TY2 – Section 1 – Introduction
Political identity and community
- Look down. Whether you’re rooted in Clare, Carlow, Cork or another county, you’re also rooted in the EU. As social animals we tend to think of ourselves as part of a community. We have varying sense of attachment to our local village, town, or county. If lucky enough to be from Cork, it’s very high. Many wear their Irish identity as a badge of pride. But we are also European; we are EU citizens. Do we ever think of ourselves in that way? Is it possible to have an attachment to both, and what influences same?
- The aim of this lesson is that students learn about the nature of their political identity. It is political, as the communities we live in have geopolitical borders, be it county, country, or the EU. The lesson builds on a strand of the CSPE curriculum (on The Meaning of Democracy) and is a primer for the Politics & Society curriculum (on Globalisation and Identity).
- The lesson opens with a positioning exercise for students to locate themselves relative to these geopolitical communities. In the second exercise students identify the extent to which they have practical European experience, from travel, family ties, language, or migration. Information from recent adult surveys provides student with an insight of how attachment to country and to the EU varies in Ireland and elsewhere. Through these and associated discussions, students learn that their identity has different strands, and each with differing attachment or strength. Students observe how the different experience of their classmates, and others, leads to a different sense of identity. Appreciating the nature of these differences is central to a Discuss, Argue, Build approach to appreciating EU citizenship.
- The content and the teacher/student instructions for this lesson are a starting template. Adapt the structure, content, or delivery to suit your purpose. You know what works for your students and your teaching setting. You might want to add ‘local town/village’ as a community in the first positioning exercise. Or turn the final reflection on the last slide onto a Think-Pair-Share exercise earlier in the lesson. If the space allows, the positioning exercises can be turned into runway exercises in the classroom for visual impact. You will find additional content in the Resources tab. Swap in any content from there to the core lesson if need be. If you have a query about the lesson, don’t hesitate to contact us at dabtheeu@ucc.ie