In an increasingly interdependent global environment, schools, now more than ever before, have a responsibility to prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges they will face in the future.
Globalisation permeates through every aspect of life. Environmentally, economically through trade, culturally through an increasingly transient employment sector, socially through media and from a peace and political perspective.
An effective Global Citizenship Education programme in a school environment is not an ‘add on’. It needs to be carefully structured, scaffolded and embedded across all learning areas in all year groups. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) should function as a framework in which a school’s existing curriculum serves as the foundation to develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes learners consider and debate in striving to create a world that is more sustainable, inclusive, peaceful and just. Students need to be given the opportunity and safe space of a classroom to think about and discuss complex global issues. Through this, children listen and consider others’ experiences and view points, and develop and express their own opinions.
Education for Global Citizenship is essential to develop the future custodians of our planet. Continued use of, and abuse, of our planet’s finite resources is not only unsustainable, but inequitable too. Our learners need to develop a deep knowledge of global issues and universal values such as respect, justice, equality and dignity. Cognitive skills such as critical and creative thinking are well entrenched in many of our schools. How though, are these intentionally used to adopt multiple perspectives to help identify and recognise different dynamics and inter-cultural awareness is a key question we should be asking our curriculum development leaders. Social skills such as empathy and communication skills such as conflict resolution need to be embedded too.
So where does one start? An interesting exercise would be to workshop with staff a definition of Global Citizenship.
Oxfam and UNESCO provide good stimulus; For Oxfam, global citizenship is all about encouraging young people to develop the knowledge, skills and values they need to engage with the world. And it’s about the belief that we can all make a difference.
From UNESCO; Global Citizenship Education (GCED) aims to empower learners of all ages to assume active roles, both locally and globally, in building more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and secure societies.
GCED is based on the three domains of learning – cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral.
- Cognitive: Knowledge and thinking skills necessary to better understand the world and its complexities.
- Socio-emotional: Values, attitudes and social skills that enable learners to develop affectively, psychosocially, and physically and to enable them to live together with others respectfully and peacefully.
- Behavioural: Conduct, performance, practical application and engagement.
A more simplified approach as an initial start could be to train staff in GCE and have them integrate on an ad-hoc basis aspects of real world relevance. As mentioned in the table above, discussing the current situation on the Russian / Ukrainian border is a great current affairs topic for discussion in a history lesson. Climate change and the impact of this on glacial melting and the 50,000 Peruvians that live downstream from Lake Huaraz would be a powerful link to the topic of glaciers in geography. Easy for the teachers of Humanities to integrate GCE into their curricula I hear the Mathematics teachers saying! Well, it’s a cinch to do the same in Mathematics. Just think of using ratios and fractions to explore economic inequality or using data to compare Fairtrade versus regular coffee bean prices over the past 20 years!
Views expressed by Gareth Allman, Principal, Peninsula International School Australia, Selangor, Malaysia
