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Active Citizenship: Suggested Scope and Sequence
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Here is a sample learning sequence for teaching active citizenship as part of the Victorian Curriculum – this sequence can incorporate the curriculum building blocks from the table below to suit either a Year 7/8 or a Year 9/10 level depending on your context.
| Weekly Sequence | Learning Priorities |
| Week 1 | Focus: Unpacking course requirements Key Concepts: informed active citizenship, community engagement, positive change. |
| Weeks 2-3 | Focus: How change happens? Key Concepts: ‘3As of Agency’ Framework, How Change Happens – according to Amnesty International (see diagram https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/), evaluating successful examples of local, national and global change-making (see pp. 3-4 below). |
| Week 4 | Focus: Features of a liberal democratic society, characteristics of Australian democracy and examples of legal civic participation methods/avenues that active citizens can utilise to influence the decision-making processes of the democratic society they live in. Key Concepts – Features of a liberal democratic society: rights and freedoms of individuals, separation of powers, system of checks and balances, rule of law, protection of minorities, acceptance of diversity, free and independent media. Key Concepts – Characteristics of Australian democracy: a written constitution, three levels of government, compulsory participation in the electoral process and major parties. Key Concepts – civic participation methods in a democracy: voting, community submission to a parliamentary committees, petitions, lobbying, contacting MPs and Ministers, joining political parties or civil-society groups, working with Independents or minor parties, applications to access Freedom of Information (FOI), accessing government departments and administrative courts and tribunals, using traditional/legacy media and/or social media platforms, legal direct action and networking/alliance-building. |
| Weeks 5-7 | Focus: Selecting a personal interest issue to build a civic action and/or community engagement initiative around. Getting informed/Becoming an expert. Designing a civic action plan and/or community engagement initiative with strategic goals, achievable objectives and outcomes and a workable timeline to take part in at least one authentic ‘culminating participation action’. Key Concepts: reflection and introspection (‘what matters to me? what do I care about? and why?’), usefulness of sources, reliability of evidence, multiple perspectives/competing view-points, authoritative voices, ethical considerations, SMART goal-setting, devising time-frames, seeking out mentors, fulfilling necessary administrative requirements and gaining clearances. |
| Week 8 | **‘Authentic Culminating Participation Action’ Week** |
| Week 9 | Focus: Evaluating personal civic action plan and/or community engagement initiative and modifying it for a ‘hypothetical second iteration/attempt/roll-out’. Present findings from evaluation in a written/oral/digital form. Key Concepts: conducting an improvement review, offering constructive feedback and communicating findings. |
| Week 10 | Focus: Educators/facilitators and student co-designing feedback tools to review the Make Change Happen programme. Key Concepts: conducting an improvement review, offering constructive feedback and communicating findings. |
Table 1: Outline of the key learning focus areas addressed in the Make Change Happen programme.
Unpacking the Make Change Happen learning programme – Curriculum Building-blocks:
| Building Block 1 – Victorian Curriculum Civics and Citizenship Strand 1: Government and Democracy, Content Description and Elaborations (Levels 7 and 8) | ||||
| Content Description | Elaborations | |||
| Discuss the freedoms that enable active participation in Australia’s democracy within the bounds of law, including freedom of speech, association, assembly, religion and movement (Code: VCCCG019) Explain how citizens can participate in Australia’s democracy, including the use of the electoral system, contact with their elected representatives, use of lobby groups, interest groups and direct action (Code: VCCCG020) | VCCCG019: explaining how each freedom supports active participation in Australia’s democracy and discussing how and why the ‘bounds of law’ can limit these freedoms considering the circumstances that can lead to dissent in a democracy VCCCG020: comparing the effectiveness of different forms of participation in Australia’s democracy investigating how elected representatives can advocate on behalf of citizens explaining how to enrol to vote in Australia and the role of the Australian Electoral Commission in the electoral process | |||
| Building Block 2 – Victorian Curriculum Civics and Citizenship Achievement Standards | ||||
| Achievement Standard (Levels 7 and 8) | Achievement Standard (Levels 9 and 10) | |||
| Students analyse features of Australian democracy, and explain features that enable active participation. | Students evaluate a range of factors that sustain democratic societies and analyse ways they can be active and informed citizens in different contexts, taking into account multiple perspectives and ambiguities. | |||
| Building Block 3 – Victorian Curriculum Capabilities Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Capability and Personal and Social Capability (Levels 7 and 8) | ||||
| Critical and Creative Thinking | Ethical Capability | Personal and Social Capability | ||
| Questions and Possibilities Synthesise information from multiple sources and use lateral thinking techniques to draw parallels between known and new solutions and ideas when creating original proposals and artefacts Reasoning Consider how to settle matters of fact and matters of value and the degree of confidence in the conclusions Examine how to select appropriate criteria and how criteria are used in clarifying and challenging arguments and ideas Meta-Cognition Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others Consider how problems can be segmented into discrete stages, new knowledge synthesised during problem-solving and criteria used to assess emerging ideas and proposals | Understanding Concepts Explore the contested meaning of concepts including freedom, justice, and rights and responsibilities, and the extent they are and should be valued by different individuals and groups Investigate why ethical principles may differ between people and groups, considering the influence of cultural norms, religion, world views and philosophical thought Decision Making and Actions Explore the extent of ethical obligation and the implications for thinking about consequences and duties in decision-making and action Discuss the role of context and experience in ethical decision-making and actions | Self-Awareness and Management Development of resilience Assess personal strengths using feedback from peers, teachers and others and prioritise areas for improvement Reflect on their effectiveness in working independently by identifying enablers and barriers to achieving goals Discuss the range of strategies that could be used to cope with difficult tasks or changing situations Social Awareness and Management Relationships and diversity Explore their personal values and beliefs and analyse how these values and beliefs might be different or similar to those of others Collaboration Identify ways to be proactive in initiating strategies to prevent and/or accomplish positive resolutions to conflict | ||