Global Citizenship

June 6th, 2012

Cooperatives and Social Enterprise

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: cooperatives, social enterprise
 : Categories primary schools, secondary schools, sharing practice, social studies

Global Citizenship education has Social Justice at its heart, and has clear links with the approaches taken by co-operatives and social enterprises. Both economic concepts have a focus on community benefit and well-being, and the involvement of local people in leading initiatives to improve their world.

2012 is the International Year of Co-operatives, IYOC 2012, and part of the celebrations is a big event for educators to be held at New Lanark next week. The event will highlight the contribution that study about Co-operatives and the Co-operative movement can make to implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. The organisers, the Co-operative Education Trust Scotland, has a strong track record of support for schools which includes the development of teaching resources. New SQA Awards in Cooperative Studies are now available for education providers to use with their students.

In Scotland our schools have substantial experience of developing Enterprise education, and are still innovating. A feature article in the current issue of the GTCS magazine ‘Teaching Scotland’, titled “Future Proof“, reports on programmes to support development of social enterprises in schools such as Banchory Academy, Aberdeenshire, and St Mary’s Primary, Larkhall, South Lanarkshire. The Scottish Social Enterprise Academy works with schools to develop skills and extend the vision of social entrepreneurship.