there's a lot to say about this a lot to say about global citizenship. Probably the first, the first issue that comes to my mind, especially from a scholarly point of view is what it means to be global citizens when we don't really have the status of global citizens, but of our specific nations, so someone might be British, Italian American, but there is no global citizenship as a status. So, we do have some shared values, in terms of human rights, which are really the bare minimum requirements that everyone should have. But how do we actually create a global ethos of citizenship? What makes us all citizens together? Who chooses those values that we have? Will they be western values that will be perpetuated to the globe as we've done in the past? How can it be done in a way that doesn't simply impose more Western rules? So (um) I think a starting point for what for the idea of global citizenship is the fact that we've got different well, some of the shared and pressing stakes in the world. So, talk about climate change, for example, which impacts everyone everywhere, or combating racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, especially institutional and structural forms. Those are all shared issues that we have, but how can we act consistently, and we've seen some of that some global movements, Black Lives Matter me to extinction, rebellion, and other forms of climate activism. So we've seen shared movement, but this is from a grassroots level, what does it mean then, globally and structurally? And I think a third issue, that underlying that underlies global citizenship is how we rebalance the world economically, given that developing nations are still developing because of Western nations. So how do we rebalance? Well, fairness in the world, for example, in the issue of climate change and reducing our fossil fuels, why do nations that save the global south have to have the same restrictions that the Global North, the western world has to have given that the use of fossil fuels has mostly been on part of those already developed nations? So, the problem is how can we reconcile the moral dimension of being citizens with some of the same states, some competing states with the fact that it's an issue of power between nations? So how can we find that moral dimension together?

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (11:02)

Yeah, I totally agree. And especially these days, so many scholars try to explore how to develop the context-specific-best-fit pedagogical approach in each context. All right, so any other opinion? Any other thoughts? Thank you, Davide

Davide Zancan (12:10)

There No, no, I think that would I covered that quite well. Almost points there. Any comment on that. Yeah, so I was just gonna say, I think I completely agree, especially when it's that potential worry of almost Westernising democracy and kind of imposing that across the world. And we really need to look at what values the West holds compared to other regions, and other nations and how we've taken that and how we understand democracy as the world rather than as a specific ideology from a specific place.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (12:44)

Yeah. And then shall we move on to the next bit? All right, I'm just wondering about your personal experience as a teacher. From your experience of working with young people, what do you find other are the key or important citizenship-related issues that are important to them? Do any of them surprise you?

Daniel Holt (13:20)

So, I'll do a lovely bit more talking about this. So, as educators, I think we need to first appreciate that students are being exposed to an increasing amount of information. And it's sometimes it's a lot more than what we actually give them credit for. So, this is through the use of technology. And it's allowed our students to instantly access information that can be that can and it should be brought into the classroom and allow them to critically discuss these issues. So, whilst teaching, there's been a wide range of things that have happened over this year now, essentially. So with the Russia, Ukraine conflict, defamation trial of depth, and had and of course, the law-breaking, that's taken place in Downing Street, Whitehall, and all of those other locations. And so these are kind of linked together with these themes of Justice, rule of law, equality, and we see that behaviour less like Paul Dix identified that students develop a keen sense of what's right and what's wrong very early on. So when they're seeing these ideas out in the world, citizenship really needs to be there to kind of bring it into context and say, Okay, let's have a discussion around this and link it to our learnings of the criminal justice system of fundamental British values. And I think what surprised me the most was the depth in which some of these students not only understand the issues but have formed their own worldviews around them. So, my one distinct memory is that as a year seven student was the type well known for behavioural issues and that struggle to teach. So, in one lesson, we were discussing different political ideologies. It might seem a bit heavy for year seven, but trust me, it was drilled down a little bit. And he, he delivered a really exquisite argument about kind of distributing wealth and property in the UK. And I and my subject mentor, almost had just dead silence in the room, because again, it was relating the issues that they've seen in the world in the classroom. And we need to appreciate obviously that they formed this great worldview of what's around them. And being able to understand why they've got that worldview and expose them to different ones is really, for me anyway, at the heart of what we can do in citizenship.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (15:51)

Wow, fascinating. Yeah, I completely agree with you. And as you said, with the advance in digital media, so today's teenagers, and young people can easily assess a huge amount of information and express their voice through social media platforms. So in this regard, I will naturally move on to the next question. So, there is much talk about restrictions on freedom of speech in the education system. how do you find this, our young people reluctant to come forward express their views? And how do you as teachers create a safe and welcoming space for such discussions?

