ABSTRACT
In August 2002, as a result of the Citizenship Order, the teaching of 'citizenship' was introduced as a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. In other parts of the United Kingdom it is now either to be recognized as a crosscurricular theme, or integrated into Personal, Social and Health Education and subject to inspection. The immediate impetus and rationale for this came from the Report of an Advisory Group, chaired by Bernard Crick, on Education for Citizenship and Democracy in Schools,' published in 1998. this was the culmination of the work of a number of agencies and individuals - including academics, teachers and politicians - who have recognized the critical role which education plays in equipping young people to share in democratic life. The Advisory Group's declared aim was
. . . no less than a change in the political culture of this country both nationally and locally: for people to think of themselves as active citizens, willing, able and equipped to have an influence in public life and with the critical capacities to weigh evidence before speaking and acting; to build on and to extend radically to young people the best in existing traditions of community involvement and public service, and to make them individually confident in finding new forms of involvement and action among themselves (Crick Report, 1998, 1.5).
