The national framework for active learning for active citizenship

105 Pages·2006·0.67 MB·English

The national framework
for active learning for
active citizenship
Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Acknowledgements
This framework was a collaborative We would like to say a special thank you to
effort, drawing together the expertise of the Take Part hubs, who contributed all the
many skilled practitioners in the fields material outlining their work and who wrote
of community development, community sections of the framework. In particular
engagement and education. It draws we are grateful to: Helen Marsh (London);
on a wide body of work and decades of Carol Packham (Greater Manchester); Jill
practice. We would like to thank everyone Bedford and Sue Gorbing (Black Country);
who contributed. Karen Milburn (Tees Valley); Ted Hartley
(South Yorkshire); Zoraida Mendiwelso-
In particular, the following people played a
Bendek (Lincolnshire, East Midlands); and
key role in producing the finished product:
Gabi Recknagel (South West).
John Annette, Jill Bedford, Zoraida
This framework was compiled, written and
Mendiwelso-Bendek, Tony Breslin, Trevor
edited by Jill Bedford, Helen Marsh and
Burchick, Anne-Marie Dean, Mike Felse,
Dave Wright.
Alison Gilchrist, Bernard Godding, Sue
Gorbing, Ted Hartley, Rebecca Herron,
Bernadette Joslin, John Lloyd, Helen
Marsh, Karen Milburn, Sussi Miller, Jane
Moss, Jan Newton, Carol Packham, Rob
Pope, John Potter, Gabi Recknagel, Jackie
Richards, Denise Scott, Adam Short,
Ann Taket, Cheryl Turner, Louise Waring,
Charles Woodd, Val Woodward, Dave
Wright and Stephen Young.
The following organisations contributed to
the framework:
Birkbeck College – University of London,
Changes Consultancy, Citizenship
Foundation, City & Guilds, Community
Development Foundation, Exeter Council
for Voluntary Service, Federation for
Community Development Learning,
Institute for Global Ethics, London
Civic Forum, Manchester Metropolitan
University, National Institute of Adult
Continuing Education (NIACE), Proud
City, SkillShare, The Learning and Skills
Council, University of Exeter, University
of Lincoln, University of Plymouth and the
Workers’ Educational Association.
Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Foreword
The Government is determined that local The Take Part framework is a very practical
public services should become more resource, available for anyone seeking to
responsive to the needs and concerns of enable adults to aquire the knowledge,
citizens and communities. How this will skills and confidence to make a difference
be achieved is set out, in part, in Strong in their communities. Moreover, the use
and prosperous communities, the recent of this resource is supported by well-
Local Government White Paper. The grounded practical experience from the
empowerment of citizens and communities Take Part network, which offers advice
to have greater influence over policies and and help in the development of learning
services – the Together We Can approach programmes.
– is an indispensable strand in the
My hope is that funders and policy
process. But we also want to encourage
makers will recognise the importance
people to take part more actively in all
of investing in learning opportunities for
aspects of community life.
active citizenship, based on the Take Part
So I am delighted to endorse the framework, to help them achieve their
publication of the Take Part learning wider objectives. And I am confident that
framework. It is firmly grounded in the voluntary and community organisations
practical experience of the seven Active and educational institutions will find in the
Learning for Active Citizenship hubs, framework all they need to develop good
analysed and evaluated in the report by quality learner-centred programmes in
Goldsmiths College that we published active learning for active citizenship, suited
earlier in 2006. It goes a step further, to their local circumstances.
however, in applying the lessons we
learned; and it completes the work Baroness Andrews of Southover
begun by the Department for Education Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,
and Skills in introducing citizenship Department for Communities and Local
Government
education into schools and supporting the
Post-16 Citizenship Programme for
16 to 19-year-olds.
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Welcome
Welcome to the Take Part learning
framework, a manual for practitioners
and providers of learning programmes in
citizenship skills for adults. Take Part is
the result of a two-year pilot programme,
Active Learning for Active Citizenship, in
which seven hubs in the English regions
tried out different approaches to devising
and providing citizenship learning, with
a diverse range of participants. The
good practice they developed during the
pilot has informed the advice and ideas
presented in this framework, so that others
can create their own programmes.
As well as supporting those practitioners
who are already involved, we hope that
the framework will inspire, inform and offer
practical advice for individuals, community
groups and organisations wanting to get
involved in organising, facilitating and
supporting adult education for active
citizenship. We hope too that it will
encourage policy makers, funding bodies
and planners to recognise the value and
the impacts of active learning for active
citizenship and offer long-term support.
This framework has been put together as
a collaborative process, with members
of the Take Part hubs (formerly Active
Learning for Active Citizenship hubs)
working together to explore the themes
of active learning and active citizenship,
write the case studies and synthesise
their experiences. The hubs have formed
a network to carry forward the lessons
of Take Part and promote it and this
framework provides their contact details
for support in their regions.
