Global citizenship (Week 4)

At the start of this term in Year 6 Tyrrell, we embarked on a new journey of Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) that is focused on developing student’s understandings of what it means to be a global citizen. By using the ‘poster design to change the world’ resource by Oxfam (2016), students’ will develop an awareness of what global citizenship is through inquiry based learning. The overall purpose for this allows students to identify an issue that affects them locally, and use change action to address it in an informative poster.

In three sections divided equally over 6 weeks, students will explore what a global citizen is and what makes a successful campaign poster (weeks 1/2); global issues and history of the Oxfam poster (weeks 3/4); and the design brief (weeks 5/6). Within this, students use guided discussions, debates, independent studies, and collaborative learning to develop their questioning, researching, evaluating and reflecting and communicating skills. They also use solution fluency to develop critical and creative thinking and personal and social capability by having to visualise possibilities, create, and then deliver a solution (Global Digital Citizen Foundation, 2017).

Throughout this week (2) and last (1), students explored the definition of a global citizen and examined successful campaign posters that present ideas, shift opinions, educate, and persuade audiences. Students gave excellent responses to what they think a global citizen is and made PMI charts after learning about and discussing successful posters.

In the coming weeks (3/4) students will explore larger-scale topics like poverty and world hunger to broaden their mindset and initiate thinking about topics that may not affect them directly, but occur throughout the world we live in (OXFAM, 2016).

This links to the three domains that global citizenship education aims to address, which are complimented by corresponding learning attributes and key learner outcomes shown in nine topic areas (UNESCO, 2015).

Like adults, young people enjoy seeing an outcome from their hard work but need to start at a smaller level (Department of Education USA, n.d.). In the last two weeks of this unit (5/6), students will identify an issue that affects them in the community, research the topic and address it in a poster that presents their ideas and a solution or suggestion to address the issue on a small-scale. This encourages them to start small within their local community and then expand to a greater region (Department of Education USA, n.d.).

To be effective global citizens, young people need to be flexible, creative, proactive; able to solve problems, make decisions, think critically, communicate ideas effectively and work well with others (IDEAS, 2017). These skills and attributes are recognised as essential for students to succeed in other areas of 21st century life, and are recognised under the ‘Active and Informed Citizens’ strand of Goal 2 in the Melbourne Declarations on Educational Goals for Young Australians (Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008).

By using CCE to encourage your children to think globally act locally, it builds their commitment to civic life, develops their understandings of issues on multiple levels and forms their responsibility to be an active citizen (Department of Education USA, n.d.).

References

Department of Education USA. (n.d.). Think globally, act locally. Retrieved from https://y4y.ed.gov/learn/pbl/implementation/think-globally-act-locally

International Development Education Association of Scotland. (2017). What is global citizenship. Retrieved from http://www.ideas-forum.org.uk/about-us/global-citizenship

Global Digital Citizen Foundation. (2017). Solution fluency. Retrieved from https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/21st-century-fluencies/solution-fluency

Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). The Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Oxfam. (2016). Poster design to change the world - Primary school resource: Teachers handbook. Retrieved from https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Poster-Design-to-Change-the-World-downloadable-PDF-copy-primary.pdf

UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002329/232993e.pdf

Images

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2017a). Curriculum: F-6/7 HASS [image]. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#yl-6

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2017b). General Capabilities [image]. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/overview/introduction

Brew, P. (2015). Real Australians say welcome [image]. Retrieved from https://pozible.com/project/183878

International Development Education Association of Scotland. (2017). What is global citizenship [image]. Retrieved from http://www.ideas-forum.org.uk/about-us/global-citizenship

Miller, J. (1942). Rosie the Riveter [image]. Retrieved from http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/rosie-the-riveter-1941-1945/

Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). The Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians [image]. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

The Experienceship. (n.d.). Hello world [image]. Retrieved from http://theexperienceship.com/

UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives [images]. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002329/232993e.pdf

WWF. (2009). Lungs [image]. Retrieved from http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/wwf_lungs