Thursday, 4 December, 2014 - 16:41
Category: 
Activities

Worlds Apart or Just Like Me? Global education without leaving the classroom. (Anita Mitchell, International Needs Australia)

“Global perspective”[1] , “global citizenships”, “global responsibility” are all phrases that have gained instant recognition in educational documents and resources, from school vision statements and websites to curriculum mandates. The National Australian Curriculum states that schools have a responsibility to “equip young Australians with skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to engage effectively with and prosper in a globalised world.”[2] The Civics and Citizenship Curriculum[3] aim is to develop students’ knowledge and skills to participate in the civic life of their nation at a local, regional and global level. Before the end of Grade 6 we are asking our students to consider the obligations that they have beyond their national borders as active and informed global citizens. It is essential to provide students with opportunities to gather information and investigate the global community in which they live.

According to a UN study[4] the world population is estimated to exceed 9 billion by 2050. People are undoubtedly living closer together and travelling between countries with relative ease. One result of the increasingly small distances between countries is that we see what is happening internationally, as it happens. This means that our students have greater exposure to world events than ever before. What do they see? How do they make sense of it?

One thing that we see is that, despite the fact that the UN Millennium Development Goals[5] have been in place for almost 15 years, global poverty is still a major issue today. It is clear that a new set of goals must be set, and that the generation that is going to be involved in reaching these goals is not the X generation or the Y generation, but the generation to which our students belong: the i-gens. Learning about Australia’s closest neighbours, their history, geography and culture is no longer enough. Our children need to have the knowledge and skills that will enable them to live as global citizens in a constantly changing world. If you go into almost any classroom in Metropolitan Melbourne you will see that our society has changed over the last generation. Our schools provide a snapshot of our communities: they are multicultural. These are the children who have to work together to ensure that the world in which they (and we) live, can continue to support the ever expanding global population, and more importantly (I would argue) these are the children to whom we are passing the “We can end global poverty” baton.

Teachers around the country have been given the mandate to ensure that students all children have the skills and understanding to live in and thrive in a globalised population. Current education practice argues that all teaching should be grounded in a broad global perspective. We are not teaching just our students: we are teaching them to think of themselves as a cog in a might big wheel, where each cog is and individual but also where each cog is important.

“The heart of global education is enabling young people to participate in shaping a better, shared future for the world. Global education emphasises the unity and interdependence of human society, developing a sense of self and appreciation of cultural diversity, affirmation of social justice and human rights, as well as building peace and actions for a sustainable future in different times and places.

Global education promotes positive values and assists students to take responsibility for their actions and to see themselves as global citizens who can contribute to a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.”[6]

Many teachers today would agree that one of the greatest lessons, or gifts, we can give our students is to open their eyes to the lives of others. We then need to go one step further. By teaching our students to ask questions and to think critically about the world in which they live, we can help them to recognise that when they see inequality and injustice, they can do something about it. According to Olsen et al[7] we can teach students to recognise inequalities, and to want to do something about it. Further, it is important that young children learn about the importance of fairness and equal treatment. They are then more likely to try to rectify inequalities that they see. The study points out that children need to be exposed to these inequalities before they can do anything to rectify the situations in which such inequalities exist.

The new Australian Curriculum includes several cross curricular priorities and general capabilities that should be considered in all areas of learning plans in primary schools. Two of these are ethical behaviour and intercultural understanding. If teachers are going to educate students in these areas they may need support. International Needs Australia (INA) has as its motto “Changing the World”. Under that banner INA has developed a global awareness program specifically designed for Australian Primary Schools: “Just Like Me?” (JLM). JLM is primarily a resource for teachers, and includes an incursion program which is available for any school around Melbourne. “Just Like Me?” uses stories of children from culturally diverse situations in the developing world, to help Australian primary school aged children develop an understanding and an appreciation of the differences and similarities between cultures. The resources are deliberately child-focussed providing Australian students with an opportunity to engage with the information more easily. The activities and experiences that students encounter aim to increase their awareness of the issues surrounding poverty and how they affect millions of children who are in many ways just like them. Students are thus equipped with knowledge and understanding so that they can make more sense of the world in which they live.[8] (International Needs Australia, 2012).

Over the past two years eighty primary schools in Melbourne have participated in The Just Like me program. Almost 10000 students have engaged with stories about real children from some of the most impoverished communities in the world. The response from schools and students has been overwhelmingly positive: students are given the opportunity to voice what they see as the inequalities that exist, and students respond.

Twenty first century education must keep pace with the world. Students need to be equipped with both knowledge and skills enabling them to participate in the global community where distances are shrinking but demands on resources are increasing exponentially. If a child in prep can tell you where Australia and Africa are, and they can see that some children have a lot and some children don’t have much at all, then they can begin to understand the role that they must take in positively changing global inequalities. It is never too early to introduce concepts of social justice into a classroom. And it is never too late either.

Anita Mitchell is a VIT registered teacher. Before training as a primary school teacher her background was in second language teaching at tertiary level. She has been involved in international aid and development for about fifteen years, with a primary focus on the effects of poverty on children.

4. Just Like Me? Is a trademark of International Needs Australia, a non-government overseas aid and development organisation
5. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the agreed targets set by the world’s nations to reduce poverty by 2015.

[1] Global Perspectives – a framework for global education in Australian Schools; published by the Curriculum Corporation in partnership with AusAID, Global Education Project and the Asia Education Foundation; 2008
[2] http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/CrossCurriculumPriorities. (accessed 11/11/2014)
[3] http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/Curriculum/F-10?layout=1.
[4] United Nations. (2009). World Population to exceed 9 Billion by 2050 Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/pressrelease.pdf
[5] The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the agreed targets set by the world’s nations to reduce poverty by 2015
[6] What is Global Education (2013) retrieved November 2013 from http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/global-education/what-is-global-ed.html
[7] Olsen, K., Dweck,C., Spelke, Elizabeth and Banaji, Mahzarin. (2011, August 22) Children’s responses to Group Based Inequalities: Perception and Rectification. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3159186/
[8] International Needs Australia. (2012). Just Like Me? Retrieved November 28, 2014 from http://www.justlikeme.org.au/Workshops/tabid/560/language/en-US/Default.aspx.

4. Just Like Me? Is a trademark of International Needs Australia, a non-government overseas aid and development organisation
5. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the agreed targets set by the world’s nations to reduce poverty by 2015.