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Global Dimension
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Why teach the Global Dimension?

Geography plays a part in promoting development education in schools, but considering the global dimension implies a step change from stereotypical ‘development indicators’ and ‘case studies’. A global approach presents teachers and pupils with a range of challenges and opportunities.

Using a global dimension geography teachers can:
Group of teachers in meeting

  • 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 pupils’ 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 pupils, 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.
geography lesson

For the DEA, DfES and GA these approaches are inextricably linked – read statements from each of these organisations here (see also the GA’s Position Statement).
 
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