Communication

5. Parental involvement as active citizenship

5.1. Models of citizenship and levels of participation

ACTIVITY

1 hour

After completing the activity…

I should be able to:

Think about citizenship models and their consequences in participation
Identify your participation level in your child’s school/setting projects and life

Before start, what will I need to do this activity?

Maybe sheets of paper, pencils and a camera or a scanner

What do I have to do?

As you have seen there are multiples types of participation and you have to decide which way to participate you prefer. The level of participation is related to the model of citizenship. There are basically three models of citizenship:

Individualistic model: based on individual rights. In order to defend them each citizen give the representation of their interests to their political representatives.
Informed citizen model: the relation between the citizen and the community is more important. The citizen has all the information about the affairs that affect them and participates actively in politics.
Communitarian model: the community is more important than the citizen. The power is in collective institutions, so citizens participate through this institutions

Which of these models of citizenship do you prefer?

There are several theories about levels of participation; one of them has been explained in the introduction of the module. Even so, there are other ones. And one of them presents a ladder of participation with eight levels see below (Arnstein, 1969).

The citizen control level is when the level of participation is higher because the person really has power in the decision-making process. And for example, in the informing or the consultation level the person is only informed and maybe have a vote in a decision-making process but does not really have the power to decide on issues that concern them. So, the person has more power in decision-making processes at higher levels of the ladder.

Choose one project of your child’s school/institution and write down/draw/make a photo that describes your level of participation in it.

Based on the ladder of citizen participation of Arnstein (1969) which one do you think is your level of participation at your child’s school/institution? Maybe your level of participation changes depending on the project/issue in which you participate, explain it as well.

Based on the model of citizenship you have chosen at the beginning of the activity, which of the levels of participation do you think you should achieve in the school/institution of your children? Is it the same that the one you have at that moment?

What can you do to reach the desired position?

What to do next?

We will help each other if we share some key ideas to the forum.

Any insight you learned from? Was it helpful?
Are you feeling especially happy or worried about something related?
Will you apply it in your daily routine?
…?