Today, a book titled ‘Developing Quality PSHE in Secondary Schools and Colleges‘ was released. Within this book, I contributed a chapter on ‘Diversity and Discrimination’ through my work with Diverse Educators. The book also covers topics such as engaging parents/carers, sex education, and media literacy.
My co-writers and I went through many drafts and rewrites of our chapter, and my part in particular about global citizenship and so-called ‘British Values’ had to be cut down quite substantially to fit in. So, to both celebrate the release of the book and to share my thoughts and findings that didn’t make it to publication, here is my full draft before all the editing and cutting took place. Also, upon re-reading my full draft, I realised that it actually provides a decent summary of our chapter as a whole. As such, there are references throughout to other parts of the chapter. These are marked with an asterisk (*), and the final edited version of those pieces can of course be found in the book itself (Wilson et al., 2023).
Nurturing global citizenship through ‘British values’
We are all global citizens, whether willingly or not, whether aware or not. To magpie a Disney catchphrase, it really is a small world after all. Our world has shrunk due to the spread and influence of popular culture and branding; we are more connected whether physically through higher speed extensive transportation or digitally through the internet. The COVID-19 pandemic perfectly demonstrated the former through its means of spreading across the globe, and the latter as many of us shifted to remote schooling, working and socialising. While an individual or group may think that they are an island, the geography teacher in me can see that their island, like everyone else’s, is in the middle of concentric circles of scale. Their personal bubble is surrounded by the local scale, then the regional and national scales and finally being encompassed by the global scale. The interdependent links and exchanges between the circles move in both directions, where an individual’s actions can have global impacts (e.g. contributing towards climate change) or the global can impact an individual’s personal experience e.g. rising energy prices.
Unpacking the ‘British Values’
Although promoting fundamental ‘British Values’ as part of spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development in maintained schools is non-statutory, these values do go a long way in ensuring establishments can meet their obligations under section 78 of the Education Act 2002 (Gov.UK, 2014). The values focus on democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The guidance document for promoting British Values in SMSC development splits these four values into seven objectives.
Enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence. This is fundamental to the aims of PSHE. In the introduction to this chapter, Wilson makes a poignant link to the Equality Act with regards to nurturing belonging, psychological safety and developing confidence.* When using media and literature within PSHE lessons, positive representation and visibility is exceptionally important as Guest-Parker outlined in the previous section.* Increasing the self-knowledge, esteem and confidence of our young people builds resilience and skill in tackling controversial topics and issues, as detailed earlier by Chowdhury.*
Enable students to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England. Discrimination which is against the Equality Act is unlawful, covering multiple aspects such as employment law and hate speech. Law and the enforcement of it should be open to scrutiny, therefore DEI offers a powerful tool in helping students to understand why discrimination and hateful behaviour is not just wrong, but also in many cases criminal. It is difficult to establish the difference between right and wrong without understanding the why and discussing it in a safe environment, as the example about consent given earlier by Pavlovna highlights.*
Encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely. Earlier Guest-Parker highlighted some barriers in enabling students to become productive and moral citizens.* As a way of overcoming some of those, I will return to the idea of concentric circles. Framing those circles as ‘spheres of influence’ can help demonstrate that the actions of an individual can have knock-on effects first felt in the community (local) and even beyond, rather like a stone being cast into a pond and sending out ripples. Using examples of positive actions, such as a random act of kindness and how they perpetuate in such a way can demonstrate how even small actions can spread.
Enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England. The public sector covers education, the emergency services, healthcare, housing, refuse collection and social care. Why are these important? Imagine at the click of a finger all institutions in one of these sectors disappear. How might that impact our daily lives or society, particularly the most vulnerable and those of protected characteristics? Later, Arundel will make reference to children and young people’s mental health and well-being, for instance.* Supporting those falls under education, health care and perhaps social care. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, then it is that key workers who work for public services deserve the highest of respect.
Further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures and encourage respect for other people. The word ‘respect’ appears many times throughout this chapter and used extensively by Chowdury when talking about tackling controversial issues.* The keyword for me is ‘harmony’. Not just between cultures and groups but also harmony within. People who exhibit one or more of the Equality Act’s protected characteristics must feel safe, secure, proud and respectful about who they truly are. Also, establishing a safe environment is key to allow respectful discussions of when it is appropriate to become intolerant, to avoid issues arising from which a society’s ability to be tolerant becomes so great it is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant (this is called the ‘Paradox of tolerance’).
Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England. It is through the democratic process that laws are passed, policies are drawn up and priorities regarding how to support the population are set. A vote represents a voice. For instance, in 2021 for the first time in its 200-year history the UK Census allowed people the option to state their sexual orientation and gender identity. Data from the census play a vital role in providing evidence for societal needs. It was through decades of political and democratic pressure that eventually led to the decision to include such questions in the census.
World perspectives
‘British Values’ aren’t exclusively British. They are fundamentally values of human rights that are shared amongst vast numbers of the world’s population. This is one reason why I qualify the term ‘British Values’ using quotations. Looking through the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), you can find relatable wording to each of the seven objectives summarised above. Aided by the aforementioned factors making the world smaller, these universal global values permeate towards our young people. Picturing again the concentric circles around the personal bubble, this is now the reverse flow of influence, like water draining across a vast basin to a single point. This was clearly evident throughout my time teaching high-school geography and PSHE, and I concur with Chowdhury’s observation that our young people are the most globally connected.* My geography teacher colleagues are finding it increasingly poignant, and in fact necessary, to link contemporary global issues down to the local and personal scale.
