The learning and teaching of Civics and Citizenship really suffers from a banal title. It needs a rebrand, we often say in the Humanities office, as when students (and some teachers) hear that ’Civics’ is the focus for a term, it can be accompanied by a stifled groan.
Yes, okay, it’s often not actually stifled!
Even adding the ‘and Citizenship’ to the unit name elicits little excitement and engagement. I mean, who wants to learn about something called Civics and Citizenship when we could be studying History or Geography or Animal Photography*.
*Note, Animal Photography is not part of the Humanities curriculum, but some of us wish it was!
In Years 7 and 8 Humanities, we steer clear of using this topic name when learning and teaching with our younger students, although by Year 10 the final core Humanities semester is called ‘Civics’. However, quite groovily, the Year 10s select an elective that has more pithy titles like ‘Global Power and Conflict’, ‘Citizens and the Law’, ‘Enterprise and Innovation’, the ‘Everyday Citizen’.
To up the ante and engagement with our Year 7 and 8s, we look for zesty titles that might pique their interest. We have trialled ‘Australian Democracy’, but that elicited mixed emotions. We’ve also used ‘Citizen of the Year’ and increased skills around political campaigning, voting and results. That has worked well in the past, but will be subject to change with Victorian Curriculum 2.0 in 2026. In Year 8, the promise of looking at the law under the Civics and Citizenship umbrella is quite the winner, and so we keep the former title up there, while hiding the fact that the topic resides in the ‘dagginess’ of Civics and Citizenship.
We love Civics and Citizenship in this office! There are so many varied and interesting learning experiences lingering within the realm of this unit that we can engage students for their entire senior schooling, yet the name can lack oomph and bling. It’s our job to encourage learners to look beyond and not judge the book by its citizenship cover.