Developing a Global Perspective for Educators (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
Teacher education can make an important contribution to raising understanding of Sustainable Development Goals within education. Education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCED), human rights, peace and inter-cultural understanding can be seen within a range of courses for the initial training and continuing professional development of teachers. However, in many instances they are seen as optional extras to core courses. There is a tendency in many countries for ESD and GCED to be promoted within teacher education along parallel lines. To maximise impact, there is a need for these initiatives to come more closely together. ESD and GCED approaches tend to promote a social constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This can present major challenges to securing broader support because it is counter to dominant approaches to the training and education of teachers. Civil society organisations and policy-makers outside of education have tended to have a major influence in determining the practices of ESD and GCED within teacher education. To measure progress, indicators need to be developed that make connections between ESD and GCED and current themes within education such as global competencies, cultural understanding and moral and social purpose of teaching. Networks, be they national, regional or international, can play an important role in sharing expertise and influencing policy-makers.
Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education: Challenging Imperatives
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Citizenship and Education, 2018
This chapter is essential reading for understanding the origins and evolution of the much debated and misunderstood concept 'sustainable development'. It argues that achieving sustainable development requires balancing of economic, environmental and social goals, highlights the lack of international consensus and commitment on these issues, and asserts that global citizenship education is critical for achieving sustainable development, noting that both areas struggle to find a place in the school curriculum. It concludes by arguing that the increasing global inequalities require governments to take a stronger role in promoting education for sustainable development and global citizenship, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
Important curriculum change (QCA 2004; DCSF 2009) and significant recent research are changing the landscape of global learning in schools, with far-reaching implications for initial teacher education (ITE). The purpose of this small study is to investigate one aspect of that link: how well student teachers are prepared to develop the global dimension, global learning/ learners, global citizenship. The paper analyses interviews with three teacher trainers to investigate this question. It explores what they regard as the main teaching tools that newly qualified teachers (NQTs) need in order to develop global learning as well as what they regard as the most likely barriers that NQTs will face in teaching the global dimension in their first year of teaching. The interview questions were derived from a larger study of written feedback from 29 PGCE students at the end of their course.
Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Development
Pilot studies reveal lack of philosophical and theoretical justifications for global education practices of recruits and passionate practitioners. Conscious of learning as the new labour, critical global educators resist pressure to produce 'bricoleurs', in favour of education for human flourishing: Chinese Taoism, Vedic Rta, African ubuntu, or Greek eudaimonia. This talk advocates exploiting a rich critical heritage, capable of empowering 'internal conversations' appropriate to global realities, and discursive disciplinary identities.
Role of Global Citizenship Education in Sustainable Development
Journal of Research Innovation and Implications in Education, 2021
This study sought to explore the role of Global Citizenship Education in promoting sustainable development in the context of higher education using St. Augustine University of Tanzania as a case study. The specific research questions of the study were (1) What does Global Citizenship Education mean in the context of higher education? (2) Is Global Citizenship Education an important feature of higher education in Tanzania? (3) In what ways, if any, does Global Citizenship Education contribute to sustainable development? The study used an interpretive paradigm through qualitative research approach and a case study design. The target population were postgraduate students, faculty members, and administrators of St. Augustine University of Tanzania. A sample of 21 participants were used to collect data. The sampling techniques employed was purposive sampling. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions and analysed thematically based on the research questions. Findings revealed that Global Citizenship Education is an important instrument in promoting sustainable development. Global Citizenship Education can significantly shape students, researchers and educators' trajectories on global issues, collective responsibility, diversity and multiculturalism, and instil in them the determination to act at a global scale. Based on the findings, the study recommends integration of aspects of Global Citizenship Education into the university curriculum, internationalisation of the institution, and varying of pedagogical approaches by faculty members.
