Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Crick advocates these principles by referring back to one of the classic articleon citizenship by Marshall (1997) first published in 1950, “Citizenship and SocialClass” in which he states:“Citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community.All who possess the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with whichthe status is endowed. There is no universal principle that determines what thoserights and duties shall be, but societies in which citizenship is a developing institutioncreate an image of an ideal citizen against which achievement can be measuredand towards which aspiration can be directed.”The Crick report has been criticised for not recognising enough of what somecall the “politics of difference”. Garrratt and Piper (2002) raised an important issueregarding the role of the monarchy and how this relates to citizenship in Britain. Wein Britain are still “subjects” within a monarchy system and although Crick lookedat this issue he felt the concept of “British subject” and “British citizen” seem muchthe same to most people, clearly a contentious point.Many researchers, including Olssen (2002) feel that Crick failed to acknowledgeor recognise the distinctive characteristics of different cultural groups in Britain andthat it ignores the dimension of multiculturalism. The report tends to overemphasisecurricular as opposed to extracurricular approaches to citizenship education. Weneed both, in schools and in the wider community.These issues were taken up by the Parekh Report which was the outcome of theCommission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain set up in 1998 by the RunnymedeTrust (2000) an independent group which promotes racial justice in Britain. TheCommission’s remit was to analyse the current state of multi-ethnic Britain andpropose ways to develop a more vibrant and fair society. The report examined theconcept of “Britishness” and advocated the use of “British” in a more multi-ethnicway such as “Black British” “Asian British”. The report was based on the followingprinciples:• All people have equal worth irrespective of their colour, gender, ethnicity, religion,age or sexual orientation• Citizens are individuals as well as members of local and regional communities.Britain is “both a community of citizens and a community of communities”.• Since citizens have different needs, equal treatment requires full account to betaken of their differences.• Every society needs to be cohesive and must find ways of nurturing diversitywhilst fostering a sense of belonging and a shared identity among its constituentmembers.• Whilst respect for difference is important every society needs a broadly sharedbody of values, including human rights, ethnic norms which respect humandignity, the equal worth of all, equal opportunity for self development and equallife chances.The Parekh Report thus provides an important counterbalance to Crick in that itrecognises “difference with unity” as its main theme.270