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 4
The story of Take Part • Active learning for active citizenship: key messages •
The background to Take Part • The Take Part vision • What is active citizenship? •
Civil renewal and active citizenship – defining our terms • Take Part values in action •
The outcomes of active citizenship
2 PLANNING 27
Deciding on your aims • Creating your programme • Resources for Take Part
programmes • Planning for equal access • Progression routes
3 PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE 51
Theory into practice • Overview of activity by hub • Overview of activity by type •
Role of the Take Part educator
4 CASE STUDIES 68
Overview of Take Part hubs • Black Country/Women active in community and public life
• Greater Manchester/Community auditing • Lincolnshire, East Midlands/Overcoming
barriers to community engagement • London/Diversity and engagement with the
democratic process • South West/Supporting participation by people with learning
disabilities and their carers • South Yorkshire/Investigating concerns in the Somali
community • Tees Valley/Improving carer access to community participation
5 THEMES 93
The writings of Paulo Freire • How experiential learning supports active citizenship •
Community development • Community engagement • Our commitment to lifelong
learning • Constructed conversations
6 REFERENCES 101
Bibliography, references and links
7 TAKE PART NETWORK 103
Contacts for more information and advice about how to run Take Part programmes
in your area
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Introduction | 1.1 The story of Take Part
1. Introduction
This section gives the background to Take Part and Active Learning for Active Citizenship
– its aims, principles and approaches.
1.1 The story of Take Part
The Active Learning for Active Citizenship When the Department for Communities
programme, the forerunner to Take Part, and Local Government was created in
was established in 2004. Funded by May 2006, the Prime Minister named
the Home Office’s Civil Renewal Unit, the empowerment of communities as
its purpose was to devise and try out ‘central to achieving our wider objective
effective programmes of citizenship of democratic renewal’. Ruth Kelly MP,
learning for adults. These programmes Secretary of State, took up this call,
would ‘work to improve the capacity of saying: ‘I want to see councils with the
individuals and communities to relate to powers and levers they need to ensure
the world around them as active, critical all local services work together to deliver
engaged citizens. If we are to have a personalised services tailored to meet the
healthy democracy we need to support needs of communities, individuals and
each other in identifying the issues that families. That means enabling people to
concern us, and develop the confidence get things done in their neighbourhoods
and skills to make a difference to the world quickly and easily, with more say for local
around us’ (Woodward 2004). When the people, more responsive local services
Government’s empowerment campaign, and more opportunities for communities
Together We Can, was launched in June to assume greater responsibility for, or
2005, the Active Learning for Active even ownership of, community assets.’
Citizenship pilot, or ALAC, was already This aspiration is summed up in the
making a significant contribution to the Department’s aims of ‘community,
government-wide drive to enable people opportunity, prosperity’.
to engage with the public realm and help
The publication of the Local Government
shape public services.
White Paper takes the theme of
Although empowerment and engagement empowerment a step further. It places the
are increasingly at the heart of informed, empowered citizen at the centre
Government policy to reform public of the reform of local government services,
services, many people still feel they do not creating a dynamic and responsive new
have a voice in decisions that affect them. relationship between elected councillors
In the 2005 Citizenship Survey, 61 per and local residents. But to take full
cent of people felt they could not influence advantage of this, many more people will
public bodies. With a high proportion of need access to the skills and knowledge
people feeling unable or unsure of how to that will enable them to exercise their
become active citizens, there is clearly a rights and responsibilities as citizens. Take
need for active learning opportunities to Part – the result of the ALAC pilot – meets
help build up their confidence and skills. this need.
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Introduction | 1.1 The story of Take Part
The starting point for the ALAC pilot other types of democratic engagement.
was a mapping exercise and literature And, in Lincolnshire, migrant workers from
review carried out in 2003/04. Based on Eastern European countries took the first
its findings, the next step was to bring steps towards successful integration in the
together a steering group of voluntary community, with enhanced understanding
and community sector representatives, of their rights and responsibilities as
academics and government policy UK residents.
makers to oversee the development of
Participants throughout the seven hubs
a programme, which they named Active
reported feeling more confident, less
Learning for Active Citizenship. The
isolated and more able to take on issues
steering group rolled out seven regional
they could not have tackled before. Many
hubs in England, each of which tried out
have progressed into governance roles;
their own distinctive approaches to active
some have gone on to further education or
citizenship learning. They used a variety
into employment, or have become involved
of tools and techniques and targeted a
in volunteering: valuable side benefits to
range of diverse individuals, but all worked
their ALAC experience.
to a set of shared values: social justice,
participation, equality and diversity, and The hubs themselves learned valuable
co-operation. lessons in test driving their approaches
to citizenship learning. They reinforced
The results were inspiring. In March
the importance of the learner-centred
2006, the Department for Communities
approach and the dynamic collaborative
and Local Government published the
relationship between ‘teacher’ and ‘pupil’.
evaluation by Goldsmiths College of the
The hubs’ activities were designed to be
ALAC programme and it was immediately
reflective and participatory. The hubs
clear that the hubs had been effective, in
showed that, in the learning process, the
diverse ways, in empowering people to
key role was that of facilitator rather than
become involved in the public realm.
