Citizenship – How to tackle tough topics & boost media literacy
Master citizenship teaching by learning how to guide students through tricky issues while promoting critical thinking skills…
- by Helen Blachford
- Curriculum leader of citizenship and PSHE Visit website
Learn practical strategies for teaching citizenship from subject specialist Helen Blachford, from navigating contentious issues to developing media literacy…
Helen is curriculum leader of citizenship and PSHE at Priory School, Southsea, trust subject director of personal development for the Bohunt Education Trust, and chair of trustees at the Association for Citizenship Teaching.
What topics are challenging for citizenship teachers?
There are the different political stances that people can take on certain issues – such as immigration, for example.
Another would be the growth of different political parties and how they change over time in response to the broader political narrative.
Also, the media’s part in that, and how it can result in disinformation – this is a huge issue that we’ve needed to help our students navigate and counter.
Our students are all watching the news – albeit in very different ways from how I would have done when I was their age.
How do you discuss contentious topics?
I ensure that I firmly root our classroom discussions in talk of legislation, institutions, evidence and such. I set clear expectations around the kind of respectful dialogue we need to be engaging in.
Wherever possible, I try to explicitly separate out the understanding of the issues we discuss from the endorsement of them.
There’s a strong tradition in citizenship of teaching through inquiry. I want to critically engage my students, and for them to be critical thinkers. For this reason, I’ll always ask that they provide evidence for any claims they make, and seek evidence for any claims they hear.
Immigration is one of those key areas for unpicking myths and countering them with factual information gathered from reliable sources.
As a teacher, I have a duty to promote British Values. Therefore, everything I do is grounded within the democratic principles that are core to citizenship.
Our job is to teach students about democracy, the rule of law, and international frameworks such as the Human Rights Act, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1951 Refugee Convention and whatever else.
That’s the bread and butter of my curriculum. Citizenship isn’t about telling students ‘what to think’ about immigration policy. It’s about giving them the tools to evaluate whether arguments are legally sound, evidence-based and consistent with our democratic principles.
Educate yourself first
When dealing with difficult topics, the actual pedagogy involved won’t affect how I will deal with any subsequent challenging conversations.
As a teacher, it is okay to sometimes say ‘I don’t know the answer to that at the moment,’ when asked about an issue we’re unfamiliar with. Carry out your own research, ahead of having a conversation later with some factual evidence to hand.
When doing that, though, it’s vital to actually have that discussion. If students ask you about something you’re unsure of, don’t leave it. If you do, they’ll look elsewhere for answers.
Citizenship teachers can sometimes find themselves being asked about events and developments that took place the previous night, which the kids will have seen but you won’t.
In those instances, it’s important to educate yourself first, before commencing on any classroom discussion.
How do you remain politically neutral?
We have a shared curriculum across our schools, as well as combined teacher training and CPD opportunities.
One of our core aims is to help students become game changers across different subject areas. For me, this means developing active citizens who are engaged, and who want to vote and participate in their democracy and bring about change.
That might be lobbying for the introduction of a new law, or campaigning on behalf of others.
I think there can be a lack of understanding as to what our curriculum actually is, and what we’re trying to do within that, which may lead to those concerns.
My job isn’t ‘to be political’, with a party political hat on. My job is to help my students navigate the world of information that surrounds them and make informed choices for themselves.
This is so that they can compare different political parties and where those different parties stand on the issues they care about.
A key part of being a citizenship teacher now is giving students the tools they need to make informed decisions for themselves. Why would you not want to do that?
What’s the link between citizenship and media literacy skills?
Media literacy is a huge passion of mine. I’ve worked frequently with the Association for Citizenship Teaching to develop teacher CPD. We’ve also created the ‘REVIEW’ model, which gives students a process they can use to examine information for its accuracy.
- Our REVIEW model sees students go through a specific process of verifying information:
- Reputation – What do we know about the outlet, channel or account, and who is the information aimed at?
- Evidence – What supporting facts, figures and sources does the information cite?
- Verification – Has the same information been reported or posted about elsewhere?
- Intent – Why might the outlet, channel or account be posting this particular information?
- Emotions – Does the manner in which information is presented try to make us feel a certain way?
- Weighing up – Based on the above, do we ultimately think that the information is factually accurate?
Media literacy is one of the core units that we teach across our trust from Y8. I want to ensure our students have a shared language. We don’t let them use the term ‘fake news’, for example. This is because it’s been co-opted by people who use it to simply dismiss material they don’t like or don’t agree with.
We need to be a bit more sophisticated than that. Therefore, as much as possible, we try to use terms such as ‘false news’, or ‘disinformation’.
I’ve completed training with our English teachers to ensure that use of language is consistent across classes. This is so that when students come to us in citizenship lessons they’re already familiar with such terms.
I’ve also overseen further staff training on migration specifically, with humanities colleagues across the trust.
We often encounter details and questions regarding immigration within geography, history and RE teaching contexts, so it’s about giving those teachers the tools to have productive class conversations while armed with facts and able to deploy media literacy skills for themselves.
I’ve even had students query where I’ve sourced certain facts and statistics from. Having them challenge me on the information that I’m providing can admittedly be annoying on occasion(!) – but it’s ultimately really encouraging to see.
- At the start of the academic year I’ll establish a set of ground rules with each new class and set certain classroom expectations:
- • We will listen to one voice at a time
- • It’s okay to not agree with something someone says, but we should always challenge others’ arguments respectfully
- • We must not create a situation where the views that we share will cause harm or distress to somebody else
- • We will try and avoid sharing details of personal stories and too much personal information about ourselves
- • We should aim to build on each other’s knowledge and understanding – we might not reach a consensus, but we will have gained a better understanding of other people’s different viewpoint
