Podcast

The speaker introduces herself as a pre-service teacher and discusses the importance of teaching civics and citizenship in primary schools to achieve the goal of active and informed students. They explain the Alice Springs Declaration and its focus on supporting students' full potential and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. They explore different approaches to teaching civics and citizenship, including whole school approaches and classroom approaches. They mention the importance of inquiry-based learning, curriculum integration, and the inclusion of global competences to reduce marginalization of cultural minorities. They recommend watching a video about an Aboriginal elder's experiences to understand the significance of teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. They conclude by emphasizing the importance of civics and citizenship education in creating active and informed members of society. Hello everybody, and welcome back to Education News Today, where we discuss the new topics related to education. I would like to begin by acknowledging the Yuivara people as the traditional owners of the land. I would also like to pay my respects to the elders past and present on which country we learn. I'm Amelia Colmar. I'm a pre-service teacher studying to become a primary school teacher. I love the work I do and hope to inspire the lives of children. Though I lack years of experience, I have developed a significant understanding of the important aspects of learning that can be beneficial for students and bring a fresh perspective to content. This includes relevant education content that can play major roles in students' everyday lives. Today we have been asked to answer the question, what is the best way to teach civics and citizenship in primary schools in an effort to achieve the Alice Springs Declaration's goal that all Australian students should be active and informed members of their local and global communities? First, let's delve into the Alice Springs Declaration and what it is. The Alice Springs Declaration was created with helping students as the main priority. It sets up a foundation for the encouragement and support of every student to reach their full potential no matter the challenges they face. Furthermore, they ensure the learning and teaching about the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is taught and encouraged throughout student schooling. This is why the Alice Springs Declaration is considered a solid structure in place for education. So how can we achieve this goal set by the Alice Springs Declaration of students being active and informed members of their local and global communities? Teaching civics and citizenship requires a collaborative relation between educators and students to ensure the structure of the content is relevant to both parties. Civics and citizenship is important for students to learn as there is a major relevance for the youth to become responsible and well-informed members of society. Although it is demonstrated that civics and citizenship is important through the explanation of it creating responsible, well-informed members of society, there is continued debate about the integration of civics and citizenship into the Australian curriculum. Civics and citizenship education can be separated into three categories, a specific subject integrated into other subjects or as part of a cross-curriculum aspect. These categories have been in debate over time and recently civics and citizenship has been made into a subject under social sciences by the Australian curriculum. We will now have a look at some whole school approaches for teaching civics and citizenship in schools. Citizenship education is integral to a whole school culture contributing to value-oriented knowledge, action-based skills and change-centred competences that empower young people and strengthen social justice. This is a quote by Tudgill and Brett 2014. Holdsworth 2000 proposes that civics and citizenship education is achieved through whole school approaches including classroom teaching and learning practices, curriculum and community partnerships and links and school programs and policies. This is derived from the school ethos, culture and environment created for students. Thompson and Holdsworth 2003 and Yong Zhao 2011 suggest to use school councils and leadership teams as a way to integrate civics and citizenship into the whole school. This will provide an authentic opportunity to be involved with the responsibility of civics and citizenship. We will now take a look at some classroom approaches. In the 1900s, history and ethics were the main connection made to civics schooling. Through the 1930s to the 1940s, social studies took ownership of the civics education, giving the subject a specific area within the curriculum. From then on, in 1989, the relevance of responsible and well-informed citizens became significant and has been included as a major section of the Masita and Alice Springs Declarations over the years. Even though there has been lots of development made surrounding civics and citizenship within the classroom standards of results for students, it is still not reaching the right margins, with only 53% of year 6 students making it to the proficient standard and therefore further development must be continued to be made. Inquiry-based approaches can be made as a way for students to actively engage and participate in civics and citizenship education. The inquiry pedagogy promotes active learning as students are required to critically process questions and think of their own questions. This approach allows teachers to determine students' achievements standards through the demonstration of the critical thinking and processing. Curriculum integration is an important way for students to be involved with civics and citizenship education, while also ensuring the content remains relevant to their everyday lives as it can be used across many subjects. Through civics and citizenship education, a need for a globalised world is significant and can in turn reduce the marginalisation of cultural minorities. The marginalisation that occurs through civics and citizenship education is prevalent with the misconception of content being taught as well as the wrong information being suggested about different cultural minorities. The best way to ensure the reduction of marginalised cultural minorities can be achieved through the introduction of global competences. Global competences is a framework that builds students' abilities to show understanding for all cultural differences. This framework includes examining local, global and intercultural issues. This allows for the understanding of what issues are occurring around the world, not just within Australia. Understanding and appreciating the perspectives and worldviews of others, this can reduce the marginalisation as it makes a path for the recognition of differences in a positive frame. Engaging in open, appropriate and effective interactions with different cultures, this aspect encourages the use of intercultural connections as a way to build students' acceptance of different cultures. Finally, taking action for collective wellbeing and sustainable development. This suggests that through the intercultural connections action can be made to improve the world issues. Two of the Australian curriculum general capabilities include ethical understanding and intercultural understanding. These general capabilities encourage the inclusion of understanding different cultural minorities and can therefore be used through civics and citizenship education as a way to reduce marginalisation against cultural minorities. I recommend for you to watch Whispers in the Corridor, An Aboriginal Presence. This video demonstrates the act of Jimmy Clements, an Aboriginal elder, being an active citizen within Australia, but being discriminated because of his clothes and the items he had. This video is a significant representation of the experiences Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have regarding citizenship. The occupation of Australian land was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for over 60,000 years until it was taken over, which resulted in the loss of rights and ownership for the First Nations people. This takeover began the experiences with lack of acknowledgement as citizens the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would face. Through non-violent acts, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people began to regain recognition as citizens within Australia. This, however, is still a continued fight as the equality is better but not completed. Within the education of civics and citizenship, these experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders must be made relevant to promote students with the understanding of what happened and how it was changed for a better society. This representation will increase the ability of students to be active and informed members of society as they have been provided with the knowledge and skills to maintain a respectable society. Today we were answering the question, what is the best way to teach civics and citizenship in primary schools in an effort to achieve the Alice Springs Declaration's goal that all Australian students should be active and informed members of their local and global communities? From this, we discovered many classroom and whole school approaches to achieve the effective teaching of civics and citizenship education. As well as this, an understanding of the ways in which civics and citizenship education can reduce the marginalisation of cultural minorities was made. Furthermore, the understanding of the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and how teaching students these perspectives can create fulfilling content that relates to real life issues. Civics and citizenship education is a significant subject within school and creates active and informed members of local and global communities. Thank you for listening to education news today.