Teaching citizenship: work and the economy

The issue of ‘citizenship, work and the economy’ is often neglected in everyday discussions of citizenship. But a moment’s reflection should demonstrate how important it is. The vast majority of us will spend the bulk of our adult lives working in some context or another, and our engagement with economic activity more generally is obvious (and not just as consumers). Many young people are also intimately tied up with work. School children often have part-time evening, weekend or holiday jobs of their own. They are all likely to spend some time on work-experience programmes. Their parents will normally have to engage with work to support their families. But do they know much about their rights and responsibilities at work? This free course, Teaching citizenship: Work and the economy, explores aspects of work, including child labour and its relationship to citizenship for those teaching this subject in secondary schools.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

Critically appreciate the significance of claims made for ‘global corporate citizenship’

Understand the nature of work and ‘social citizenship’

Recognise the difference between ‘acts citizenship’ and ‘status citizenship’

Assess the ‘ethical dimension’ to arguments about citizenship

Identify the relevance of historical comparisons for understanding contemporary citizenship.