Daniel Holt (16:38)

Yeah, and I think it's really relevant to kind of speak about now. And because obviously, as you said, you know, teachers have this increasing level of advice and guidance surrounding what shouldn't be said. And this is usually for citizenship anyway, it's that political impartiality, they're creating balance within the classroom. And so, this can feel quite daunting as a result, and can kind of cause teachers to shy away, but when we through it, and we actually unpick what's being said, it can be used as an opportunity to expose students to all different angles and all different arguments across the spectrum. And so, when these views are taken, this can drive student engagement rather than make them reluctant. Because as I was saying earlier, every student has an opinion on something. So, when you find that, we're going to use the curriculum of touching the nerve. So, when you hit that one point that the student feels passionate about, they will nine times out of 10 speak up and bring out what they feel about the issue. And then, of course, you then said about creating a safe space. So, we need that safe and welcoming space to facilitate these discussions. And throughout my PGCE, we've looked at numerous groups about creating safe classrooms. So, you've got the association for citizenship teaching (ACT) voice 21. And the deliberative classroom is the three main ones that are used in my practice. And it's essentially, at the fundamental of creating that safe space, it is building those positive relationships, and understanding your student. And we can almost rather than treat that positive relationship, and that safe space is a big conceptual idea. Just ask yourself the one question of how I would feel safe and respected in a discussion. So of course, making sure that you're valued, you're heard and you are respected in that group, would be no different to what your students want to feel. So, it's made, so the only difference really is making the standards apparent to the young person. So, the practices and procedures so like praising good behaviour, implementing ten taking tools, and so students have the voice and the opinion to talk about these issues. And again, the restrictions, what seem like restrictions can be used as opportunities. Uhm, we ultimately need to understand how we get those discussions started and create that safe space. And so that would be through all of the positive relationship things and making it really apparent that you will be respected, you will be heard and you will be valued in this classroom and especially the teachers and the peers. So yeah.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (19:35)

Yeah, great. Yeah. Right. Inclusive leadership is crucial and also good communication also means being a good listener. But, Daniel, I just wonder about voice to anyone you told the voice to anyone and deliberative classroom, is this a strategy, teaching strategy?

Daniel Holt (19:58)

So, charities and organisations are found throughout our teaching degrees. So, voice 21 is linked with school 21. And it looks like a promise I'm not paid to say this (laughs). It looks at the kind of oracy in the classroom and how we can build, oracy and discussion. And then the deliberative classroom is created by the association for citizenship teaching (ACT). And it's a big project where it's got resources and things like that. So those and especially act as well, the Association for citizenship teaching, those are kind of my places where I'd point potential PGCE students and already established teachers to try and build that discussion in the classroom.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (20:46)

So brilliant. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Daniel. And any other experiences to share with us?

Davide Zancan (21:07)

I mean, I might add something on just the fact that all students, all children have a very developed sense of justice and are well developed in terms of they have a strong feeling of it, have a strong feeling of something that's right or wrong. And depending on where you are in the catchment area, on the school, on the diversity in terms of ethnicity of socio-economic diversity of a school, then you'll find that students can have radically different interests, and oftentimes, a far more developed sense of certain themes. For example, in one of my placement schools, many students had a very strong sense of social and racial justice. And in my second place in school, this wasn't the case. It's a term of it's a matter of diversity between the school bodies, but the types of issues that might be different, but they all have some different issues that will be activated in a way. So, the citizenship teacher needs to understand and connect to those specific issues, at least as a way to develop that sense of justice.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (22:23)

I do agree and I've heard that you are interested in linking your work to music which is very intriguing. So, in this sense, I want to hear your thoughts about Bruce Springsteen's songs. he once sang “I learnt more in a 3-minute record than I ever learnt at school” what do you say to this do we overvalue our role and importance as citizenship teachers and schooling?

