Does this book meet the need? Up to a point. It deals with the “what is citizenship?” debate early, before moving to a case study showing how one school is proceeding.

We then get an overview of key organisations, a discussion of teaching methods, a review of community experiential learning, more on resources and some clear statements about how citizenship could be assessed.

The text is well focused and practical - each chapter has learning objectives and associated tasks - but some rather clunking sentences tend to state the obvious. I am not sure I need to be told, for example, that “governors, headteachers and senior management within each school need to reflect on the implications of planning for citizenship education”. There is some woolly stuff about important concepts. Key areas such as feminism are neglected.

Citizenship education is new, but this book is surprisingly short on detail about what schools are doing. Given the division of labour between “authors” and “contributors” there is some overlap between chapters. References to specific resources may date rather quickly, and the book contains some typographical errors.

But this is a clear, straightforward guide to some of the difficult issues in citizenship education. It does not pretend to cover everything, but it does encourage readers to experiment. It gives some clarity about who is doing what in the field, draws attention to key organisations and provides a reasonably clear description of official guidance. This book will be welcomed particularly by student teachers (and perhaps others) as they search for the best way forward.

The supporters of citizenship education need help to fight off “the firework effect”. Both brilliant illumination and long-lasting effects are required.

Ian Davies Ian Davies is senior lecturer in educational studies at the University of York