CURRICULUM // VICTORIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Civics and citizenship
education brought to life
THE VICTORIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSION EXPLAINS HOW ITS TAILORED, FREE AND FLEXIBLE RESOURCES ARE
HELPING TEACHERS PROMOTE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN AUSTRALIA’S DEMOCRACY.
With the Victorian Curriculum now effective in
primary and secondary schools across Australia,
Civics and Citizenship Education is mandated for
delivery in all government schools throughout
Victoria. Civics and Citizenship Education
(CCE) promotes students’ participation in
Australia’s democracy by equipping them with
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the knowledge, skills, values and dispositions
of active and informed citizenship. It helps
students familiarise themselves with Australia’s
democratic heritage and traditions, political
and legal institutions and the shared values of
freedom, tolerance, respect, responsibility and
inclusion.
The Victorian Electoral Commission
runs State and Local Council
elections in the State of Victoria.
education matters primary
So in what ways can we support our teachers
to ensure that the CCE curriculum is adequately
addressed? How can we ensure that students
are at the centre of engaging, inquiry-based and
practical units of CCE study?
James Fiford, Education and Electoral
Inclusion Officer at the Victorian Electoral
Commission (VEC), notes that teachers are often
time poor, which can affect their ability to plan
comprehensive units of work. Furthermore,
teachers are sometimes asked to work outside
the areas of their specific curriculum knowledge
and financial limitations can preclude expensive
external consultancy or commercial solutions.
This is why the VEC has developed a series of
tailored, free and highly flexible CCE resources.
As an independent and impartial statutory
body, part of the VEC’s role is to run education
programs to ensure that young people in Victoria
understand democracy and the electoral process.
Mr Fiford notes that for young people, while they
often engage strongly on issues of social justice,
elections may not be a particularly exciting
subject. This is why the VEC has taken an issues-
based, student-driven approach in its Passport to
Democracy program.
The VEC regularly works with schools from
Years 3 to 6 (as well as offering a comprehensive
secondary school program). The active civics and
citizenship concepts underpinning Passport to
Democracy aim to develop critical thinking skills
in students. It prompts them to consider how
they can make an impact on issues they care
about and, ultimately, how they can engage with
the community and participate meaningfully in
the democratic process. The AEC’s research tells
us that providing young people with a positive
experience of democracy in a school setting can set
them up for a lifetime of civic participation.
HOW DOES THE PROGRAM WORK?
Passport to Democracy is divided into four modules:
Decide, Research, Activate and Vote. Each module
has a lesson plan containing learning activities with
detailed instructions, online content and activity
sheets. It can be delivered over six to eight weeks,
or a smaller version is available if required. VEC
Education Officers support teachers through on-site
professional development sessions. They also offer a
mock election for students as part of the Vote module.
1. DECIDE
The lesson plans in Decide expand on students’
existing knowledge of community issues. In
groups, students choose an issue they care about
and an aspect stemming from this issue that
they want to change. Before deciding, they are
supported to understand the complex notions of
issues, communities, power and influence, rights,
government, responsibility and points of view.
Students should ideally be supported in selecting
their own issues to enable genuine student-centred
inquiry learning. If teachers are delivering course
content in upper primary or lower secondary,
focusing on school-based issues is a good starting
point. Middle secondary schools can focus on
Victorian state-based issues, and in senior classes
on either national or global issues. Any combination
of these can, of course, work at any level if well
supported.
2. RESEARCH
The Research lesson plans guide students to
understand the social context of their issue, to
discover what others have done about it and to
test their own assumptions and possible solutions.
Student research into an issue can have multiple
goals. The activities in this unit elevates students
to complete the entire research process, and
assists them to develop critical literacy skills, while
considering how their local political representatives
might help.
3. ACTIVATE
The aim of the Activate lesson plans is to support
students to choose actions that are achievable,
appropriate and that can have an impact upon their
chosen issue. These lessons contain many examples
of active citizenship for inspiration, and they guide
students to delegate tasks and campaign for
awareness and support. Students can then use their
research findings to plan and carry out an effective
action.
4. VOTE
The Vote lesson plans allow students to evaluate the
impact of their action and reflect upon any change it
has sparked, as well as their own active citizenship
learning. Students also experience the electoral
process through a complete sequence of electoral
activities including candidate nominations, party
platforms, campaign speeches, how to vote cards,
a mock-election (including printed ballot papers)
and a preferential vote count. Teachers completing
a Passport to Democracy unit can request a free
mock-election incursion run by the VEC (state-wide,
including metro and rural areas) to demonstrate
and celebrate students’ democratic participation.
Vote lesson plans can also be used independently of
the Passport unit, if teachers wish to focus only on
elections and campaigns.
All lesson plans that comprise the Passport to
Democracy program are aligned to the Victorian
Curriculum and the Australian Curriculum for the
teaching of Civics and Citizenship content across
Years 5 to 10. In addition, the Passport to Democracy
website, passport.vec.vic.gov.au, offers summative
and formative assessment resources. It includes
assignment instructions, a submission checklist and
curriculum-aligned rubrics, plus a list of assessment
for learning Passport activities.
education matters primary
The 4 stages of the Passport To Democracy program.
NEW FOR 2019
Passport to Democracy will have two exciting
additions in 2019. To celebrate the start of the
school year, the website has been optimised to be
mobile-friendly. This means that teachers can now
utilise the student interactives on the website, and
watch the embedded videos, with their students
on either tablet or via smartphone. This will be
useful to teachers operating one-to-one, or in a
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environment, in
their classrooms. Another important addition to
the Passport to Democracy online offer (available
later in Term 1 of 2019) will be a suite of teacher
professional learning materials. Consisting of small
videos and information sheets, this advice will help
teachers new to the resources, as well as assist
regular users with extra ideas and tips.
HOW TO BOOK
By completing a booking form (available online at
http://passport.vec.vic.gov.au/teachers/bookings/)
teachers can order voting resources (voting screens,
ballot boxes) and/or book a VEC education officer
who can deliver teacher professional learning, and/
or a mock election session to their class. All of the
resources, and school visits by a VIT registered
education officer, are offered free of charge by the VEC.
Buyer’s Guide
Victorian Electoral Commission
Passport to Democracy
Ph: 03 8620 1184
Email: education@vec.vic.gov.au
Web: passport.vec.vic.gov.au
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