Page 31


NEWS


The Global Classroom

Uganda or UK? Delivering global citizenship, supporting partnerships, exploring images


This engaging new teaching resource, produced by RISC (Reading International Solidarity Centre), was sponsored by the Oxfordshire NASUWT. RISC is a Development Education Centre working with schools, local authorities and teacher training institutions to raise the profile of global issues and promote action for sustainability, human rights and social justice. Established in 1984, RISC provides advice, information, resources and training for primary and secondary teachers across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and beyond.


While many schools aim to deliver global citizenship learning through ‘off-timetable’ enrichment days or weeks, often with a focus on Africa, RISC’s research shows that what takes place can reinforce a narrow, negative and stereotypical view of Africa. For example, an African arts week that focuses only on traditional masks and drumming may reinforce the idea that people across the continent of Africa are ‘primitive’ and ‘tribal’ and different from ‘us’.

When asked what they think they would see in an African country, pupils in UK schools responded: ‘mud huts, little huts, poor people, war, people crying, AIDS, guns, starving people…’

They know that Uganda is ‘in Africa’, ‘is a poor country’, ‘there are animals there’, and ‘people die ‘cos of dirty water’. (See RISC’s research in How do we know it’s working? A toolkit for measuring attitudinal change in global citizenship from early years to ICSS, 2008.)

Approximately 60 schools in Oxfordshire have partnerships with schools in Uganda. These ‘links’ are also seen as a way of delivering global citizenship, but unless they are based on a truly reciprocal and respectful partnership between the two schools they can also have a negative impact on pupils’ attitudes – not only towards people in African counties, but towards black people in their own communities.

These concerns were discussed with colleagues within the Oxfordshire Federation and plans for the new resource emerged.

The Federation funded the research, design and printing costs and the pack was produced in collaboration with local teachers who had recently visited Uganda. It was trialled in schools with Ugandan partnerships. Uganda or UK? Consists of a CD of 124 images of Uganda and the UK. These focus first on similarities between the two countries before exploring their diversity; they counter the narrow, negative or stereotypical views that many pupils hold about countries in Africa.

The Uganda images provide balance when introducing work on Africa as a continent, while the UK images can also be used in other topics, matched with similar ones from any other country.

The 12 activities on the CD enable pupils in each country to make connections and explore what they share in common, as well as what is unique about each. They also provide teachers with ideas they can replicate when planning work on other countries in Africa and beyond.

As well as the images and activities, the resource includes global citizenship learning objectives, dos and don’ts for delivering global citizenship, curriculum links, maps, background information, suggestions for pupil research, plus recommended resources and websites. After doing the activities one pupil said:


The global dimension within schools

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

The influence of global forces are all around us from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, what we watch on television and how we communicate with people.

We live in a global society and the young people we teach will be working within an economy that will be even more dominated by globalisation than it is today. Yet are we equipping young people for this society?

Yet there is evidence that many young people in the UK are concerned about global issues, as a recent survey found that two thirds of the young people surveyed said they were concerned about global poverty and one of their main concerns was climate change.

What, perhaps, schools need to consider is how they can bring together these concerns and interests with helping young people understand who they are and examine their place in the world. Perhaps a good starting point should be the following questions:

• How are we ensuring that our curriculum is equipping our pupils for a global society?
• What do we need to consider and possibly change in what we provide to ensure that our pupils feel a part of the changes that are taking place in the world?
• What do we as teachers need to do to equip ourselves to be able to address these challenges?

One practical way teachers can gain the skills and confidence in this area is to do the MA course on Development Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. This programme includes activities on what development and globalisation means for education and the value of international partnerships. It is based around four modules and a dissertation and includes innovatory online learning techniques with group-based forums and reflective learning. For further information about the MA and the work of the Research Centre, contact. d.bourn@ioe.ac.uk.