Networked for change

As our global economy shrinks the world, fostering individual action is the remit no longer only of charities but of schools. The challenge is in the cost

Sarah Butler
Tuesday April 29, 2008

EducationGuardian.co.uk

At first, development education centres (DECs) were explorative outposts set up by a group of idealists and charities to promote understanding between the UK and developing countries. Now, as "global citizenship" is injected into the national curriculum, this network of small offices is being embraced by the educational establishment.

The centres are there to encourage critical thinking, and nurture self-awareness and open-mindedness. They aim to develop an understanding of our relationships with other countries. Most centres focus on people-centred learning, starting with the concerns and ideas of individuals before putting them in the context of the wider world.

"There are many different interpretations of what development education is, but there are core principles and one of them is enabling communities and groups to engage with the world and understand it," says Kadie Armstrong at the International Development Education Association of Scotland. "With globalisation, there is literally no aspect of the world we are not in some way connected to."

While the centres offer a varied range of resources from professionally produced learning packs to project boxes of literature and artefacts, such as clothing or musical instruments, relating to a particular country, they are much more than resource libraries.

"One way for DECs to engage with schools is that when a teacher is looking at a subject, say food, they can say 'why not look at food around the world?'" says Armstrong. "More challenging is to talk about teachers' understanding of their own world and how they impact on the understanding of pupils so that they can have a global perspective."

She says the ultimate aim of DECs is to promote long-term, sustainable change rather than quick-fix solutions, perhaps guiding teachers away from just straightforward fundraising activities for "the poor" to more in-depth investigations of life in developing countries and why they might be seeking assistance. "It is about involving people in discussions and helping them [understand] their capability and the contribution they can make."

The centres can play a vital role in helping schools tackle uncomfortable and complex subjects such as racism, war and international economics. "Dealing with issues of global poverty and conflict resolution is not easy unless you are confident in your knowledge, materials and background," says Ray Kirtley, the Yorkshire and Humber coordinator for DfID's Enabling Effective Support initiative set up to support regional coordination. "DEC workers will often be able to give first-hand accounts or may have lived abroad."

The first centres were set up some 25 years ago. Local authorities and charities, such as Oxfam and ActionAid, saw them as a way to help challenge perceptions of the developing world. Some were also linked to academic institutions such as teacher training centres or universities with international development departments.

There are now at least 45 DECs around the country. Because of their unplanned evolution some areas, such as London, which only has the Humanities Education Centre in Tower Hamlets, are not well served whereas others have a buzzing DEC community, such as the Yorkshire and Humber region, which has five centres.

The Development Education Association (DEA) was formed in 1993 to help build links between these highly individualistic centres. The umbrella body's members also include major charities such as Oxfam, ActionAid, Christian Aid and Save The Children, which help fund its work through membership fees and grants.

The association, which is also funded by DfID, runs a website - globaldimension. org.uk - that helps connect teachers with resources and local centres. It also regularly publishes analytical research papers on education and how it relates to the group's ideas.

Some DECs are supported in part by charities, usually in relation to specific projects. Funding can come from sources as diverse as the Heritage Lottery Fund, which backed several projects relating to the anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade last year, to the Lake District National Park, which has supported projects looking at environmental issues in the UK and abroad.

These days charities are moving away from funding broad-based educational centres in favour of engaging directly with young people. This means that getting funding is becoming potentially difficult for centres. While most receive a big chunk of project funding from DfID, some found out this month that they were not succcessful in the latest round of competitive bids for cash from the department's Development Awareness Fund.

Increasingly, though, schools are prepared to pay for the kind of training and resources the centres can offer. In turn, the centres are becoming more professional and many now offer continuing professional development courses for teachers as well as activities for children and young people.

Ray Kirtley says that because most centres rely on project-based funding, some of their core work, such as going into schools to talk about development issues, is difficult to fund. "I'd like the global dimension to be more firmly embedded in the curriculum on a statutory basis so that the work of the DECs can be more regular and properly paid for."

Weblink

Local support:
www.globaldimension.org.uk/localsupport
EducationGuardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008