Delivering the influence strand | FE Colleges

Key topics

• Local, national, and international issues.
• How change happens and the role of changemakers.
• Campaign methods and routes to influence.
• Planning and delivering campaigns and social action.

Why the Influence strand matters in post-16 settings

Campaigning and social action are important aspects for successful democratic engagement, but can also be the most challenging. For colleges, this strand is particularly important. Learners are both academically ready to lead their own campaigns and social action projects, and are likely to have strong opinions about changes they would want to make in their communities and the country.

There are two ways to approach this strand. This strand can either be a culmination of the knowledge and skills learners have gained throughout their democratic education, or can be an inquiry based approach that includes the other strands while creating a campaign or social action project.

To successfully implement this strand, colleges must provide learners opportunities to explore the social and political issues that interest them. Learners must be active participants within the classroom, and resources should help them identify, develop, and challenge their political beliefs. Once learners have fully explored the issues they care about they can move toward influence. Following participation, learners should have opportunities to reflect on the effectiveness of their campaign, consider the challenges they encountered, and evaluate how democratic change is achieved over time.

One challenge is the risk of projects feeling tokenistic or creating unrealistic expectations of change. Meaningful participation should give learners genuine ownership, while also setting realistic and achievable goals. Teachers should provide the structure and support and help learners develop their ideas and plan next steps to create meaningful change.

My approach

When I have led social action projects I have chosen to use an inquiry based approach. Young people care deeply about their communities, and when you ask them what would make their communities better they are usually able to answer immediately. By using this as the hook they can then build knowledge as needed to support their projects.

As learners start to understand the impact of their identified issue, they will need to understand the levels of government and who has jurisdiction over their issue. They will likely need to conduct research about the issue itself, and thus will need to build their media literacy skills. As they are creating a plan they will often need to interact with decision-makers, and will need to learn who they are and how to interact with them.

This approach allows learners to direct their own education, while holistically learning how democracy works. By actively implementing their plan, they are not simulating democracy, but are authentically engaging in the democratic process.

This approach requires flexibility from whoever is supporting learners, you need to be ready to meet learners where they are. That might mean that groups need information at different times. When done effectively, learners feel empowered to create change, and prepared to act on future issues and concerns.

For disengaged learners this strand allows them to become more involved in their learning, and allows the teacher to support rather than direct learners. When designing and planning campaigns, learners should have free choice to explore the issues that matter to them. They can focus on issues that are in their communities, and thus have a big impact on their lives. Teachers can support learners by providing the tools and resources for a campaign, while providing direction if needed.

If you can only do one thing…

Facilitate a discussion about the issues learners see in their communities. Have learners consider what is beneficial to their community, but also what could be done to improve it. Have learners commit to taking one action to create change.

Where this fits into the curriculum

• This work can be supported during tutorial time, or in extra curricular activities. To successfully plan and implement a campaign or social action project learners need both time and consistent support.
• External speakers could be invited to provide case studies of successful action projects or campaigns.

Key resources

If you only have 30 minutes or less…

• FixMyStreet, mySociety - This website allows learners to see what issues other members of their communities have identified. They can also submit their own issues that they would like to see addressed. Have learners input their postcodes and explore. You could also use your institution's postcode and see what others have suggested needs improvement.

If you only have 60 minutes…

• Campaigning, The Electoral Commission - This resource helps learners to understand about political campaigning and explore what influences people to vote. It will help learners analyse where power is held in their community.

1-3 hours…

• Debating resource pack, UK Parliament - Resource to establish guidelines, prepare for a debate, and hold a formal debate. You might choose to practice the debate format with a low stakes, but high engagement question like “Does pineapple belong on a pizza?”. By practicing the format of the debate with a low stakes question learners can become familiar with the format before engaging in a debate about a social or political issue.

4-6 hours…

• Welcome To Your Vote Week, The Electoral Commission - Use the lessons to engage learners in an influence campaign. Over the course of six lessons learners will work to plan and run a voter registration drive. These skills can then be applied to other campaigns.

6 hours plus…

• How can I be a changemaker in my community? Oak National Academy - Use this collection of lessons, activities and worksheets, allowing time for discussions of content and activities.
• How to create a government petition, #iWill: Use this to guide learners through the process of creating a petition.
• Involving underrepresented groups in Youth Social Action, iWill - Research that can be used to help support involving different learners in social action projects.

Considerations for learners with additional needs

When considering how to implement this strand, colleges should be mindful of the readiness and interests of their learners. By giving their learners opportunities to explore and then act on the issues that matter to them they are building and strengthening democratic skills that learners can use for the rest of their lives.

To support all learners:

• Actively involve all learners when choosing issues and plans for action.
• Begin each step of the campaign or social action project by reviewing and recalling previous steps.
• Provide case studies or examples of other campaigns or projects, use images or videos.
• Provide visuals, graphic organizers, and progress reports for each stage of the campaign of social action project.
• Use structured planning tools: visual action plans, checklists, timelines and graphic organisers can help learners organise a campaign and track progress.
• Scaffold decision-making: provide examples of different routes to influence and support learners to consider which is most appropriate for their chosen issue. Use writing templates and sentence stems to support learners.