E-consultation with pupils: A rights-based approach to the integration of citizenship education and ICT

This article is based on a pilot study which sought to directly engage pupils in a current government policy initiative using a variety of e-consultation mechanisms and explores how this innovative use of technology could support citizenship education in schools. Drawing on qualitative data collected from interviews with pupils and teachers it argues that significant educational benefits can be derived from pupil participation in e-consultation: Development of transferable skills; learning for active citizenship; enhancement of schools' citizenship practices. In particular it contends that these educational benefits were due largely to the robust children's rights framework upon which the mechanisms were based. The article concludes by suggesting that the use of information and communications technology in this study was integral to the realisation of the rights-based approach upon which the e-consultation strategy was modelled. As such the study demonstrates the potential for symbiosis between children's rights, citizenship education and the applied use of educational technology and provides one model for a more inter-disciplinary approach to citizenship education.