Introduction

Act local

Liz Ford
Tuesday April 29, 2008

EducationGuardian.co.uk

Global citizenship isn't a new concept. Grassroots organisations around the country have for years been quietly working in their local communities, questioning assumptions about the lives of people from other countries and addressing the causes of poverty in the world.

What is new is the government's push to get these ideas rooted in all aspects of education, specifically in the new secondary school curricula being introduced across the UK.

How this will work in practice will vary between schools. But the underlying message will be the same: to get to the nuts and bolts of development by encouraging young people to think about their place in the world and to consider how their actions locally can have repercussions globally. It will mean encouraging schools to respond to floods in Mozambique with a debate about climate change and how much we recycle, or how political structures affect rural communities, rather than simply holding a sponsored event to raise money for those affected.

How this is achieved is largely being left to individual schools and teachers, which will be liberating for some but daunting for others unsure of where to start.

This supplement should help to get the ball rolling. It offers a glimpse of what is already going on in schools and in youth centres around the country to promote the global agenda. It looks at how to adopt a whole-school approach to global issues, and at the training that is available for teachers.

We examine where schools can access resources and information about development to support their efforts, and explore whether linking projects with schools overseas is a good idea. We also ask young people about their global awareness and investigate how local projects are changing lives.
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