Citizenship education in the United Kingdom and the adult migrant

This article explores the policy reasons behind Adult ESOL Citizenship Education in the United Kingdom and then examines whether Adult ESOL Citizenship Education adequately prepares migrants for active citizenship in T.H. McLaughlin’s ‘maximal’ sense: involving active political participation premised upon a shared concept of democratic culture underpinned by rights and obligations. It argues that Adult ESOL Citizenship Education, as envisaged by Bernard Crick and Terence McLaughlin, has fallen short of its maximal conceptualisation due to the watering down of citizenship education and Adult ESOL Citizenship Education in preference to Fundamental British Values, and the Crick reports’ ‘light touch’ to their implementation. The article calls for a need to reassert the reality of the modern nation as pluralistic and rejects the current drive towards monism. It also argues that Adult ESOL Citizenship Education is unlikely to deliver social cohesion and integration, or an actively participatory citizenry, unless issues of social justice and equity are addressed.