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GTIP Think Piece - Global Dimension Secondary
| The starting point for this e-article by Penny Sweasey (Manchester Metropolitan University) based on ITE session activities was Geography: The global dimension (DEA/GA, 2004). |
Michael Buerk’s television report from Sudan in 1984 moved me to tears. Apparently, Sir Bob Geldof was similarly affected, and Band Aid was born. Twenty years on, and did pop music change the world? When Band Aid 20 hit the high street in December 2004, Darfur was in crisis … how do we respond to such issues when training the geography teachers of the future?
Events such as the earthquake in Pakistan and India, the tsunami in Indonesia and war in Iraq involve children in world news and require us as teachers to give them context and understanding.
All of this indicates that the global dimension is back on the education and political map, but how secure do we feel about geography’s place in the curriculum? While a local, national and global understanding is so important to the future of the planet, geography’s share of the curriculum is being squeezed … but this debate belongs elsewhere …
What we can say is that geography provides a major opportunity to capitalise on potentially significant events taking place. For example, in 2005 the following events occur: - UNESCO’s Decade for Education for Sustainability begins
- April - the Commission for Africa Report published
- July - the UK hosts the G8 summit in Gleneagles
- July - Twentieth anniversary of Live Aid
- July-Dec The UK holds the presidency of the European Union
- September - UN Millennium Development Goals Special Summit
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How can geography education make an impact in this climate of raised awareness and political commitment? First, we need to ask trainee teachers some fundamental questions: - What is a geographical education for?
- Who is it for?
- How can we ensure that the geography we teach in schools addresses important contemporary questions?
- Is the global dimension the responsibility of geography teachers?
In order for trainee teachers to understand the global dimension in education, they need firstly to have a secure grasp of the above issues. Otherwise, once they enter the classrooms, responses similar to those that emerged during a focus group meeting of the MMU/DEP Global Dimension in ITET Project may be voiced.
‘In my second placement school there were so many issues going on in the local community and … which the school and the teachers were having to deal with, it felt like then to do global issues would have been putting too much on the plate of … children who were trying to understand what was going on in their home or in their street, let alone what’s going on thousands of miles away. It just felt like: How can I even go there with those children when they’re coming in every day with issues from their street?’
[Murmurs of agreement from other trainees]
‘I think in my second placement school it’d be really difficult [to include the global dimension in teaching] because some of the kids don’t bring pencils to school, they don’t bring bags to school, they don’t have a uniform. So if we cover fair trade and tell the kids ‘We should be buying this so that these people will get more money’ I don’t think that would really sit with where those kids are coming from. Some parents can barely afford shopping at normal prices.’
What follows are a number of ways that tutors can ensure that their trainee teachers’ geography addresses and includes the global dimension.
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| Introducing the global dimension |
Having a global dimension to the geography curriculum is not about content, it is about the eight key concepts defined by the DfES/DEA in 2004. Namely: values and perceptions, interdependence, social justice, human rights, diversity, conflict resolution, sustainable development and citizenship. To feel able to address these broad and complex issues, trainee teachers need to be secure in their understanding of education for inclusion, diversity and intercultural understanding.
Introducing a global dimension into the geography training curriculum is about raising the stakes. It is about enabling trainee teachers to see geography education as a tool to unpick, to probe and to challenge the world around them.
The challenge for many trainee teachers will be: - To enter multicultural classrooms and deliver lessons about distant places to pupils, some of whom may be refugees,
- To lead role plays about local planning issues when the decisions are made hundreds of miles away in the offices of a multi-national company
- To use computers and interactive whiteboards produced cheaply in LEDCs, and discuss with pupils the implications of the production and disposal of such learning resources.
This is the reality of education with a global dimension. It’s real geography!
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Here are ten ideas for using in geography ITET training sessions with a focus on the global dimension.
1. Ask trainees whether they can distinguish between terms used and defined in Figure 2 of David Hicks’ article. These include: global dimension, globalisation, development, (IoE, 2004, p. 9).
2. Trainee teachers answer the question ‘What is a global citizen?’ on up to four slips of paper. They then place all of their slips on the floor in the middle of the room. Everyone has a chance to read all of the slips and pick up two that they feel best describe a global citizen. In groups of four, the definitions are discussed and the four best responses are identified and ranked. The groups of four then write a composite definition and display it on an overhead transparency. These definitions can then be compared with those produced by Oxfam (see below). On every occasion that we have tried this with trainees and tutors, the group definitions very closely match Oxfam’s –an empowering experience for all participants.
According to Oxfam (1997) a global citizen is someone who: - Is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen
- Respects and values diversity
- Has an understanding of how the world works economically, politically, socially, culturally, technologically and environmentally
- Is outraged by social injustice
- Participates in and contributes to the community at a range of scales from local to global
- Is willing to act in order to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place
- Takes responsibility for their actions.
3. It is possible to use the teaching ideas from the Global Dimension webpages with groups of trainee teachers, with very little adaptation, for example: - Using the narrative ‘I’m just popping out ...’ - ask trainees to draw a mind map of all of the global connections they have as teachers (rather than as individuals). They can identify ways of incorporating this into their teaching.
- Take the five ‘Opportunities for teachers’ – and ask groups to annotate the ways one of them might be achieved.
- Again, working in groups, discuss presentations on understandings of the eight key concepts.
- Use the ‘Planning toolkit’ to review either one of their own schemes of work or a QCA one and outline the extent to which it addresses the global dimension.
