We Need to Build a New Society:
Rethinking Civics in Schools
From Planet 228
by Dan Evans
Dan Evans argues there is an urgent need to re-think political education in schools in order to rejuvenate a dysfunctional Welsh democracy. He presents new research into how schoolchildren conceive of politics in Wales and beyond, putting forward that civics teaching should be as much about critical thinking and instilling values as improving political literacy.
‘The establishment of a national assembly will create the civic space for a truly Welsh politics to occur’.
John Osmond
Democratic ideals were prominent in Wales around the time of devolution. John Osmond’s 1998 pamphlet New Politics in Wales offers a good summary of the grand ambitions many people held. An end to partisanship, and a more consensual, collaborative politics, exemplified by the horseshoe debating chamber; a new policy-making culture based on bottom-up policy communities which would advise the assembly on local need and what works; a more radical equality of opportunity ensuring greater participation from black and minority ethnic groups. And so on.
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