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Policy and advocacy

Online panel discussion: engaging young people in democracy; exploring the role of enhanced Citizenship education

Join ACT’s panel to explore how Citizenship education can empower young people to participate in democracy and address societal challenges

14th Oct 2024 4:30pm

School & College: Free • Organisation: Free • Individual: Free • E-member: Free

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About this event

Join us for an insightful panel discussion on the vital question: How can we encourage young people to participate in democracy? This session will explore findings from ACT’s Parallel Election Project, where nearly 30,000 students participated in school elections alongside the 2024 General Election. These results demonstrate the importance of Citizenship education in developing informed, active citizens.

The panel discussion will focus on the participation of young people in the recent general election, alongside the results from ACT’s Parallel Election Project, which engaged students from schools and colleges across the country. The results highlight the potential of parallel elections in fostering political engagement among young people. Find out more about the Parallel Election Project and view the results summary here.

The panel will also consider the multifarious issues facing society today—such as disinformation, political disillusionment, and climate change—and explore how Citizenship education can provide a safe space for young people to learn and critically engage with these challenges. Discussing how through Citizenship education, students can reflect on the political and societal issues they face and develop the skills necessary to become active participants in democracy.

Drawing on expertise from teachers, students, academics, and organisations that work to support Citizenship education, the discussion will explore how we can further educate and encourage young people to become active, informed citizens. Topics will include political literacy, media literacy, and how we can empower the next generation to navigate and address societal challenges.

Who is it for?

  • Policymakers working on civic and democratic engagement in education.
  • School leaders and Citizenship subject leads aiming to strengthen Citizenship teaching in their schools.
  • Citizenship teachers and other educators seeking strategies to engage students in democracy.
  • Academics and researchers with a focus on youth civic education.
  • Funders and organisations committed to supporting Citizenship education and active citizenship.

Why attend?

Key themes from the event include:

  • Research insights: Panellists will share evidence on the link between education and democratic engagement, from both the UK and overseas.
  • Parallel Election findings: Key data from ACT’s Parallel Election Project will be discussed, exploring how parallel elections can be an educational tool to promote youth civic participation.
  • Curriculum relevance: The discussion will highlight the need for more trained Citizenship teachers and greater support from school leaders and policymakers, emphasising the value of Citizenship education in pre- and post-16 settings.

Be part of this important discussion on how Citizenship education can empower young people to be active citizens. Register now to secure your place.

The Panel

Meet the panelists who will be speaking at this event

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Professor James Sloam

Professor of Politics, Royal Holloway University

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Dr Ana Nunes

Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Studies, Nottingham Trent University

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Professor Matt Henn

Emeritus Professor of Social Research, Nottingham Trent University

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Brahmpreet Kaur Gulati

Vice Chair of Leicester Young Labour

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Aye Ikomi

Teacher of Citizenship and Sociology

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Eddie Playfair

Senior Policy Manager, Association for Colleges

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Liz Moorse

ACT Chief Executive

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Professor James Sloam

Professor of Politics, Royal Holloway University

Dr James Sloam is Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway University, where he is director of external engagement and impact for the School of Law and Sciences. At Royal Holloway, James is also leader of the Politics in Action module, which gives politics undergraduates the opportunities to work on one-day-a-week placements with political institutions or civil society actors and produce academic research on these experiences.

James’ research focuses on youth, citizenship and democratic engagement. He has published widely on this subject and has led several recent projects for the Greater London Authority (Education Department) on youth engagement policy and ways of amplifying youth voice in the capital. James has also explored the relationship between education and democracy both in the UK and internationally. His list of publications can be found here. In 2019, he lead-authored a report for the GLA on Young Londoners Priorities for a Sustainable City and contributed to the Education Department’s Handbook on Working with Children and Young People as Partners.

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Dr Ana Nunes

Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Studies, Nottingham Trent University

Dr Ana Isabel Nunes is a Lecturer in Social Research Methods, based at Nottingham Trent University’s Department of Social and Political Sciences.  She is the module leader for Theory and Methods at undergraduate level and Researching Political Issues at postgraduate level. Ana is the University’s co-leader of the Citizenship, Democracy and Transformation Research Group.

