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23rd Jan 2025 11:51am Blogs

2025 Year of Digital Citizenship - The Vital Role of Citizenship Education in Empowering Digital Citizens

Liz Moorse explores why quality Citizenship education is crucial for learning how to live as an informed digital citizen in today’s society.

The Minister Catherine McKinnell MP  responded last week with great clarity to a question in parliament on media literacy education. She stated:

“Political and media literacy are currently taught through the national curriculum for Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which covers parliamentary democracy, the power of government, and how citizens and Parliament hold government to account. It also equips young people to distinguish between fact and opinion and understand the role of a free press. Primary schools can choose to teach Citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study at key stages 1 and 2.”

This important connection between Citizenship education,  political literacy and media and information literacy is something I will be speaking about this week at the Council of Europe #2025YearofDigitalCitizenshipEducation which begins with a major launch conference at its HQ in Strasbourg. It is the first of three important events bringing together educators, politicians, not for profits and technology organisations from across Europe. The launch event is designed to further disseminate the Digital Citizenship Education handbook and other materials that followed the Committee of Ministers 2019 recommendation and commitment to enhancing Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education including Digital Citizenship Education. The breath included in the Council of Europe ten domains of digital citizenship places a spotlight on the kind of competency driven education needed for being online, wellbeing and rights, to both counter the effects of mis and disinformation, misogyny and hate and engage young citizens positively in democracy and community including new forms of positive and collective action.

Figure 3: The spiral progression of competence building from earliest childhood. The diagram is an oval divided into four interconnected sections: Values, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge and Critical Understanding. Values include valuing democracy, justice, fairness, equality, the rule of law, cultural diversity, and human dignity and rights. Attitudes feature civil-mindedness, openness to cultural otherness, self-efficacy, tolerance of ambiguity, responsibility, and respect. Skills emphasize listening, observing, empathy, cooperation, flexibility, adaptability, linguistic and communication abilities, autonomous learning, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. Knowledge and Critical Understanding covers understanding of self, language and communication, and the world—encompassing politics, law, human rights, culture, religions, history, media, economies, environment, and sustainability. The diagram illustrates how these elements interact and progress in building competence from childhood
Source: Digital Citizenship Education Handbook, Council of Europe, 2019

Recent Polling by FGS Global radar reported faith in democracy and in democratic politics has slipped to some of the lowest levels, with a fifth of the young (under 45s) believing the country is best run by a ‘strong leader who doesn’t bother with elections’. Alongside this in 2023 the pan EU Kid Online research network found 3/4 of 9-16 year olds worry about safety online. Many children encounter online risk through content, contact, conduct and contract and the most extreme involve exposure to self harm and hate online. These findings signal an urgent need to place effective Citizenship education including political literacy, media and information literacy and digital citizenship, alongside Citizenship teacher training back at the top of the education agenda. Better Citizenship education requires better teaching.

Recent Polling by FGS Global radar reported faith in democracy and in democratic politics has slipped to some of the lowest levels, with a fifth of the young (under 45s) believing the country is best run by a ‘strong leader who doesn’t bother with elections’.

Council of Europe 10 domains of Digital Citizenship Education
Council of Europe 10 domains of Digital Citizenship Education

The Council of Europe focusses on a form of Democratic and Digital Citizenship Education with rights, democracy and the rule of law at its heart. Digital Citizenship Education has for too long been confined to definitions that emphasise #onlinesafety and tools that correct or protect from effects of harms, which of course remains important, but we need a more comprehensive form of education to make real progress.

These findings signal an urgent need to place effective Citizenship education including political literacy, media and information literacy and digital citizenship, alongside Citizenship teacher training back at the top of the education agenda. Better Citizenship education requires better teaching.

UK based and international research, including ACT’s own research in collaboration with Middlesex University, point repeatedly to the success of Citizenship education when taught as a discrete subject and by trained teachers.  For many this more rounded approach also chimes with how education and particularly Citizenship education needs to change to reflect a more modern and inclusive democracy where lowering the voting age might happen before the next general election and to reflect the rapid advances in technologies affecting all our lives including AI. This will require a new emphasis and re-prioritisation of content in the curriculum and a reboot for the subject of Citizenship. All of this is timely as education policy begins to shift in England through the curriculum and assessment review and the Wellbeing and Schools Bill meaning the reformed national curriculum must be taught in every school. Those who have ignored or slipped back from properly teaching Citizenship must look again at what they are doing to ensure every child gets the quality Citizenship education they have a right to, and a chance to become informed, active and digitally competent citizens better equipped for the world around them.

Liz Moorse front profile

ACT Chief Executive, Liz Moorse, has worked in education for over 25 years and led the introduction of Citizenship as a curriculum subject in her previous roles within central government. She is the UK Department for Education representative to the Council of Europe’s Education Policy Network for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights and serves on the Advisory Board for Sustainable Development.

The ACT Annual Teaching Citizenship Conference returns on 3 June 2025 and will be held at Portcullis House, Westminster. This year’s theme will explore how teachers and parliamentarians can work together to inspire young people’s democratic engagement. More details, including how to register, coming soon.