Seren Esmanoglu (23:02)

So, I'll just take this one on. So, we all agreed on music as a powerful tool to use within education. For example, in one when I was doing a lesson, my placement scores were on anti-racism. I included the British band Specials, who released a song called a free Nelson Mandela. And it essentially has a really strong approach because students get to look at the lyrics and essentially analyse it and connect it to the wall that it was taking part in at the time and how it still connects to today. We as teachers do play a crucial role in educating the future generation to build not only strong and confident characters, but also to instil empathy and compassion by upholding fundamental British values. We as citizenship teachers do have a heavier responsibility to address nearly every topic and issue on both a domestic and global scale, which means that we are not essentially over-valuing our roles, but we are taking it very seriously, which is why we become specialists in the field so that we can correctly address any misinformation and provide answers to questions students may have within their own education. However, we are not perfect. We are all humans, and we advocate that teachers need continuous training to become critically reflective on their methodologies, and teaching styles, but also to level with students. And this is very, very important to see stuff from their perspectives and keep in touch with their reality. And it's very important that as teachers, we do make lessons that are creative and always engaging. And one of the best ways you can do this is by incorporating music. For example, if he was to be talking about racism and incorporating more diversity and inclusion, there are multiple artists that you can use, for example, from Jay Cole to Kendrick Lamar to Beyonce. And the essential part of all of this is if we fail to uphold the standards and take the easy route by not addressing certain issues or avoiding discussions, essentially, which are vital the statement of I learned more in a free minute record than I ever learned at school becomes true because we will leave students to their own devices instead of guiding and providing them with the correct tools that they need to build these foundations for them to use in the long term.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (25:24)

Oh, great, personally. Actually, I'm a big fan of BTS. I’m an Army of BTS. Whenever I watch their music video I'm so surprised so many young girls and boys super love their songs and then I think that their songs influence and affect a very good vibe for young people.

Seren Esmanoglu (25:51)

Yeah, I 100% Especially with their most recent visit to the White House. I feel like they should raise a lot of attention and a lot of stereotypes start and reflect on East Asians as well. I think that's very important to play a crucial role in that as well. For their own art, too.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (26:08)

Yeah. Okay, good. So, any other experiences to share or reflections on Seren’s thoughts? All right. So then my next question is about representation in the education system. Representation in the education system is discussed frequently with documentaries being made by people like Troy Deeney. What do you make of this, for you as teachers, for young people, for schools?

Jennifer Pole (26:54)

I would just say representation is really important. And I'd say, especially if you're teaching in a city like London, where there are children from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all languages, for example, and they want to see themselves reflected throughout the education system. So for example, when teaching, I try to include images that are inclusive, so might show a variety of groups, it might show a variety of backgrounds, you might be talking about different languages, or not having such a Western focus on something like case studies, for example, that you could use. And even small things like changing names when you use scenario-based examples. So, I was amending some of my placement, school's resources and all the names or maybe traditional English names. So, I tried to change them. So, it was kind of inclusive of the classroom and names that they will hear you know, they do live in London and things like that and I say a benefit of teaching citizenship is that we kind of have the flexibility to decide how we want to teach something. So, there's a lot of discussion about the English curriculum, for example, and the books that are used there and the fact that quite a lot of them are from a white background for example. So, we have that flexibility that we can choose a resource that may be reflective of someone who might not be usually reflective. So, for example, if you're looking at the news, or you're looking at active citizenship, for example, you could use Marcus Rashford. And all the work that he did over lockdown to implement change, and benefited a range of individuals. So, the type of examples that you use can be represented as well. And I did a lesson on the World Trade Organisation. It was quite a fun lesson, I must say. But even talking about that, talking about the Director General Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, the first woman and the first African to serve at that position within that organisation. So that organisation has been around since 1995. And there has been nobody who's been a woman, or anyone who's African who served as you know, the leader of the World Trade Organisation. So even if you're talking about something talking about, well, why is there no representation for this group of people? Or what is going maybe wrong in society that they haven't been able to kind of go through that glass ceiling at that point? So, there are quite a lot of ways that you can introduce either positive actions of multiple groups in society or even just reflecting other points of view that aren't maybe the status quo for example. So that's kind of what I would say to that.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (29:47)

