This report on the state of political literacy in secondary schools in England by Shout Out UK and the University of Sheffield reveals that six in ten teachers feel responsible for the development of young people’s political literacy and the majority (79%) felt as though their teacher training did not adequately prepare them for teaching politics.
The report surveyed more than 3,000 secondary school teachers from a range of ages, experience, seniority levels and subjects, from 2,000 schools, as well as parents of more than 1,500 children of secondary school age.
The study also revealed that independent schools were more likely to deliver political education than its maintained school counterparts. It found that independent schools offer more of an enhanced programme of political provision outside the curriculum – such as school trips to political institutions, political contact and active citizenship projects. The differences are starkest when compared to maintained schools in the most deprived communities.
Of the three quarters (72%) of parents that agreed that it’s important for children to be taught about politics, further findings revealed that this figure has no correlation to whether the schools are independent or state. Though, the report did find a correlation between social class and earnings, and the confidence that parents have talking to their children about politics; it was discovered that parents earning more than £70,000 are twice as likely to speak to their children about political issues than those earning less than £10,000.
According to the report, teachers need to feel confident approaching the subject and talking to students about controversial issues in a non-partisan way. This is not possible without funded teacher-training in politics and citizenship. Building an engaged electorate starts with comprehensive political literacy education. To achieve this, we need to recognise that trained confident teachers are a key part of this process.