What is Global Education?
The terminology surrounding the concept of “global education” can be bewildering. Development education, education for sustainable development, global citizenship or just plain global learning: take your pick. Teachers and educators- or even the common or garden individual with an interest in learning about the world- often find the labels themselves inexplicable and inaccessible.
Global Education cuts across everything delivered in a learning environment. Through it we can explore the interconnections between our local lives and the wider world; building skills, knowledge and understanding, while challenging attitudes and preconceptions. It’s everything from African Drumming workshops to an understanding of the role which the World Trade Organisation plays in trade justice issues. It’s respecting learning from our local communities as well as from our global one. It’s learning to eat healthily, live in a sustainable fashion, value the resources we have and realise those we are squandering for our children’s children. Global Education is exploring the significance of earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand in 2011 and 50 years of independence in Ghana in 2007. It’s storytelling and dancing and debates and issues. It is an integral part of our continuing education regardless of age, time or place and informs our everyday lives. As such, it is becoming more relevant and important to pass on. Through global learning we gain an understanding of the importance of critical thinking, the need to challenge stereotypes and the opportunities for giving people the skills and confidence needed to live in a more just and sustainable world.
In schools the global dimension cuts across subjects but the DFE have identified eight overlapping concepts that are the heart of global learning. These provide a reference point for mapping the activities which are already going on in schools, as well as those teachers wish to improve on.
- Global citizenship
- Interdependence
- Social justice
- Conflict resolution
- Diversity
- Values and perceptions
- Human rights
- Sustainable development
Click here to visit our Global Education Initiatives website