Yeah, so wonderful. But Jennifer, in terms of reflexivity, or flexibility, I'm just wondering about what you said about the scenario-based strategy or the role-playing strategy. How to configure this kind of teaching strategy for your citizenship curriculum or subject?

Jennifer Pole (30:26)

I mean, it depends on how you look at it. But the fact that the curriculum is so narrow, you don't you're not pigeonholed into using certain examples to explain certain things. So I would say the news is a vital source that, as we've spoken about throughout this podcast your students will have access to those types of things. So if you can bring them in, then it's not only going to raise the idea that they know what's going on in the world, but also that you can implement that into your teaching.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (31:01)

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this. Any other thoughts about representation in the education system?

Daniel Holt (31:14)

I think it just pops into my head. I don't know if I've cut anyone off there. Sorry. But, representation, it almost can feel like aspiration, in that sense. Because if you're not showing, like changemakers, and figures that are representing the backgrounds of your students, then sometimes they might not think, oh, that's, that's what that person does. So, I mean, the main example that popped into my head, but, generally speaking, was the fact that we haven't had a prime minister who's a person of colour. So, the fact that we, there isn't that direct relation to the head of our state. But if we, as educators look further afield, well, further afield in air quotes. But if we diversify, what kind of heads of state we're looking at to show that there isn't such a narrow view in the UK, you have to be white to be able to do A, B, and C, it's the fact that regardless of your background, you can participate in society, and you can make a change. See, so that's what just popped into my head while Jennifer was speaking.

Jennifer Pole (32:22)

Can I just add something to what Daniel saying well because I think it's very important, I think, as us teachers, is very important that we share that representation through ourselves as well. I mean, when you go into the classroom, giving some information about who you are, and your background is very important. I mean, in the sense that, for example, what you studied, or I don't know, like your age, or the way you normally would speak because a lot of the students that we've probably dealt with our children from probably middle to maybe lower class. And it's important for them to understand that, you know, sky, the sky's the limit, you can do so much, there's so much potential within yourself, and that there are no barriers to that. And for example, when I have done a lesson on gender roles in my class, I put up statements, for example, who do you think a person with a law degree looks like? Is it a man or a woman who was a non-binary? All of them said a man. And then I said, but I've got a law degree. And then they all got shocked. And I think that representation in itself is very important as well. And obviously, to show the outside world but us as teachers, we are getting into that environment, the students that they need to see it firsthand through us, and then they need to attach that and essentially build that for the wide world to

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (33:39)

Yes, exactly. I do agree. Yeah, exactly. The teacher is a role model for the students, to pupils, especially young people. Okay, so I'm going to move on to the next question. The UK government has recently updated its advice on political impartiality in schools. In this regard, how do you go about being impartial?

Davide Zancan (34:10)

