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Feb. 28, 2003 Children's Voices and Global Citizenship Education in England Hiromi Yamashita, Centre for International Education and Research (CIER), UK

This is the 'Year of Citizenship' for English schools. Citizenship education is now 'compulsory' in secondary schools and 'recommended' in primary schools. Teachers are now expected to teach about controversial global issues. Yet many teachers do not feel comfortable teaching about these issues, even though they understand their importance (Davies et al. 1999). At the University of Birmingham, the Global Citizenship Education Research Project: the Needs of Teachers and Learners started in 2002i. The project aims to identify the needs of teachers and what kinds of support (both practical and strategic) they would like. One teacher at a secondary school said, 'Sadly, students' voices are not heard in this school. Some teachers block what students want to pursue even though teachers give opportunities for students to express their concerns. I think this attitude stems from teachers not feeling fine about teaching controversial issues. Some adults want to have a total control over children. That's a shame.' Reflecting this, another unique aim of the research is to find out the needs of learners: what would children like to learn in terms of global citizenship? Asking children about curriculum content is a new area of educational research, and it reflects the philosophy that the children have a right to be listened to concerning the things that directly affect them, as required by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ii. Research in Sweden asked how children thought and felt about issues of global survival: war, peace and environmental degradation. The research showed that to 'a large extent the children were left alone with their thoughts, questions and feelings about these global problems which often worried them' and there were not enough opportunities for them to express their thoughts (Carlsson, 1999:1). When I interviewed 14 to 15-year-old students for the project, they said they would like to learn more about current political and social issues, especially the prospects of war. And they strongly expressed the wish to be heard by adults - teachers and politicians. On the same day as I heard these comments, a BBC News Online report, Children are seen, but often not heard, described findings from the think-tank DEMOS. This concluded that 'children need to have more opportunities to be heard, otherwise young people could be "invisible citizens"'. DEMOS proposed that babies should be entitled to a vote as soon as they are born, but their parents would exercise this right until they are 14. Even though in theory, this could be abused by adults, it is an interesting idea since it challenges the view that children should not be represented in a democratic system. Some issues directly affect children, such as school transport, and some issues have long-term intergenerational consequences, such as environment and war. In the Japanese CRN series, I looked at a range of educational policies and how they relate to children's views http://www.crn.or.jp/LIBRARY/GB, for example arguments that children's perspectives should influence sex education. Taking children's views seriously is central to the Child Research Net, and writing those articles made me aware of the lack of children's opinions in educational debate in the UK and elsewhere. From my research in Japan, some teachers certainly recognise this need (Yamashita & Williams, 2002:288). A primary teacher, Japan, said "When they want to say something students should be allowed to speak up...I want [students] to be able to ask "why?".Teachers have a responsibility to explain "why?" in a way children can understand." Clearly the English Citizenship Education initiative is not perfect, but it raises many issues that are of interest to Japanese educationalists. Probably the most important is accepting that children do have their own insights, which can positively influence education policy and practice. (i) The research project funded by the Department for International Development. Conducted by Professor Lynn Davies, Professor Clive Harver and Hiromi Yamashita, the Centre for International Education and Research, School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. The project rends in the spring 2004. Teachers and students in 6 primary and 6 secondary schools, representatives from teacher training colleges, local educational authorities in the West midland Area will be interviewed. (ii) Convention of the Rights of the Child For more information, http://www.unicef.org/crc/bg008.htm Article 12 1. States parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. 2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law. Reference BBC home page: Should parents get more than one vote? http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/talking_point/2732329.stm CBBC (Children BBC) home page: At what age should u be allowed to vote? http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/cbbcnews/hi/chat/your_comments/newsid_2656000/2656881.stm Carlsson, K. U. (1999) Interviews with 10-year-old Children on Peace and the Future.> Sweden: Department of Educational and Psychological Research. Davies, I., Gregory, I. And Riley, S. C. (1999) Good citizenship and educational provision. London and New York: Falmer Press. ISBN: 0-7507-0959-6 Yamashita, H. and Williams, C. (2002) A vote for Consensus: democracy and difference in Japan. in Comparative Education, Volume 38, No. 3, pp. 277-289. Hiromi Yamashita Research Associate Centre for International Education and Research (CIER) School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK h.yamashita@bham.ac.uk CIER home page http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/cier/htm

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