Global Citizenship

April 26th, 2011

YouGov survey: parents value education for global citizenship

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: research
 : Categories citizenship, international, sustainable development

This research report from Think Global highlights findings from a YouGov survey of parents’ attitudes towards their children’s education.

The research indicates a strong demand from parents to ensure topics such as sustainable development, international development and learning about different cultures and communities are part of the taught curriculum.

Parents of school-age children want schools to teach about global issues such as environmental sustainability (84% of parents) and international poverty (73%). Three-quarters want schools to help young people to think globally (71%) and be responsible global citizens (72%).

Combined with existing research about the demand for, and impact of, teaching about global issues, this new research presents compelling arguments to ensure our schools prepare young people to live, work and contribute in a globalised world.

Download the report at: http://www.think-global.org.uk/resources/item.asp?d=4499

April 15th, 2011

World Environment Day - 5th June 2011

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: climate and energy, events, nature, poverty
 : Categories biodiversity, international, renewables and climate change, sciences, social studies, sustainable development

World Environment Day (WED) is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. WED activities take place all year round but climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere.

WED celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become the one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

Through WED, the UN Environment Programme is able to personalise environmental issues and enable everyone to realise not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. This year there will be a special focus on forests to celbrate 2011 as the International Year of Forests.

WED is also a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.

Everyone counts in this initiative and WED relies on you to make this happen – why not organise a neighbourhood clean-up, stop using plastic bags and get your community to do the same, plant a tree or better yet organise a collective tree planting effort, walk to work, start a recycling drive . . . the possibilities are endless.

Visit the World Environment Day website for resources, ideas and information >>

April 8th, 2011

Europe and modern languages

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: europe, modern languages
 : Categories ICT, europe, modern languages

Congratulations to the two students from Kings Park secondary school in Glasgow who won this year’s ‘Talk your way to Brussels’ speaking competition. This annual event is organised by the Scottish European Educational Trust (SEET), and sponsored by IBM, and requires young Scots to demonstrate their ability with a foreign language.

Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua supported the competition by training the student teams in how to make a video diary of their time at the finals in Brussels, providing participants with a download of the company’s web based language courses, and offering ipods for the winners. The finalists produced a promo video about their visit to the European Parliament with MEP David Martin.

April 8th, 2011

Water and global citizenship

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: water
 : Categories africa, international, sustainable development

The theme of ‘Water’ is often used by teachers to get students thinking about global inequalities. The Oxfam Water Week initiative, 13th-19th June in Scotland, encourages students to explore this key aspect of the world they live in and take action to make a positive change. A Teacher pack is available to staff who register on the website, and provides news stories, resources and ideas to facilitate activities in school.

Another charity, Wateraid, focuses on the provision of clean safe water supplies for some of the poorest people on the planet. Their website also has resources for teachers and learners, include documentary video clips.

In March the annual World Water Day 2011, promoted by the United Nations, helped to raise awareness of issues about water supply, climate change and natural disasters. National and local campaigns were complemented by educational activity in some schools.

Water supply has a significant impact on achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular on child health, universal education, poverty and hunger.

April 6th, 2011

Resources for learners

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: climate and energy, news, resources
 : Categories citizenship, curriculum areas, sustainable development

Learning and Teaching Scotland provides a wide range of free, innovative and exciting online resources for learner, a number of them directly related to global citizenship education such as our weather and climate change websites, the School’s Global Footprint calculator or our newly developed resource (www.LTScotland.org.uk/globalcitizenship).

There are also a large number of resources that support global citizenship education in a wider sense such as web sites related to Scottish culture and heritage, current issues (The Daily What) or equality and justice.

Many of these resources are open access, but some will require users to log in using Glow credentials.

For more information see http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learnerresources/index.asp

April 1st, 2011

Make the Link – Climate exChange project

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: climate and energy, europe
 : Categories ICT, europe, international, renewables and climate change, sciences, sustainable development, technologies

This is a 3 year project funded by the European Union, promoting learning, dialogue and action on climate change through linking 11-19 year olds in primary and secondary schools, as well as youth groups in the EU (UK, Netherlands and Bulgaria) with those in Africa (Malawi, Senegal and Kenya).

Participating schools and youth groups will learn about climate change using specifically designed Learning Resources and a user-friendly, interactive web platform. The Learning Resources include flexible lesson plans, teaching resources and supplementary worksheets for young people, to explore the human challenges presented by climate change and the effect it is having on the lives of real people around the world.

Using the web platform, young people will connect with one another via messaging, blogging and group discussions to exchange their ideas and experiences of climate change, and collaborate on projects and campaigns locally, nationally and internationally. By discussing climate change with their peers abroad, young people will gain insight into cultural differences, personal similarities and what they can do to make positive changes for the future of the planet.

Find out more at: http://www.mtl-cec.org/