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"Listen to Us!"

Citizenship education for young people with special educational needs

Sarah Bustard, Amanda Platt, Leigh Meakin

Citizenship became a mandatory part of the curriculum for schools in England and Wales in 2002. The aim of this project was to explore the issues around citizenship for young people with special educational needs and produce a resource to help school staff to address these issues in Nottingham schools.

  • Method: A student user group of 15 young people with special educational needs from mainstream and special schools in Nottingham met several times over a period of months, to discuss the issues for them and the key things that school staff need to be aware of.
  • Results: The students worked on classroom resources that could support the citizenship curriculum. The group felt that one of the best ways to help others was to tell their stories. Into this resource went 17 'real life stories' told by the young people and anonymised by them to protect their confidentiality.
  • Conclusions: All young people have the right to an education that prepares them for adult life; this includes their rights within the law and their responsibilities within society. The concept of citizenship is important to the lives of people with disabilities, and their experience of citizenship is very different from that of people without disabilities. If citizenship education is to be meaningful, staff need to be aware of the barriers to active citizenship and the discrimination that people with disabilities face.

The young people said:

"Citizenship means being in charge of your own life and knowing that you are important. We need help and we can help others. Citizenship is about rights. We need to know our rights. Schools and colleges should tell us about our rights and responsibilities. Sometimes people aren't being respected.

We are a group of young people from schools, colleges and at work. We live in Nottingham. We have special educational needs.

We have been meeting since 2002. We have been working in small groups to produce a booklet to help other people. We have had fun. We have worked in a friendly environment. This has allowed us to meet new friends.

Young people with special educational needs are important. We can be strong; we are not stupid. With the right support and opportunities we too can be citizens."

(Listen to Us! -  introduction)

In a presentation lead by the young people, we would like to share the background to our project and some of our 'real life stories'.

Themes: Individuals, autobiographies by people with learning difficulties.

Contact us

About the Group

If you woud like to get in touch with the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group, please contact:

Liz Tilley 
Chair of the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group
School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

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