Oh, I'll take this one. I think a lot of excessive worries emerged when these new rules on political impartiality came out. Because obviously, whenever you have a government that tries to regulate what people can say, especially what teachers can and can't say, in their teaching, then you will have some kind of panic, but really, it's nothing substantively new. It's the same old legal requirements, which are to prohibit the promotion of political, partisan political views, and to ensure that you present opposing views in a balanced way on political issues. Now, what that means and what people worried about was the idea of well, if you say something, something absurd you'd like, if you say something that's anti-racist, then you'll have to balance it out with not a racist proposition, but something that isn't as what would is defined as radical in a way. So, kind of its tries to balance, it tries to give the impression that you have to do that. But, in reality, all you have to do is avoid promoting your own political ideas, and promote and show different points of view on an issue in a balanced way. So, what this means is, that it's imagined there are two general dimensions, of it one is the moral dimension of what is right and wrong. And there is no absolute truth in what is right and wrong, we might have shared values or general ideas about that. But no policy in itself is right or wrong. It's a choice of where to allocate resources and to whom to benefit. And that's something that as a teacher, you need to present different views on it. Pros and cons. And then students will have to be enabled to make their minds up, then you've got issues of facts. So how do certain policy policies work, how they'll be implemented, and what the effects of them will be? And that's true truth with a capital T. So, it's an empirical matter. And that can be analysed as well. For example, this goes for politicians as well. Let's say that Boris Johnson has a particularly bad day, as he recently has, and his popularity takes a hit because of it. Now, as a citizenship teacher, you can freely analyse Boris Johnson's performance, whether it was good or not based on the fact that he's lost popularity, this isn't a judgement on Boris Johnson is good or bad, or a preference for him. It's simply political analysis, but students have to be able to develop. Now obviously, as a teacher, if you're continuously hitting on one political figure and implying heavily that you're against this political figure, then that becomes problematic. But if it's just an analysis of it, then it's perfectly fine. So that's kind of the issue, especially for unspecialized teachers in citizenship or who don't really have the training to deal with controversial issues, then it can be worrying, and you think, where do you draw the line? But actually, it's quite common sensical.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (37:37)

Right, right. Then regarding political impartiality, so a former UK Chief Inspector of schools open said schools are not democracies. So how do you respond to that?

Davide Zancan (37:56)

My response to that was, would be that it's absolutely true. Schools are as antithetical to democracy as you can get. Schools are more similar to prisons than they are similar to democracies. For the types of rules that exist, and the type of hierarchy that exists, you have an absolute imbalance of power between student and teacher, the teacher is the police, the judge, and sometimes a lawmaker within the bounds of school-wide policy and the law. So, students are in, let's say, a lower hierarchical role. A lower hierarchical role compared to teachers and the forms of student power that exist in schools often are quite irrelevant. Student Councils often don't have any power, and students don't have a decision on what goes on in their schools. So, they are innately aware of this, students understand this, and they understand the power imbalance. So, when you do speak of democracy in the classroom, or having a democratic classroom, they are aware of this tension between what you could call the formal curriculum. So, what we're actually teaching and the hidden curriculum, the structures that they interiorized from school, and they do into your eye’s hierarchy. So, what we can do to make schools more like democracy, you can try to democratise the classroom, but there's still going to be a power imbalance. So, what you can do is try to introduce practices of democracy in the classroom and enable students to actually have portions of the lesson where they are in the democratic classroom, clearly delineating that to students, and that's the moment in which it happens. It might be messy at first. It might be disorderly, and it might be a bit chaotic, but students will then learn to act on the basis of values, what is right and wrong, rather than just for fear of punishment or for rewards. So, it is freeing in a way, but it is scary as a teacher trying to implement it.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (43:39)

Any other opinions? Okay. Given the time constraint. My final question is about optimism. How optimistic are you about the future development of citizenship education moving forward out of the pandemic, and with the challenging and evolving geopolitical dynamics we face in 2022?

Ella Rattan (44:20)

Okay, so just touching on briefly what I just mentioned about how, especially with young people being affected by the pandemic themselves, they've spent more time may be following news or keeping up to date on what's going on, especially in terms of the government and then rules around lockdowns because that impacted themselves and citizenship, I believe as a subject is continuing to grow because of the awareness it has developed in the last 20 years. And with the increase in social media platforms, I think critical media literacy has become a key component of citizenship education, and I think it's really important that citizenship offers a great space for students to learn the critical skills necessary to form their own views, as this will also help them if they choose to vote in any elections in the future, and moving away from critical media literacy, and just touching on peace education is really important in today's world. And many argue that despite its long history, peace education has not really found its place in the curriculum. However, now with the face of the war in Europe, educators requested resources and knowledge to try and strategies to improve and develop students’ understandings of these current conflicts and these current things that students are seeing, in headlines in news offer the opportunity to them spread more awareness about peace education, through citizenship education in the classroom.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (46:04)

100% with you? Ella (laughs). Yeah. Peace Education. Used to pull by the lens to view the world, especially the conflict-affected settings. Okay. any other thoughts or reflections on this conversation?

