Civics and Citizenship Education for a Harmonious Democracy

Mareeba State P–7 School, Queensland

By Elizabeth Crunkhorn, Teacher

Background

The school is in a rebuilding period, promoting positive links between student activities and the community. Celebrating Democracy Week 2006 – ‘Civics and citizenship education for a harmonious democracy’ – was an opportunity to foster and promote these links. The project developed four related themes:

• Care for each other
• Care for our environment
• Class buddies
• Our values

Aims of the event

The aim of the project was to develop with students at all year levels activities that promote citizenship in a harmonious democracy. The aim was to involve the community, parents, staff and students.

Event preparation and implementation

Support from teachers at each year level was sought to promote aspects of citizenship in the school and community. Year levels decided which areas they would focus on for the project, and teachers tailored the different aspects of the programme to students’ needs. Some specialist teachers were also keen to assist. Quotes for printing were obtained. Teachers were shown how to use the relevant computer programs. Support was sought from the local shopping centre management to display our posters during Celebrating Democracy Week. Presentations were made at school level and at our community event, a Kup Murri.

Student outcomes and evaluation

The four aspects used as a focus for civics and citizenship education, along with the theme 'Civics and citizenship for a harmonious democracy', were developed in very different ways.

• The topic Care for each other was further expanded to include care for ourselves and others. A poster was conceived and developed by students with the assistance of an art teacher. Instead of using photos relevant to the theme the poster was created using clip art. The idea is that the laminated posters will be used in each class annually. The posters will be mounted on board and each year class teachers will be able to surround the poster with images and drawings relevant to the theme. The students also developed posters 'We Care about Learning' and 'We Care about Safety' to be used in a similar manner. These posters were presented to the community at a Kup Murri. The presentation was videoed.
• The topic Class buddies was approached as an across-the-school project with different year levels developing buddy classrooms with younger classes. Buddies participated in a variety of activities. Frequently the activities were reading, but other activities were outdoor recreational pursuits and craft activities. In the main, classes used other students as buddies, while one class had adult buddies, using parent and carer helpers. Posters were developed to promote this project.
• The topic Our values was promoted through posters developed to promote our values of Persistence, Confidence, Resilience, Getting Along and Organisation. This reflects our program, introduced in 2006, You Can Do It. The posters were presented to the school and parents and are displayed throughout the school. These posters were created using images pasted to card.
• The topic Care for the environment was developed across the school and looked at activities that students had undertaken to promote care of the environment. Included were studies at Mareeba Wetland, Black Gully Environmental Education Centre, Tinaroo Dam, Mareeba DPI, the school and in the local environment. A poster was created and printed for classroom  and community display.

Feedback

The community has responded very positively to the presentation of the posters, and in their support of the activities. Staff  believe the buddy classroom experiences were so valuable they have in most instances elected to continue this program across the school in 2007. Students continue to be interested in the posters developed under the program, and they continue to be displayed. Staff are using the 'Care' posters in 2007.

Conclusion

The overall benefit of the activities was that they promoted the topic ‘Civics and citizenship education for a harmonious democracy’ at several levels. If the project were to be developed further, the staff would seek to make better connections between its various aspects, and increase the level of cohesion between the participating year levels.