The killing of George Floyd in May 2020 enabled a global resurgence of empowerment to the Black Lives Matter and decolonisation movements. Two years on, the focus on DEI and decolonising the curriculum particularly here in the UK would not be so prominent, organised or influential. Indeed, it empowered me and others to come together and join or create groups such as Diverse Educators, Decolonising Geography and Pride in STEMM with the aim of using fundamental human rights and the Equality Act as a way of driving systemic change. Teaching and learning materials increasingly contain perspectives from outside normative spheres, and those which don’t or misrepresent groups and places are called-out. This aligns with the ‘British values’ of mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. When engaging in PSHE subjects which involve any group of people or culture, think of the phrase “nothing about us without us”. How one obtains such voices and perspectives should be the real challenge of the teacher, not whether they should obtain them.
Another example of a global issue that ignores national boundaries and has an impact on the local and personal scale is climate change. Pick any place in the world, and a community will have a story to tell about how their environment has changed either due to a process that has contributed to climate change, such as deforestation, or impacted by climate change. Whether it be the loss of an indigenous culture on the other side of the world due to sea-level rise, or the destruction of a neighbourhood here in the UK due to an extreme storm, those two communities share an experience linked by this global issue. How we as individuals and communities here in the UK respond to global issues such as climate change is not just a matter of respect for other places and cultures, but also about what is right and wrong, accepting responsibility for our behaviour, abiding by environmental law and supporting public services that can help the most vulnerable adapt and build resilience. These are all ‘British values’.
Student action and agency
In contradiction to our young people being the most globally-minded generation, it certainly feels that there is a political trend towards nationalism and isolationism. Brexit for example is a symptom of this (it’s noteworthy to mention that the UK left a collective, the European Union, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012). Influential figures and elements of the popular press have pushed back against progress towards DEI, often using the term ‘woke’ in a derogatory fashion. Some politicians have warned against teaching students about issues such as privilege and colonialism, and fly a false flag under the guise of championing freedom of expression in Higher Education. Certainly to me these attitudes are in complete contradiction to ‘British values’. So how can we continue to empower our young people to embrace the fundamental principles of ‘British values’ through PSHE in the face of this hostility?
Reclaim the word ‘woke’. Many aspects of PSHE provide the opportunity to discuss and define what is really meant by the word ‘woke’. Whether it be on social media or in the popular press, you can find examples of how being progressive based on principles aligned with ‘British values’ are attacked. For example, in December 2017 a Conservative minister claimed via their Twitter account that “Left wing snowflakes are killing comedy, tearing down historic statues, removing books from universities, dumbing down panto, removing Christ from Christmas and suppressing free speech” [verbat]. PSHE topics that focus on topics such as key historical events, religious holidays etc can utilise such claims as a stimulus for discussion and critical thinking. Is there evidence that comedy is ‘dying’? How do we differentiate between comedy and hate speech? Can Christians no longer celebrate Christmas? Once explored, students can then be in a position to decide whether this is ”woke-ness gone mad’ or whether they are in fact applications of ‘British Values’.
Celebrate and be positive. Apathy and inertia are fueled by hopelessness and negativity. Climate change is a prime example, where the evidence is clear that it is not only an environmental crisis, but it is also a societal and mental-health crisis. Turning climate anxiety into agency is key, and positive stories and case studies of people taking action who young people can identify with is hugely empowering. The youth voice was heard loud and clear at 2021’s COP26 climate negotiations which have led to the DfE publishing a strategy for climate change and sustainability education. While the likes of Greta Thunberg may be an obvious example to inspire young people, positive stories from a range of cultures and backgrounds should be sought, such as Neha from Nepal who raises awareness about online sexual exploitation and harassment of girls (‘British value’: distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law) (UN Women, 2020); Santiago Sorrenti, a genderqueer individual who set-up a London-based ‘clothes swap’ to be a safe space for trans and gender-nonconforming people to find gender-affirming clothes (‘British value’: contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality) (Hunger, 2023) and Aboriginal Dujuan Hoosan who was the youngest person to address the UN Human Rights Council about the importance of culturally-safe education and support for Indigenous children (‘British value’: appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures) (Degan-Delauney, 2021). ‘British values’ are completely compatible with a DEI approach to teaching PSHE.
References
Wilson, H., Chowdhury, Z., Parker- Guest, H., Pavlona, K., Pugh, V.-M., Rackley, K.M. and Swan, E. (2023). Diversity and Discrimination. In: S.-L. McPhee and V.-M. Pugh, eds., Developing Quality PSHE in Secondary Schools and Colleges. Bloomsbury Education.
Department for Education (2014). Promoting fundamental British values through SMSC. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-fundamental-british-values-through-smsc.
United Nations (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
X (formerly Twitter). (2017). https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/945973216778031110. [online] Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20230615123128/https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/945973216778031110.
UN Women (2020). Girls to know: The next generation is already leading the way. [online] UN Women. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/10/compilation-girls-to-know.
Hunger (2023). This is Activism: Santi Sorrenti on reshaping fashion for LGBTQIA+ communities. [online] HUNGER TV. Available at: https://www.hungertv.com/editorial/this-is-activism-santi-sorrenti-on-reshaping-fashion-for-lgbtqia-communities/
Degan-Delauney, C. (2021). Three young Indigenous leaders you should know about. [online] Unicef.org.au. Available at: https://www.unicef.org.au/stories/three-young-indigenous-leaders-you-should-know-about.
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Citing this post
APA: Rackley, KM. (2023, December 14). Nurturing global citizenship through ‘British values’ [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://geogramblings.com/?p=8380.
MLA: Rackley, Kit Marie. “Nurturing global citizenship through ‘British values’”. Geogramblings. 14 Dec. 2023, https://geogramblings.com/?p=8380.
Harvard: Rackley, KM. (2023). Nurturing global citizenship through ‘British values’ [Online]. Geogramblings. Available at: https://geogramblings.com/?p=8380 (Accessed: day month year)
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