Davide Zancan (46:33)

it just pops into my head. Sorry, I feel like it's a lot of my apologies. With what Ella was saying earlier, and especially that whole discussion around if we lowered the voting age, we would need to enforce citizenship. I would argue that irrespective of citizenship education should be at the forefront because of parents’ evenings in placement and open evenings, I've always had probably, four out of five parents go, Oh, I wish I had this in school. So, it just almost shows the value that it has to not just the students, but the parents at home. And again, just kind of reflecting on placement. It's that whole thing of sitting down at parents' evening. And when you've got students that really engage with citizenship, it reflects in the parents because the parents are saying, Oh, we always have discussions around the dinner table of X, Y and Z. And so yeah, so I think it has a value beyond the national curriculum belong beyond the school, but it should definitely be considered 100% answer solid place in the curriculum, but I think that's just me being biased. Really... Yeah.

Stella Mi-cheong Cheong (47:45)

Okay, Ella. Davide, Daniel, Jennifer and Seren, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your lived experience on citizenship education as teachers and PGCE students. It was great to talk with you all and have this conversation. Would you like to add on final comment or reflection on this conversation? No. All right. Thank you. Thank you again for sharing such a detailed teaching strategy or skills and I think all of you have provided us with a rich idea and thinking on the PGCE citizenship programme. And I think it's great, optimistic notes that you ended on there. I think you all are great, fabulous enablers. Thank you very much. I'm closing this episode. I'm Stella. Thank you for listening to the conversation4citizenship. We hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to subscribe to conversations4 citizenship and look for us and Twitter @c4c_ed (conversations4citizenship). A transcript of today's conversation with PGCE students at the Institute of Education can be found at www.conversations4citizenship.com. In the upcoming episode, we will invite Ambreen Lakhani, a doctoral researcher at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society to talk about the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in the Cox Bazar’s region of Bangladesh. This episode of conversation for citizenship was produced by me., Hans Svennevig, Adam Lang, Kamille Beye and Rowena Palacios, recorded and sound mixed by Heejin Ban. Thank you very much.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In the eighth episode of Conversations4Citizenship, Stella Micheong Cheong speaks to PGCE students–Seren Esmanoglu, Jennifer Pole, Daniel Holt, Davide Zancan, Ella Rattan– at the Institute of Education, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society who share their teaching experience on why they have become interested in citizenship education and how they configure their knowledge and teaching strategies into the citizenship education curriculum.

EPISODE NOTES

In this episode, PGCE student teachers describe the meaning of global citizens and share their experiences on how to deal with controversial issues such as combating racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, especially, how they encourage pupils to engage in the discussion relating to socio-economic injustice in education. Above all, they emphasise the importance of music within citizenship education and share their thoughts on how music becomes a powerful tool for cultivating civic competencies – critical thinking, confidence, empathy and compassion-- for the future generation.

Lastly, they point out the importance of critical media literacy in citizenship education as well as the awareness about peace education through citizenship education in the classroom. Also, they conclude that citizenship education cannot confine to only schools and citizenship education should be occurred everywhere including at home.

This episode is hosted by Stella Mi-cheong Cheong, together with PGCE students, recorded and sound mixed by Heejin Ban.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast through Apple, Google, Spotify or Amazon Music. You may also follow @c4c_ed on Twitter; we look forward to hearing your feedback and your stories. If you would like to explore the possibility of participating in our podcast, do not hesitate to reach out through the online participation form or email us at conversations4citizenship@gmail.com