ABSTRACT
Citizenship education has been described as ‘more than a statutory subject’ by Sir Bernard Crick, in recognition of the transformative potential of such processes as informed and responsible action (DfEE/QCA 1999: 13). However, this does not negate citizenship’s position as a subject in its own right and that such participation derives from, and is informed by, an understanding of issues, institutions, processes and concepts central to education for citizenship. Student teachers can often feel daunted by the scope of the knowledge indicated by the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Citizenship (QCA 2007). A cohort of student teachers of citizenship might come to their training with their knowledge rooted in a wide variety of subject backgrounds, disciplinary processes, conventions and conceptual frameworks and therefore might not necessarily share a common language for describing their existing subject knowledge both in substantive and procedural concepts nor in terms of what ‘doing citizenship’ means. This sits in contrast to most of your peers, who while having ‘gaps’ in substantive knowledge will have a developing appreciation of what it is to study the subject they are now training to teach.