Ana completed her PhD in 2019 under the title, “The development of a valid and reliable instrument to assess young people’s political (dis)engagement in Britain and Portugal: a psychometric approach”.  She has specialist knowledge of researching young people as ‘hard-to-reach’ and ‘lesser-heard’ voices, especially in students of citizenship education and youth civic engagement.  She uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods in this research and has specialist expertise in designing questionnaires and statistical methods of analysis.  A full list of Ana’s publications can be found here.  Ana is currently leading a research team for a project commissioned by the Nottingham Contemporary that considers young people’s political engagement through the arts.

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Professor Matt Henn

Emeritus Professor of Social Research, Nottingham Trent University

Dr Matt Henn is Emeritus Professor of Social Research and is based within Nottingham Trent University’s Department of Social and Political Sciences (SPS). From 2012 to 2023, Matt was the SPS Research Director and chaired the Department’s Research Leadership Team.  Matt is an active member of the Citizenship, Democracy and Transformation Research Group and the new university Centre for Policy, Citizenship and Society.

Matt has expertise in conducting research in the field of citizens’ engagement in democratic life stretching-back to 1998 when he was commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council to complete two linked research projects on youth and civic engagement. Since then he has worked on numerous funded youth civic engagement projects, publishing widely in such areas as youth and civic education, young people and democratic engagement, and citizens, education and the climate emergency. A full list of his publications can be found here.

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Brahmpreet Kaur Gulati

Vice Chair of Leicester Young Labour

I took the Citizenship Studies GCSE and found that it helped develop my critical thinking, debate and communication skills. It helped foster an awareness of various social issues and prepared me to be able to address this in an articulated way. These skills have stayed with me and have been further developed. I stood for local election in 2023 and I’m currently an active member of the Labour Party.

As a result of enjoying my GCSE in Citizenship Studies, I then studied A Level Politics along with Sociology and English Literature.

My passion continued for these subjects, as I then decided to study Religion, Politics and Society at Kings College London. I now work in Government.

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Aye Ikomi

Teacher of Citizenship and Sociology
Aye Ikomi is a Teacher of Citizenship GCSE and Sociology GCSE and A-Level. Aye has taught in two schools in South West London and alongside teaching is currently second-in-command of a SEND department.
Aye says Citizenship is an integral part of the curriculum and it’s becoming more important every year in the midst of a divisive political landscape. Students need to be supported to critically engage with the news and form their own fact-based opinions. She believes Citizenship lessons provide this opportunity and aims to bring this philosophy into her teaching.
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Eddie Playfair

Senior Policy Manager, Association for Colleges

Eddie Playfair is a Senior Policy Manager at the Association of Colleges, helping to represent and support England’s Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges specifically on the 16-18 curriculum and student engagement and development. Eddie taught in schools and colleges in London from 1983 to 2002 and was then a college principal for 16 years, in Leicester and most recently in Newham, East London.

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Liz Moorse

ACT Chief Executive

“Working with citizenship teachers is inspirational and shows the power and impact of high quality subject teaching for young people every day.”

Liz leads the Charity, working with our Board, Teacher Council and staff and overseeing key programmes including the Active Citizenship in Schools Programme and the Five Nations Network in the UK and Ireland. She has a MSc Politics and Public Policy from Birkbeck London and a BA Hons Geography with Archaeology from Manchester University. Liz has worked in education for over twenty five years and led the development of Citizenship as a new curriculum subject in previous roles for central government. She has expertise in national curriculum reviews, curriculum design and national policy. Liz is a Director of the Council for Subject Associations. She is also the Department for Education’s UK representative to the Council of Europe Education Policy Network on Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights and a member of the Advisory Board on Sustainable Development. Liz is a regular speaker at conferences and has written extensively on Citizenship education in the curriculum. Her writing includes,

The Curriculum and Pedagogy of Values Based Education in Citizenship, Chapter 6 in On the value of subjects… and the subject of values, 2022 John Catt https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/bridget-knight-2/on-the-subject-of-values-and-the-value-of-subjects-new-thinking-to-guide-schools-through-the-curriculum/9781915261298/

Citizenship Education in England: Policy and Curriculum in The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education , 2020 Springer Palgrave https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-67828-3_22

Chapter 3, Citizenship in the National Curriculum in Learning to Teach Secondary Citizenship, 2015 Routledge https://www.routledge.com/Learning-to-Teach-Citizenship-in-the-Secondary-School-A-companion-to-school/Gearon/p/book/9780415826471

Outside of work, Liz is an avid Watford FC fan, and enjoys ballet, tea and cake.

FAQs

These are some of the questions we are most often asked about our training sessions. If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will be happy to help.

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