ABSTRACT
Any conception of citizenship education which seeks to go beyond the ' ... safe and dead, dead-safe, old rote-learning civics' to which Bernard Crick stands opposed (Crick, 2000, p. 119) is bound to engage students in learning about matters which are, in some significant sense, controversial. The inescapability and necessity of 'teaching controversial issues' in any form of citizenship education which seeks to transcend the merely informative has long been recognized by those concerned with the field, including teachers. The significance of teachlng controversial issues in this area has, however, recently been given renewed emphasis in England, both in the report on citizenship education by the Advisory Group on qtizenship - hereafter the 'Crick Report' 1 - (see the Crick Report, 1998, section 10), and ln policy provisions and guidance for practice (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2000, Appendix 2).
