{"id":8228,"date":"2022-12-01T07:29:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T07:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8228"},"modified":"2022-12-01T07:29:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T07:29:27","slug":"whats-not-political","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2022\/12\/01\/whats-not-political\/","title":{"rendered":"What's (not) political?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I made a brief input the other to a webinar where I addressed this question:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<li><em>What are the potential conflicts between, say, the agenda of an NGO and the educational responsibilities of a school?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here's what I said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>The Law<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019m not sure there are conflicts \u2013 but there are certainly differences. \u00a0Schools and NGOs have different responsibilities and work within different legal frameworks. \u00a0School responsibilities are set out in Education Acts. \u00a0They have particular legal duties in relation to political impartiality. \u00a0In brief, they have to be careful with issues that are political in nature. \u00a0The law says that they ...<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>must not promote partisan political views in teaching<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>should offer a balanced presentation of opposing views when political issues are brought to the attention of pupils<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hence schools need to be more careful than NGOs do, though they also have limits. \u00a0But this doesn\u2019t mean that schools cannot raise political issues.\u00a0 Far from it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a question of being careful and appropriate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Impartiality<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The DfE\u2019s sustainability and climate change policy has a section on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy\/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems#action-area-1-climate-education\">political impartiality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">DfE says:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cTeaching about climate change, and the scientific facts and evidence behind this, does not constitute teaching about a political issue and schools do not need to present misinformation or unsubstantiated claims to provide balance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, in climate education there is relevant political and scientific debate about the best ways that climate change can be addressed \u2013 there are different views and opinions, and different solutions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Debates on political and policy change need to be grounded in wider citizenship education on democracy and democratic values and topics should be handled in line with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/political-impartiality-in-schools\">schools\u2019 legal duties on political impartiality<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, what are these, and what do we need to know about <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/1050134\/6.7731_DfE_Political_Impartiality_Guidance_Pamphlet_WEB__004_.pdf\">political impartiality in schools<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">DfE says:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Teaching about political issues and the different views held on these is an essential part of a broad and balanced curriculum, and an important way in which schools help pupils to become active citizens who are prepared for life in modern Britain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legal duties on political impartiality do not limit the range of political issues and viewpoints schools can and do teach about. \u00a0Instead, they should help ensure teachers and staff do this in an appropriate manner, building pupils\u2019 ability to form their own views and opinions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">You should always take a reasonable and proportionate approach to political impartiality. \u00a0This should not interfere with effective teaching and meeting other responsibilities, including promoting shared principles that underpin our society such as tolerance and respect.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is also important that concerns from parents, carers and others about political impartiality are always treated seriously and handled with sensitivity.\"<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">In simple terms, legal duties on political impartiality mean that schools:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>[i] must not promote partisan political views in teaching<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">This means you must not encourage pupils to support or adopt a one- sided viewexpressed with a political purpose. \u00a0This covers many of the policies of political parties, as well as some views held by campaign groups, lobbyist, charitable organisations and other external agencies. \u00a0But, \u00a0you can of course teach about partisan political views and explore them with pupils. \u00a0This will be an important part of teaching about many historical and political issues<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schools \u2026.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>[ii] should offer a balanced presentation of opposing views when political issues are brought to the attention of pupils<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>This means you should present different views on political issues in a fair and dispassionate way, avoiding bias. \u00a0Teachers and staff will need to use their own reasonable judgement when it comes to balance. It is preferable, where practical, to present pupils with a reasonable range of views on a political issue. \u00a0This doesn\u2019t mean that different views are always given equal time in teaching or cannot be critically assessed. \u00a0When taking steps to ensure balance you should not do anything that would be clearly inappropriate or undermine effective teaching. \u00a0You should also continue to challenge misinformation and extreme views, such as those based on discrimination and prejudice. \u00a0You may need to think carefully about what is and is not a political issue. \u00a0There is DfE guidance providing more detail on this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some issues are clearly political, such as those relating to ongoing government activity, whilst other political issues may not relate to government at all. \u00a0As NAEE reported last year, Laura Hughes of Lawyers Browne Jacobson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brownejacobson.com\/education\/training-and-resources\/legal-updates\/2021\/12\/dfe-draft-education-and-sustainability-strategy-for-schools\">said this<\/a> about the draft climate and education strategy:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSchools are also directed not to encourage pupils to join campaigning groups, or take part in protests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">She added:\u00a0\u201cCrucially, schools are not instructed to actively discourage pupils from taking this path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..................................\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">These policies are in place for the protection\u00a0of students, of teachers, of schools and of society. \u00a0If you are doubtful about the wisdom of this, just think of something you don\u2019t like \u2013 capital punishment, perhaps, or forced sterilisation, and ask yourself whether you'd like schools to be able to promote this to the young with no restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>In the end it boils down to determining what's political and then dealing with it appropriately \u2013 or maybe what's not political ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I made a brief input the other to a webinar where I addressed this question: What are the potential conflicts between, say, the agenda of an NGO and the educational responsibilities of a school? Here's what I said: The Law...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}