Political Literacy: Issues for Teachers and Learners

Abstract

Although there were exceptions (e.g. see Heater, 1984) little, if any, explicit political education was considered necessary for majorities prior to about the mid 1970s (Entwistle, 1973; Batho, 1990; Davies, 1999). Two attempts after that point, however, have been made to implement political education: in the 1970s with the Programme for Political Literacy and more recently in the form of the Crick report (Advisory Group on Citizenship, 1998) which led to the National Curriculum subject of citizenship being compulsory in secondary schools in England from August 2002 (QCA/DfEE, 2000).