Global Learning for a Global Society

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Global Learning for a Global Society

• Dr. Douglas Bourn
• Director,
• Development Education Research Centre
• Institute of Education, University of London

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Aims of Paper

• Context of Global Society
• Changing role of education within this global
  society
• Young People and Globalisation and Making Sense
  of the World Around Them
• Response of education system and teachers
• What learning for a global society looks like
• How it is delivered

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Global Society

• Globalisation impact at a economic, social,
  cultural and political level
• Changing nature of economies means skills
  required also changing
• Impact of new technology
• Social mobility and migration
• Sense of dislocation from traditional cultural
  roots
• Future of the planet- climate change and
  sustainable development

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Changing Role of Education Within This Global
Society

• Role of markets in determining nature and form of
  education
• But Global skills for 21st century need to take
  account of complexity, uncertainty and insecurity
• Education has to be more global in outlook take
  account of different perspectives and approaches
• Education must however recognise that dominant
  ideas in Western societies towards poorer
  countries still one based on paternalism and
  charity mentality.

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Young People and Globalisation

• Social Networking Facebook
• Dominance of western global cultural influences
  yet young people do not simply absorb this
  information
• Being a Cyberflanuer
• Complex and multiple identities
• Want to learn and experience the wider world
• Need knowledge, skills and values base to
  critically engage with issues concerning the
  wider world

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Response of Education System

• More than just learning about developing
  countries and global issues- important though
  this is.
• Skills and competencies to critically understand
  and engage with the issues
• Question and develop their own value base in
  response to discussions on global poverty, social
  inequality and cultural differences.
• Above all equipping young people to be active
  citizens of their society and wider global society

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Strategies for Taking Forward these idea

• Across Europe governments, voluntary
  organisations and the European Commission are
  supporting initiatives to equip education systems
  to more effectivelt engage in learning for a
  global society
• Example of Ireland
• These difficult questions (of inequality and
  injustice internationally) lie at the heart of
  the work that is now needededucation for world
  democracy, for human rights and for sustainable
  human development is no longer an option.
  Education has a central role to play, especially
  if we are to build a widespread understanding and
  ownership of this (development) agenda
  (Development Education Ireland

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Global Citizenship

• For Oxfam, the global citizen is
• 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
• challenges social injustice
• participates in and contributes to the community
  at a range of levels from the local to the
  global
• is willing to act to make the world a more
  equitable and sustainable place
• takes responsibility for their own actions
  (Oxfam,2006).

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Focus of Strategies

• Learning that is linked to building public
  understanding and support for international
  development
• Learning to be a global citizen
• Education for Sustainable Development
• Learning for a Global Society

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What this Learning for a Global Society Looks
Like

• Knowledge about global processes, causes of
  poverty, sustainable development and their
  relationship to peoples everyday lives
• Skills to critically assess range of views and
  perspectives on these issues
• Engage in dialogue and re-appraisal of own views
  and outlook
• Forms and nature of the learning should take
  place in a participatory form- starts from needs
  of the learner and takes them on a exploratory
  journey.

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Key Issues and Challenges

• Recognition dealing with controversial issues
• Challenging preconceived notions and stereotypes
  in many cases
• Encouraging critical thinking may lead to young
  people wishing to go beyond traditional forms of
  learning
• Interdisciplinary nature of the learning.

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FIRST THREAD KEY ELEMENTS
OTHER
SELF
PerceptionsRelationships
GE
PerceptionsRelationships
PerceptionsRelationships
Perceptions and relationships ways of being,
seeing, knowing, relating, thinking, saying,
listening, etc.
WORLD(S)
This model was based on a working group
discussion of the conference Global Education
in Nuremberg on 9 October 2007.
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Key elements
OTHER
SELF

• DIFFERENCE
• INTERCONNECTEDNESS
• DIALOGUE
• POWER/KNOWLEDGE

• IDENTITY
• CULTURAL BAGGAGE
• LENSES
• POWER/KNOWLEDGE

WORLD(S)

• SOCIAL PRACTICES
• HISTORIES/IDEOLOGIES
• STRUCTURES/PROCESSES
• POWER/KNOWLEDGE

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Second Thread Aim and Context
Structured, ordered and stable, predictable,
comprehensible as a whole, universal meanings and
interpretations
To absorb information, to reproduce received
knowledge, to accept and adapt to existing
structures and models of thinking, knowing and
being
Fixed content and skills to conform to a
predetermined idea of society
EQUIPPING learners to PARTICIPATE together in a
GLOBALISED WORLD.
To assess, interrogate and connect information,
to generate knowledge, to live with difference
and conflict, to shift positions and perspectives
according to contexts
Complex and changing, uncertain, multifaceted
and interconnected, different meanings and
interpretation
Concepts and strategies to address complexity,
difference and uncertainty
Andreotti, De Souza and Mackay, 2007
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Concluding Thoughts

• We have an educational and social responsibility
  to equip young people for the global society of
  the twenty first century
• This requires new forms of knowledge, new skills
  and a re-appraisal of own ideas, experiences and
  skills.
• Strategies be they developed by governments. NGOs
  or educational bodies need to recognise that it
  is not a question of adding more knowledge and
  information or just encouraging people,
  especially young people to take action
• Requires instead a recognition from all
  stakeholders involved in development and
  education to recognise that it is essential for
  our 21st societies to equip people to be active
  and informed citizens that includes an
  understanding of global and international
  development processes.

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Final thought

• We have no choice- it is a difficult journey but
  an exciting one because if we go even a small way
  in this direction our societies could well be
  more open, inclusive, tolerant and socially
  responsible

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• Thank you
• d.bourn_at_ioe.ac.uk