Reflecting Education, 2009
The paper describes the process of developing a global education curriculum in two teacher education courses at a state university in the United States. The initiative intended to develop critical thinking from diverse perspectives about global issues, motivate trainee teachers to include global education and instruction in their own practice, and to consider identities as global citizens. Student responses before and immediately after the innovation are described, and conclusions drawn on further steps to be taken in thinking about sustainability and globalization in teacher education. What would happen if teachers embraced the identity of global citizen (Banks 2004) and sought to help their students develop such an identity? What if they regularly infused issues of globalization and sustainability in the curriculum? As teacher education professors at a state university in the United States, we provide our students with insight into such wider political contexts during class discussions about poverty, race, ability, gender and sexuality. We aim to give them an understanding of the impact of oppression on education and schooling. In fall, 2006, we taught two courses: to undergraduates Culturally Relevant Teaching and Critical Pedagogy, and a graduate course. We used the occasion to collaborate in introducing a unit on globalization and sustainability. In these courses we examined underlying ideological values and beliefs in economic, political, educational, judicial and other institutional systems that perpetuate oppression within the United States and beyond. By globalization we meant not only the economic integration of world markets within a capitalist framework, but also all of the ways in which we are interconnected (Bigelow & Peterson 2002). In the courses we examined aspects of the social, political, technological, military, and cultural impacts of global interconnections as well as economic relations. By sustainability, we meant living in ways that conserves the Earth's resources to ensure the survival of subsequent generations, while eliminating poverty (United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization 2007). In the courses we examined child labour, fair trade agricultural initiatives, alternative energy sources, and conservation initiatives in a global context. As Brazilian and U.S. born educators we had invested effort into better understanding omissions, distortions, and stereotypes in our education through study and travel in Latina America, Europe, and Africa. This gave opportunities to renew our commitment to developing our perspectives of global citizens. Each of us had experienced our students' reluctance to think about oppression experienced here and now, and about our roles in perpetuating the status quo. We wanted to teach about globalization and sustainability in ways that connected conditions and events taking place elsewhere in the world to those in the United States. This paper describes the context, procedures and outcomes of our work on introducing globalization and sustainability into teacher education. Section 1 offers a brief historical account of global education in the United States, and discusses our assumptions about the importance of teaching about globalization and sustainability in teacher education. Section 2 provides information about Ramalho, T and Beyerbach, B. Introducing globalisation and sustainability issues in teacher education Reflecting Education
Current Issues in Comparative Education, 2016
In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The notion of “transformative education” is being mainstreamed in the work of UNESCO within the new framework of the SDGs, which officially succeeded the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA). This article briefly outlines the shifting international discourses surrounding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), now enshrined in SDG Target 4.7. The meanings of ESD have shifted in relation to other education movements, including Environmental Education, EFA, and more recently, Global Citizenship Education (GCED). By reviewing how ESD and GCED—as currently defined and promoted by UNESCO—approach climate change and the question of securing a sustainable future for humanity, the article delineates how the recent marriage of ESD and GCED in one target of the SDGs is weakening,...
Earth Charter, Education and the Sustainable Development Goal 4.7: Research, Experiences and Reflections , 2020
For more than 20 years, several individuals and organizations have worked with the Earth Charter in education settings, contributing to the field of Education for Sustainability and of Education for Global Citizenship with a special focus on values clarification and analyses. These experiences demonstrate that values-based education can be accomplished through self-reflections on practical and real-life situations, interactions, dialogue and participatory processes. They also demonstrate that this process does not have to be abstract, rigid, vertical or by imposition. In this article, I share the results of my research on experiences of Earth Charter workshops and courses offered between 1996 and 2018. The research involved identifying 126 and analyzing more closely 44 Earth Charter education experiences carried out in diverse contexts by various groups in all seven continents of the world, as well as my own experience. This chapter offers an overview of the research and especially the findings. These allowed to identify seven pedagogical elements used in processes of education and learning related to values of sustainability and global citizenship with the Earth Charter. These may be considered useful for future work in the field.
2006
As educators and policymakers in all levels and modes of education will agree, there are innumerable frameworks, fields and movement for reforming and transforming educational institutions and systems to fulfill desired visions, goals and objectives of a “better” world for all peoples, societies and the global community. Each framework or field invariably develops over time its own relevant core conceptual issues, methodologies, analytical “language” and institutional practice. However, based on the learnings and “wisdom” accumulated from diverse experiences, implementation, social advocacy and research, initial conceptual frameworks often “evolve” in complexity and maturity.