Why teach the Global Dimension?
Geography plays a part in promoting development education in schools, but thinking about the global dimension implies a step change from stereotypical 'development indicators' and 'case studies'. A global approach presents teachers and students with a range of challenges and opportunities.
Using a global dimension geography teachers can:
- participate in curriculum renewal, finding new ways to teach current issues such as poverty reduction, food security, population movement, sustainable development
- create lessons that connect to students' lives and imaginations
- provide renewed focus for the study of the home locality as a dynamic global 'meeting point'
- reinvigorate the basic concepts of place and scale as powerful tools to analyse uniqueness of outcome with universality of human and physical processes.
For students, geography lessons:
- become a powerful way of addressing issues
- help them develop a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of their locality
- help them deconstruct everyday events in order to build their understanding of multiple perspectives
- provide a sense of empowerment
- provide opportunities for pupils to envision possible, probable and alternative futures in relation to sustainable development
- encourage debate and develop communication skills
- help them understand that human rights (and responsibilities) are universal
For the DEA, DCSF and GA these approaches are inextricably linked - read statements from each of these organisations here. See also the GA's manifesto for school geography, A Different View, for further information.
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