Citizenship Education: Anti-political Culture and Political Education in Britain

The British Government white paper ‘Excellence in Schools' and the subsequent report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship Education for Citizenship recommend that schools educate pupils in citizenship and democracy. This recommendation is considered in the context of reasons why there has traditionally been no formal or well articulated political education in schools. Among these reasons a pervasive antipathy to politics and to government is identified as one of the most powerful. This antipathy is expressed from the left and the right wings of the political spectrum, and the ‘critical’ opposition to both, as well as from interests such as those defending professional and personal autonomy. These arguments imply that ‘politics' is optional, not a set of practices and institutions with which individuals must be familiar. It is argued that this proposition cannot be valid.