Teach Secondary Issue 14.3

Supporting young CITIZENS Hans Svennevig explains how the study of citizenship can help schools to develop informed, engaged and participatory citizens at a time of relentless flux O n February 24th 2025, our citizenship student teacher cohort were learning how to combat conspiracy theories in the classroom and develop pupils’ critical media literacy – both essential citizenship skills for dealing with the constant and continual flow of negativity across all forms of media. Later that day, while lamenting the general state of the world, an acquaintance remarked, “ Well, at least it can’t get much worse. ” Cringe! Sure enough, by the end of that week, after we’d watched the infamous ‘Meltdown in the oval office’ between the elected presidents of two allied countries – things had, in fact, got considerably worse. Getting critically informed What can we do to develop citizens who are critically informed, willing to engage and keen to participate in democracy when faced with the challenges of the times? Here, I want to help you do just that. Because by doing so, we can – as the recently published 2025 interim Curriculum and Assessment Review report puts it – develop a “ Flourishing civil society, [while] promoting social cohesion and sustaining democracy. ” (see see tinyurl.com/ts143-TP2 ) A 2024 Ofcom survey found that 88% of 16- to 24-year-olds accessed news online. This might seem concerning to some, but it’s actually a win. Indeed, the same survey found that 96% of adults surveyed accessed ‘some form of news’, indicating that these are the days of being hyper- informed. The key now, however, is to make sure that people are critically informed. A good starting point for this is Blachford and Joy’s 2019 REVIEWmodel. When encountering news – wherever it’s found and whatever it’s about – it’s important to develop young people’s engagement of that news by teaching themhow to assess the outlet’s r eputation and the e vidence for its claims; v erify its sources; consider the piece’s i ntent and the e motions it conveys; and then w eigh up its overall merits. Abettermedia diet To help with this, get your students using online sources such as fullfact.org . As educators, you should also be aware of problematic media coverage and how to counter it, especially around conspiracy theories. A good primer here would be to listen to my colleague Jeremy Hayward discussing that topic on a podcast hosted by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education (see tiny.cc/ts143-C1) . Social media is beset by a range of significant dangers that we need to protect children and young people from, which is why I’d encourage anyone to look into the work of Professor Sonia Livingstone on children’s digital rights (see tiny.cc/ts143-C2) . Not all young people are engaging with, and manipulated by predatory influencers, but we need to help them combat extremismwherever they encounter it. When researching the Prevent Duty in schools, we came across evidence showing that children actively wanted their teachers to teach them about facts, and how to interpret and make sense of current events (see tinyurl.com/ ts143-C3). Switching off When teaching young people how to be critically informed and engaged, it’s also important to teach themhow to switch off . When did you last switch off? Being hyper-informed can be exhausting, making it vital that we take time to tune out and rest. I’d encourage you to help young people learn more about the world around them, since we’re much more likely to solve the climate emergency if we remind ourselves how intrinsically we’re connected with nature. The National Education Nature Park programme (educationnaturepark.org. uk) can help you get the ball rolling. In a world filled with conflicting comments around free speech, while loud voices advocate for the banning of certain words, books, comics, TV shows, films, video games, mobile phones and entire social media platforms, we’re perhaps better off equipping young people with the skills of critical analysis, questioning and interpretation imparted through citizenship “It’s important to remember that childrenare citizens too” 62 teachwire.net/secondary