The Deliberative ClassroomGeneral Guidance for teachers explains why schools need to address topical issues in the curriculum as part of their work to build resilience to radicalisation and extremism and develop understanding of democracy and citizenship. The resources support teachers in developing student knowledge and skills of critical thinking that are necessary for informed debate.
ACT is delighted to support a campaign launched by the Council of Europe, 'Free to Speak, Safe to Learn', which encouarges all schools to become 'Democratic Schools'.
Creating a Democratic Culture through high quality curriculum and teaching
The Council of Europe Competency Framework for Democratic Culture
The Council of Europe recently supported the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) to lead a small project to consult with teachers in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales about a competency framework developed to support education for democratic citizenship, human rights and intercultural understanding.
The Council of Europe has identified four key purposes of education:
ACT's one page Citizenship Curriculum Framework provides an outline of the Citizenship skills and aptitudes, values and dispositions, knowledge and understanding, and concepts that children will develop and learn about. It is designed to help teachers think about the key aspects of the subject when designing, planning and implementing a high quality Citizenship curriculum at key stage 2 and 3 that contributes to personal development.
Clare Duncan, Peace Education Assistant at CND Peace Education, reviews their new Cuban Missile Crisis themed active learning resource ‘Dial M for Missile’ and its value for teaching about nuclear weapons in Citizenship education.
Hayle Davies, teacher of RE and Philosophy and Ethics, talks about a strategy on how to teach about the use of drones. This is helpful when teaching about drone warfare as well as Human Rights.
This Summary provides an overview of the knowledge and understanding about democracy that should be developed through the subject of Citizenship. Democracy is a key overaching concept that brings together many themes and dimensions of the subject.
Active Citizenship Projects - Guidance for Supervisors This guidance has been written by Kevin Walker. Kevin is a Citizenship teacher with many years’ experience as a project supervisor and centre co-ordinator. He is also a member of the senior team of examiners for Citizenship GCE and the EPQ. He acts as a projects advisor and provides CPD in Citizenship education.
The ACT Topic Guide on The Electoral System and Political Parties includes an overview of key concepts to address together with practical teaching suggestions and links to resources from Parliament Education Service, the Hansard Society, Bite the Ballot and the English Speaking Union.
ACT and the Global Learning Programme (GLP) have mapped out the connections between 'British values' and global learning through the perspective of Citizenship Studies.
The overview, The Global Learning Programme and Prevent, considers some of the key questions and debates addressed in the Citizenship curriculum and identifies resources that will support teachers in this area of work.
This 
The ACT Topic Guide on 