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The UK government’s response to the calls for pupils to develop the essential skills and knowledge needed to become active, informed and responsible citizens from an early age. Proposals to make citizenship statutory in England’s primary schools mark a significant shift in the place of civic education within the curriculum. Drawing on research, including my own with primary-aged children and teachers, alongside proposed curriculum developments, this blog post considers a critical question: Can citizenship be secured through essential content alone?

Young children are not passive citizens in waiting. They are already engaging with questions of fairness, responsibility, belonging and participation in thoughtful and often critical ways. They question injustice, reflect on relationships, and notice whose voices are heard and whose are not. Children are already active social agents, not simply ‘adults-in-waiting’. Policy continues to frame citizenship as something to be delivered rather than lived. Yet, suggests that children and young people already act as active citizens by engaging meaningfully with complex societal and political issues, from social justice to climate action.

‘Children and young people question injustice, reflect on relationships, and notice whose voices are heard and whose are not.’

Citizenship: Learned through participation, not just about content

A curriculum centred on tightly sequenced content, however well intentioned, risks reducing citizenship to knowledge of institutions and laws, narrowly framed through national priorities rather than broader global perspectives. Knowledge about democratic systems matters, but it cannot alone sustain meaningful citizenship education. Democratic learning is most effective when children have opportunities to participate, deliberate and act within democratic communities, rather than simply learning about citizenship as abstract knowledge (Osler & Starkey, 2005; Biesta, 2011).

There are also clear structural risks. In a system shaped by accountability pressures and overcrowded timetables, citizenship could quickly become another content-heavy subject focused on coverage and assessment. As seen in on ‘fundamental British values’, this approach can result in a more transmissive model of teaching, where children are expected to memorise and reproduce fixed interpretations, rather than engage in critical discussion about justice, power and participation. If this pattern continues, curriculum reform may unintentionally reproduce the disengagement it seeks to address.

Participation demands a new approach

Rather than treating citizenship as knowledge to be transmitted, highlights the importance of dialogic, cooperative and participatory pedagogies that prepare children for democratic life. Citizenship therefore needs to be enacted through classroom practice, not confined to curriculum specification. This means creating space for dialogue, disagreement and reflection, where children’s perspectives are taken seriously and connected to wider social and political questions.

One practical and underutilised resource here is children’s literature. Picture books, for example, offer powerful ways for children to engage with themes such as , justice, equality and responsibility in accessible yet intellectually rich ways. They create shared spaces where children construct meaning by drawing on their own experiences, interpreting multiple perspectives and negotiating ideas through dialogue. These interactions act as both a cognitive scaffold for understanding complex concepts and an affective bridge that connects civic learning with lived experience, helping children make connections across concepts (Simpson-Hargreaves, 2026). As high-quality texts are already embedded within primary classrooms, they offer a practical way to integrate citizenship education into existing teaching practices.

There is also the need for greater conceptual coherence. The review proposes the of democracy, law, media literacy, financial education and climate responsibility, as core content for progression. However, these should not be approached as discrete topics. They are connected through shared civic questions about power, fairness, accountability and participation. Teachers and curriculum designers can strengthen this coherence by framing these strands through overarching questions about how people live together, make decisions and address injustice. This enables children to make connections across the curriculum rather than encountering each strand in isolation. Without this, citizenship risks becoming a fragmented collection of topics rather than a meaningful educational experience.

Conclusion

‘Without a shift from transmission to participation, citizenship risks becoming little more than an early introduction to institutional structures rather than a meaningful democratic education.’

There is no doubt that the renewed emphasis on citizenship comes at a critical moment. As concerns around political polarisation, misinformation and declining trust in institutions intensify (Maddalena & Gili, 2020), schools are increasingly expected to prepare children for democratic life. However, this requires recognising young children as active, socially aware beings. Without a shift from transmission to participation, citizenship risks becoming little more than an early introduction to institutional structures rather than a meaningful democratic education.

Children are already asking political questions. The challenge for policy is whether the curriculum will make space to listen.

References

Biesta, G. J. J. (2011). Learning democracy in school and society: Education, lifelong learning, and the politics of citizenship. Sense Publishers.

Maddalena, G., & Gili, G. (2020). The history and theory of post-truth communication. Palgrave Macmillan.

Osler, A., & Starkey, H. (2005). Changing citizenship: Democracy and inclusion in education. Open University Press.

Simpson-Hargreaves, R. (2026). Investigating children’s perceptions of human rights values through the picturebook medium [Doctoral thesis, University of Manchester].