EXAMPLE: GLOBAL LEARNING
STUDENT VOICES
Global learning – education for a just and sustainable world73 The DEA (Development Education Association) is an educational charity that promotes global learning in the UK with the aim that children and young people in the UK should have a firm understanding of the wider world. The increasing economic, social, political, environmental and cultural challenges of globalisation mean that schools have a responsibility to support young people to understand and respond to these complex global issues in their everyday lives.
6
Global learning means preparing young people for the future by fostering self awareness and open mindedness towards difference, an understanding of global issues and power relationships, optimism and action for a better world, and critical thinking. The DEA’s research has shown that pupils who experience global learning at school are more likely to feel they can do something to make the world a better place, to appreciate connections between their own daily lives and the wider world and to be open to people from different backgrounds.
A junior school in Slough set up a link with a school in Delhi to reflect the fact that 90% of its students were of South Asian origin. Through this link, children were able to stay in touch with their cultural routes and develop relationships via e-mail with students in India. The link has been useful in several areas across the curriculum for projects such as exploring global differences in weather and examining some moral issues in PSHE.
The DEA works with schools and initial teacher training institutions via a network of DEA members who support educators in developing global learning in practice. The global dimensions of learning can be assimilated across the curriculum, at the Foundation Stage, all Key Stages and all subjects, using eight core concepts: _ global citizenship _ conflict resolution _ diversity _ human rights _ interdependence _ social justice _ sustainable development _ values and perceptions.
Global Dimension is a website for educators (www.globaldimension.org) provides a guide to books, films, posters and web resources which support global, intercultural and environmental understanding for all age groups and subjects. It also provides interesting examples and case studies of global learning.
Students in a Welsh secondary school examined the stereotypes they held of life in Africa as part of a geography unit on Kenya. They began to realise that their perceptions were often dictated by what they had experienced in the media and started to challenge their stereotypes by first looking at the stereotypical image of people from Wales and contrasting that with the reality they knew.
73. The DEA: www.dea.org.uk Developing the Global Dimension in the School Curriculum booklet:
46
www.dea.org.uk/uploads/4453d22a64a184b4f76a113996448fcf/s_dev_global_dim.pdf