teacher, with the techniques they used to
At the level of the individual, outcomes facilitate the learning emerging from the
included people finding the confidence groups’ own decisions.
to speak up for the first time about what
The Take Part network is now taking
they wanted for their communities and
this work forward. This framework – part
what they thought about public services.
manual, part good practice guide – is
In the South West, disabled people and
the next major step in making citizenship
their carers gained the skills to begin
learning widely available to adults. It
shaping the services they use. Women in
is for anyone who wants to provide
the Black Country had a taste of political
citizenship learning for adults, whether
institutions at first hand, through visits to
through an academic body or in a
Parliament and Brussels, and were able
community context. It is non-prescriptive,
to overcome the practical and cultural
but it provides insight, based on sound
barriers that stood between them and
practical experience, into what works.
their role in public life; many of them going
For those who require a basis in theory
on to take part in local governance and
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Introduction | 1.1 The story of Take Part
and pedagogy, the framework provides The Civil Renewal Unit has now joined
references to Freire and others. For the Community Empowerment Division
those who require a practical guide and in the Department for Communities
suggestions of elements to include in and Local Government. From here it
a learning programme, the hubs’ case continues in its work to empower citizens
studies provide stimulating examples. and influence policy makers to create
opportunities for community engagement.
Ideally, anyone should have access, near
The Take Part approach to educating
them, to the type of learning opportunities
adults for citizenship is part of Strong
recommended in this framework; learning
and prosperous communities, the Local
experiences that start from the needs and
Government White Paper (DCLG 2006).
abilities of their participants. As the Take
Part approach to learning is picked up With the publication of this framework
and resourced more widely through the and the establishment of the Take Part
voluntary and community sector (VCS) and network, we have a major piece of
learning organisations, we will see more the jigsaw in place which will support
and more people becoming active citizens. the development of more empowered
As a result, public services will be better communities, a more vibrant democracy
able to meet the needs of the communities and a growth in equality and social justice
they serve, by being based on the views at local, national and global levels.
and priorities identified by members of
those communities.
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Introduction | 1.2 Active learning for active citizenship:
key messages
1.2 Active learning for active citizenship:
key messages
Active learning for active citizenship is: tackle the distinctive political,
• a flexible approach to personal and social and technical challenges and
community development through opportunities that confront us in an
experiential learning (learning through increasingly global society;
experience and reflection) in group • all individuals are members of
settings. It offers proven strategies to communities, and community change
build stronger communities through emerges from individuals working
promoting personal effectiveness, together; and
social enterprise and lifelong learning; • it enables people to gain
• s haped by the values of participation, understanding of how power works
co-operation, social justice and and how they can learn to influence
equality with diversity. These values decisions and policies.
require the work to be: (i) community
based, (ii) learner centred, and
Take Part is for:
(iii) developed through active and
• everybody or anybody: many people
reflective learning;
in positions of authority and power
• p art of Together We Can, the
could benefit as much from engaging
Government’s campaign to empower
in active citizenship learning as could
people, as citizens, to have a say in
those seeking empowerment; and
the shaping of public services locally,
• people who wish to engage effectively
regionally and nationally;
in developing their communities.
• t he third phase of the Government’s
strategy to promote education for
Take Part is delivered:
active citizenship in: (i) school,
• around four essential elements:
(ii) college, and (iii) community settings;
– valuing your own skills and
• p art of a nationwide cross-sector
experience;
partnership to strengthen participative
– knowing yourself through and with
democracy across communities at
others;
every level; and
– knowing how the external world
• w here principles and practices
operates; and
of informal adult education meet
– knowing where to go to get what
principles and practices of community
you need.
development.
This challenges the notion of individualism
Society needs active learning for and competition by bringing people
active citizenship, and the Take Part together to reflect upon and analyse the
approach to it, because: barriers to, and opportunities for, creating
• it helps equip individuals and change for themselves and others. We
communities with the skills, suggest that, once people make these
confidence and experience to connections and see their own concerns
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Take Part
The national framework for active learning for active citizenship
Introduction | 1.2 Active learning for active citizenship:
key messages
and limitations reflected in the struggles
of others, they can collectively develop
strategies around how to overcome the
barriers and make positive changes:
• through learning with other people;
• through practice rather than by
absorbing theory. Outcomes are
unpredictable; this makes some
formal educational processes – with
preset outcomes – unsuitable.
Experiential learning is key;
• w ith conversation and dialogue as
key tools to facilitate learning; true
conversation takes place when we are
open enough to accept others’ points
of view as worth our full consideration.
Conversation is an opportunity to
interrogate our own prejudices;
• b y enabling people to gain new skills,
insights and understanding through
tackling real-life challenges in the
community; and
• i n a way that recognises success is
not just about accreditation; impact
on individual perceptions or impact
on relationships in communities are
as important. Progression does not
always equal accreditation.
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