KS 23 Identity is central to citizenship. Many people have connections with a wider world (including the 800,000 UK Pakistani community). Try this identity activity: the point is not about the UK as a melting pot in which young people lose their sense of identity, but that they need to find ways to consider their links.
Think about different aspects of identity - hobbies, likes, religion, ethnicity, neighbourhood etc. Where are the overlaps between pupils’ own and others’ sense of who they are? Form small groups with others who share at least one aspect of identity (eg music, football team). Ask other pupils to suggest categories, so that people constantly form different groups.
Afterwards, discuss what has come from the activity in terms of understanding.
KS 45 When there is conflict in a community what can help people get along together? A Home Office report by Ted Cantle in 2001, following the Oldham and Bradford riots, concluded that: “Separate educational arrangements, community and voluntary bodies, employment, places of worship, language, social and cultural networks, means that many communities operate on the basis of a series of parallel lives. We believe that there is an urgent need to promote community cohesion.”
Make four suggestions for actions that might help Pakistani UK citizens exist more happily with their neighbours. Compare your ideas with Ted Cantle’s.
