Video: How do citizens take action?

﻿Hello, my name is Mrs. Blachford, and I am a citizenship teacher. And today I'm excited because I'm going to be your citizenship teacher. So, to prepare for today's lesson, you are going to need a pen or a pencil and something to write on. You'll also of course need to engage your brain, be ready to think. I'd suggest you're in an area which is quiet, and you're able to work. So, if you need to do any of those things now, then pause the video, and just press play when you are ready and settled. So welcome to your lesson on active citizenship. We're going to be looking at four things today. We're looking at what is a citizen, first of all. What is a democracy? How can citizens take action through the democratic process to bring about change? And what makes effective citizen action? Let's get started. So this is our first key word for our lesson, and we might want to make a note of this as we're going to be referring to it during our lesson. So if you want to make a note with the definition, then you can pause the video once I've gone through the definition. So talking about first of all, what is a citizen? So citizen is a person who was born in a particular country, and has certain rights, or has been given certain rights because of having lived there. Someone who is a citizen of a particular country is legally accepted as belonging to that country. So really important that you've got that key definition. So as I say, good point perhaps to pause and just make a note of that and then start the video again, when you've done that. Our second key word that we need to be aware of for this lesson is democracy. And again, I'd suggest that you pause the videos, as we go through our definition of democracy, and the type of democracy that we have in the UK. So the word democracy comes from the Greek words, demos, meaning people and kratos, meaning power. So democracy can be thought of as power of the people. A way of governing which depends on the will of the people. And this definition comes from the Council of Europe. A democracy is a country where the people will choose their government. And in the UK we have what we call a representative democracy. And that's because we elect representatives who will work on our behalf and represent us. So representatives can members of parliament or MPs, members of the Scottish Parliament, if you live in Scotland, MSPs, members of the Senate, MSs, if you live in Wales. Could also be local counsellors as well. So again, you might want to stop the video to make a note of these definitions. And we are looking specifically at how citizens can take action in a democracy. So it's important that we've started off with a shared understanding of what we mean by democracy, and some of the key characteristics that our democracy has. So this slide is going to just take you through the key characteristics of a democracy. So in a democracy we'd expect to have regular elections whether that be for local representation or national representation in the form of members of parliament. You would be free to stand in elections as well, so you can stand under a political party, or you can stand as an independent candidate. We have free and secret ballots, so nobody looks at what you're voting on your ballot paper or who you're voting for. And we have a range of political parties that people can choose from in the UK. We have a freedom of assembly, freedom to get together, and freedom to protest together peacefully. We have rights for minority groups. We have equal rights for women, and we have a free media. And by free media, we mean free from censorship. So our government is not interfering in, or dictating what can be published in the media. So just to check our understanding now, which of these is a key feature of a democracy. So is it option one, discrimination? Is it option two, censored media? Is it option three, the right to protest? Or option four, one political party? Hopefully you got the answer option three, that we have the right to protest. Now we can find our rights written in various places. And this is one of those places. This comes from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it's article 21. And it reads, "We all have the right to take part "in our country's political affairs, "either by freely choosing politicians to represent us, "or by belonging to the government ourselves. "Government should be voted for by the public "on a regular basis, "and every person's individual vote should be secret." So this is a really key part of our lesson today, because it's one of the ways that citizens can take part in the Democrat democratic process in the UK, by voting, either voting in local elections or national elections, or even choosing to stand in an election yourself so that you are elected to represent others perhaps in your community. Really key way that citizens can take part in the democratic process. So, which of these key features of a democracy, does article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights refer to? Is it option one, the right to vote? Is it option two, the removal of human rights? Is it option three, ruled by one person? Or is it option four, inequality? And I'm sure you've gone for option one, it was the right to vote that we've just talked about. So how can a citizen participate in a democratic process in order to bring about change? We've already talked about a couple of those ways in our previous task there, we've talked about the fact that you could vote in an election or you could stand for election yourself to represent others. But of course there are other ways that citizens can participate in the democratic process. So what I'd like you to do now, is I'd like you to have a think about what ways they could be. So how can citizens take part in the democratic process to bring about change? I'd like you to create either a main map or a list, of ways that you think citizens can take part in the democratic process to try and help them to bring about change. So pause the video at this point, and come up with your ideas. And then as soon as you're ready, you can press play again. So I've got some feedback here, so here's some of the things that you might have thought of in your list. So, vote in elections, we've talked about, so that one hopefully is on there. We could get media attention, perhaps we could get celebrity backing for our campaign. Perhaps we might set up an online petition, you can do that through the Parliament's website, or you might lobby your MP or local counsellor. And lobbying is where you would meet your MP or local counsellor, try and convince them to help you bring about the change that you would like to see perhaps in your community or nationally for that matter depending on what the issue is. I'm sure you've come up with other ideas too which you'd be able to use later in our lesson together. So we're just going to have a look at some of those other methods now. So, active citizens use many different methods to bring about social change. Some of these terms were introduced in the lessons in an earlier unit of work on what is citizenship, some today, and then some may be new to you as well. For each of the questions, you need to say which description matches the key term at the top. So let's have a go. So the first one is what is a petition? So, is it option one, joining together as a group and taken to the streets to campaign? Is it option two, gathering signatures to show support for a course? Is it option three, persuading the person who represents you either locally or nationally to support your viewpoint? Or option four, refusing to buy a product or use a service as a protest. And the correct answer is option two. It's gathering signatures to show support for a cause, and you can either do that on a paper, petition, or you can do it online. So a second type of action citizens could take is a boycott. So what is a boycott? We have got option one, join them together as a group, and taking to the streets to campaign. Option two, gathering signatures, to show support for a cause. Option three, persuading the person who represents you either locally or nationally to support your viewpoint. Or option four, refusing to buy a product or use a service as a protest. And the correct answer is option four, it's where we refuse to buy a product or use a service as a protest. And then what is lobbying is our next method. So