Demonstrating CitizenshipThe method of arriving at questions to put to the two prime ministers was through the medium of group discussion and dialogue. It is my view that small group discussion and dialogue are fundamental to education. It is, of course, possible to learn without discussion, but the need to support deep learning through peer-group discussion is important. In our increasingly market-driven model of education it is small group work and particularly discussion that is being squeezed out of the education process ( Coventry 1998). This is precisely the type of work required to develop good citizens. Civic education and multicultural education can be supported and extended by developing schools’ capacity to deepen social and political democracy (Parker 2006: 11). The emphasis here is, after Allen (2004), not on civic ‘oneness’ but ‘wholeness’, with an emphasis on talking, listening and political trust among strangers. In the video conference, young people who had been participating in a democratic process with their peers in several countries took part in a democratic process on the world stage with world leaders. Young people were demonstrating their citizenship, not in terms of legal status, but in terms of participation in a self-determining political community (Parker 2006: 11).
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Influence of the North/South schools linkIf this event had been a single day event it would have passed as an historic event but unlikely to have an impact on the day to day work of the school. However the democratic underpinning of the North/South schools link was to provide the direction for a range of school projects over the following years. These included the Dissolving Boundaries project, European Schools Project, Comenius, Setanta project and indeed significantly influenced mainstream school programmes through the Transition Year Programme and Leaving Certificate Applied programme.
The responses of students to the North/South School links launch were published on the school web site. You can view them here. North/South schools link and the Setanta project provided opportunities for learners – students and teachers – to make control of their own lives and build a new way of learning together that was life affirming and allowed us to move from the traditional didactic classroom toward a model of learning that did not necessarily require the staples of traditional school – classrooms, timetables, teachers, students. Learners were supported to free themselves from ‘bolt down seats and lock–step curricula’ and the teacher escaped from the role of skilled engineer (Cook-Sather, 2002: 3) and became instead a collaborative teacher working with colleagues and students on a more equal basis forming a community of practice (Wenger 1998). |
Evidence of collaborative preparation of questions.
The evidence of the dialogic nature of the engagement that produced the questions put to the prime ministers can be seen in the linked documents. Here different student have written early versions of questions in their own handwriting while the final formal lists questions can be seen in the second document. The process of arriving at these questions can be seen in the photographs which show teachers and students working together (above) and students working in groups (right) preparing the questions. |
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On 26 November 1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern took part in a video conference, called the North/South schools link, hosted from St Aidans School in Dublin and linked to three other schools, Loreto Grammar School, Omagh, Limavady Grammar School, Co Derry and Carrigaline Community School, Co Cork. The schools represented the various traditions within Irish education: unionist, nationalist, catholic, protestant, north, south, girls and boys. The occasion centred on the two prime ministers answering questions from the students in all four schools. The ages of these students ranged from 14 years to 17 years. Questions posed by the young people ranged from difficult questions about the political situation: ‘Mr Ahern, how can Ulster Unionists trust you when you make a statement hoping for a United Ireland in your lifetime?’ to crucial questions about the transfer of Duncan Ferguson to the Prime Minister’s favourite football club Newcastle United. Media coverage of the event suggested that ‘dialogue and communication were literally and metaphorically urged by the two leaders to change the old ways of the past and encourage understanding and toleration for different points of view’ (Danaher 1998). |
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| Patricia Danaher's news broadcast for UTV Live, 26 November 1998. Belfast: UTV plc Group. |
Dialogic preparation for meeting with prime ministers
In the weeks prior to the video conference students within St Aidans undertook a project where they composed questions that they might ask various ‘important people’ if they were to meet them. Included among the people they might meet were Mr Blair and Mr Ahern. Over a period of time along with their teachers they asked and answered a wide range of questions. The questions were polished and honed in a dialogic process where students discussed the questions with each other, sometimes in small groups and sometimes as a class. The process produced questions which reflected the interests of the students: some were very political, not surprisingly in the heady days of the peace process and only months after the Omagh bombings; other questions reflected the day to day – ‘are you well informed on computers or do you leave that to other people?’