- Some elements of the ‘Departmental audit’ can be used with trainee teachers, but it is more beneficial to use this resource once they are working in a department and have gained more experience.
- Trainees can engage in a discussion about and be encouraged to ‘think geographically’, using the example and applying the principles to planning their own activity. The ‘Teaching and learning sequence’ and ‘Venn diagram’ also provide ideal frameworks for teachers to construct (and deconstruct) teaching units they encounter on placement.
- All of the Learning activities described under the five ‘Developing ... ‘ headings can be used directly with trainees. They can then employ the examples as thinking frameworks for their professional development.
4. Download a back copy of Global Express from the DEP website and ask trainees to evaluate the activities. They should then design a lesson using Global Express as a resource or devise their own edition of the magazine based on another geographical world issue.
5. Ask trainees to write what they think the eight ‘Millennium Goals’ are, and compare them with DfIDs. This is also a good classroom activity – what would pupils choose as their millennium goals?
6. The national curriculum guidance on teaching gifted and talented pupils can be a starting point for a more innovative and challenging route into curriculum development. It encourages a similar pedagogy that the DEA and GA embrace in Geography: The global dimension (2004). Trainees can use the two documents to investigate ways of enabling pupils to develop higher order skills using and to plan activities based around the global dimension.
7. During a residential field visit, focus primarily on risk assessment and planning fieldwork. Even in a small rural settlement, opportunities exist to explore the global dimension. For example, compare the scenario with an investigation of a contrasting locality, giving each group of trainees one of the DEA eight global dimension concepts (ref DfEE 0115/2000) as their starting point. The pupil activities they produce can be combined to produce a teachers’ pack on ‘how to use a village to explore the global dimension’.
8. Explore your ecological footprint. Earth Day and similar websites have interactive tools for investigating the environmental impact of our everyday lives. This is a lively way for trainees to introduce the global dimension into a teaching plan and to encourage a ‘Think global, act local’ philosophy.
9. Trainee teachers consider how the global dimension links with other key agendas, e.g. education for sustainable development, The Children’s Bill. The ‘global dimension’ is also a useful framework to explore why some issues (e.g. the Iraq War, 11 September 2001) may be ‘off-limits’ for classroom discussion and others not. Geography provides the ideal tool to discuss pupils’ perceptions and values related to media images of war, immigration, famine, etc. Trainees could search for websites with resources on a range of global issues and consider how such sites reflect the political viewpoint of the web authors. Finally, they could locate web articles that pose differing opinions.
10. Make use of RISC. It includes a critique of Band Aid’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ and a wealth of ideas in its half-termly risc-e-news bulletins.
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‘development awareness has failed to make the breakthrough in public perceptions which, for example, environmental education has made in recent years. If we are to achieve this breakthrough,…. We need to strengthen public confidence in, and support for, the fight against global poverty, acceptance that it matters to our future, that great progress is possible and that the behaviour of each of us can make a difference’ (DfID, 1999).
This quotation compares ‘environmental evidence’ and ‘development education’. What it fails to do is connect the two areas of concern under the banner of ‘education for sustainable development’. It seems clear that exploring the global dimension’s ‘eight concepts’ will inevitably enhance teachers’ preparedness to tackle sustainable development with pupils too.
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| Bibliography and weblinks |
DEA/GA (2004) Geography: The global dimension. London: DEA (the ‘must read’ resource for those introducing the global dimension into training. Full of links, ideas and discussion and a list of articles and websites).
DEA (2004) Global Perspectives and Teachers in Training. Improving Practice Series (a variety of case studies showing how the global dimension has been introduced into ITE. Useful source of terminology, training ideas and reflections from tutors).
IoE (2004) The Challenge of the Global Dimension in Education (Lecture Series No.1). Institute of Education, University of London (three really useful articles: David Hicks exploration of the meanings of global education (see idea 1 above), Audrey Osler’s links between citizenship and global education, and Tim Brighouse challenges the ‘my country versus world order’ debate).
DfID (1999) 'The challenge' in 'Building support for development: raising public awareness and understanding of international development issues'.
DfID (2004a) The Rough Guide to a Better World (download from http://www.dfid.gov.uk/ or order a copy for each trainee).
DfID (2004b) Learning to listen: DFID's action plan on children and young people's participation 2004-05. (download from website below).
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Relevant government and government agencies:
Department for International Development - read their mission statement and the latest on the Millennium Development Goals.
DfES booklet Developing a Global Dimension in the School Curriculum (currently being updated) see also Global Dimension
QCA ESD - definitions and learning activities related to education for sustainable development.
Non-governmental organisations and professional associations:
Development Education Association - the umbrella organisation for promoting global and international development issues, includes a list of all local DECs who support work in ITE and provide resources, ideas and objective viewpoints
TeachGlobal - part of TeachandLearn.net – the global education section is a rich source of training and CPD activities.
Oxfam’s Cool Planet - aims to bring the global dimension to the classroom, using the concept of global citizenship.
Worldaware - producies geography, citizenship and sustainable development resources for schools.
Useful sites for research reports and statistics at the global level, include:
The World Bank group
Food and Agricultural Organisation
UNICEF-UK
The BBC World Service has excellent up-to-date sound and video clips taken from current programmes and news reports for use in teaching the global dimension of geography as it happens.
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| Articles from other TDA support sites for ITE |
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