option one, joining together as a group and taken to the streets to campaign. Option two, gathering signatures to show support for a cause. Option three, persuading the person who represents you either locally or nationally to support your viewpoint. Or option for refusing to buy a product or use a service as a protest. And the correct answer in this case is option three. This is where we persuade the person who represents you either locally or nationally, to support your viewpoint. And our final one, is what is a demonstration. So we've got option one, joining together as a group and taking to the streets to campaign. Option two, gathering signatures to show support for cause. Option three, persuading the person who represents you either locally or nationally to support your viewpoint. Or option four refusing to buy a product or use the service as a protest. And the correct answer is option ones, so a demonstration is where we joined together as a group, and take to the streets to campaign. So what we're going to do now, is we're going to look at a case study. Case study of Marcus Rashford. And we're going to look at this case study of an active citizen who has used the democratic process to successfully bring about change. And we're going to look at what he did, what he achieved, and then we'll use this case study to help us evaluate what makes effective citizen action. So let's start by finding out about Marcus Rashford, and what he did. So Marcus Rashford, is 22 year old footballer, and he plays for Manchester United and England. In the summer of 2020, he was in the spotlight for a very different reason, and you might have seen this yourself. Marcus Rashford spoke out about the need to put an end to child food poverty, something he feels passionate about, having been in receipt of free school meals himself as a child. He campaigned to extend the government's free school meal provision to include school holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic. And he was successful in securing this for the summer holidays in 2020. Now, Marcus Rashford could have stopped there, he was successful, he achieved his goal. But then in October, Boris Johnson announced that the government would stop providing 15 pounds a week in meal vouchers to those on free school meals over the holidays. So once again Marcus Rashford campaigned against this government decision. He met with Boris Johnson, he took to social media to raise awareness using his Twitter account, for example. He set up an online petition and wrote an open letter urging MPs to gain support for his campaign. He was successful. The government announced they would fund free school meals in school holidays until Easter 2021. So what I'd like you to do now, is to consider why Marcus Rashford was successful. So I'd like you to rate a paragraph, which explains what you've learned about Marcus Rashford and why you think he was successful in bringing about change. So you need to pause the video at this point, and when you've written your paragraph, you can press play. So I'm going to give you a little bit of feedback and a possible here. So you might have written something similar to this. So Marcus Rashford is a well-known footballer, as a young boy, he was relying on free school meals, and as a result he had firsthand experience of the importance these play in supporting families. In 2020, Marcus Rashford began a high profile campaign to persuade the government to extend free school meals provision to school holidays to help families who'd been hit by the pandemic and were struggling to feed their children. Through continued pressure from Marcus Rashford, the government agreed to continue free school meals provision during school holidays until Easter 2021. Rashford was successful because he was passionate about this cause and did not give up. So you may have something similar to that written yourself. So we're going to look at this in a little bit more detail now and think about what creates an effective action. So we saw some ideas in Marcus Rashford's foods case and you've come up with a paragraph which will have identified some of the reasons or some of the factors that can help us create an effective action. So what I want you to do now, is to make a list of those factors, which you think make an effective action. So think back to Marcus Rashford and why he was successful. And some examples could be for example that he had a clear issue that he was campaigning about. It was an issue that many people supported him in. So pause the video now, and then press play when you have written your list. So let's consider some of those factors now. So, clear issue, the issue affects a large number of people, use peaceful methods of campaigning, more likely therefore to get support if you're using peaceful methods. And also you'd be more able, I think, to get support from those who have power, or in positions of power if you are using peaceful methods. Support from the media, high level of media coverage as well can help. Campaign is aimed at the target groups, so who do you want to influence? Who has the power to help you make the change that you are campaigning for? And have you made sure that they are going to be aware of your campaign? Support from those in a position of power? So that could be a local counsellor, it could be your local MP. It could be your head teacher, if it's something in your school, you want to change. There's public support for the campaign, financial backing for the campaign, celebrity backing, sometimes if got the backing of celebrities then they have got a large following that perhaps they can influence and raise awareness with too. And I think really importantly, determination to succeed not giving up at the first hurdle, because bringing about change is not always going to be easy, so you have to be determined to succeed. Now, what I'd like you to do is to rank these factors which lead to effective action from the most important in your opinion, to the least important factor. So consider the factors which you identified in our last task, which do you think are the most important in leading to effective action? And you're going to rank your chosen factors from most important to least important. And you can see from the shape, it's a little bit like a diamond shape. We call this a diamond nine, in this activity. So I'd like you to have a go at ranking those factors from most important in leading to effective action, to least important factors in your opinion. And then what I'd like you to do when you've had a go at that, I'd like you to write a sentence, to explain your choices for most and least important. So what have you put as number one at the top there, and why have you put that at the top? And what do you think is of all the factors you've chosen, the least important factors. Now you've got more than nine factors, so you're going to have to be selective and it doesn't have to be the factors I had up. You may well have come up with factors of your own as well. So please use those now to create your diamond nine. And you can pause the video here, and then press play again when you are ready. So, I have for you a takeaway task. So we've come to the end of our lesson together, and I hope you've enjoyed learning about how citizens can take action and how they can be effective with that action. What I'd like you to do now, is to go off and do small research of your own. So you could research some other successful campaigns, and consider what made them effective. There could be historical campaigns perhaps that you've heard of, or campaigns that are happening right now in your local communities. And then what I'd like you to do, so having done some research, I'd like you to talk to others in your class to see if they know of any of those campaigns which have been successful in bringing about change. Keep the notes that you've made, ask questions and enjoy investigating further. All that's left for me to say, is thank you for taking part in the lesson. And if you would be so lovely to do so, I would be really grateful if you would share your work. So please do ask your parent or carer to share your work, and you could do that on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter tagging @OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak. Don't forget to complete the quiz now, take care and stay safe, and hopefully I'll see you for another lesson in there feature.

Exit Quiz: How do citizens take action?

Lesson summary: How do citizens take action?

In this lesson we will learn about the roles citizens have in a democracy. We explore what being part of the democratic process means and what kinds of actions can be taken to improve the world around us.

Citizenship

Y8 Citizenship

Key Stage 3

Year 8

How do citizens take action?

How can citizens bring about change? 

Active citizenship

THEME

UNIT

What is the role of pressure groups, protest groups and social movements?

How can we campaign and influence change?

Why do changemakers play an important role in democracy?

Why and how should citizens take action?

What can effective change look like?

Assess what you learnt in your lesson today by completing the quiz below. Don't forget to click 'get your score' at the end. Good luck! 

How do citizens take action? - Exit Quiz

True or false, 'Democracy' comes from the Latin words 'demos' meaning people, and 'kratos' meaning power?

True or false, the UK is a democratic country where the people choose who represents them in Parliament?

Which of the following BEST describes the key characteristics of the media in a democracy?

Which of these would NOT lead to effective action?

On which of the following issues has Marcus Rashford successfully campaigned?

Citizenship

How do citizens take action?

Video

How do citizens take action?

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Q1.True or false, 'Democracy' comes from the Latin words 'demos' meaning people, and 'kratos' meaning power?

Q2.True or false, the UK is a democratic country where the people choose who represents them in Parliament?

Q3.Which of the following BEST describes the key characteristics of the media in a democracy?

Q4.Which of these would NOT lead to effective action?

Q5.On which of the following issues has Marcus Rashford successfully campaigned?

How do citizens take action?

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Q1.True or false, 'Democracy' comes from the Latin words 'demos' meaning people, and 'kratos' meaning power?

Q2.True or false, the UK is a democratic country where the people choose who represents them in Parliament?

Q3.Which of the following BEST describes the key characteristics of the media in a democracy?

Q4.Which of these would NOT lead to effective action?

Q5.On which of the following issues has Marcus Rashford successfully campaigned?

Lesson summary: How do citizens take action?

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