Global Citizenship

May 9th, 2013

Refugee week

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: refugees
 : Categories citizenship, expressive arts, international, languages, religious and moral education, social studies

Refugee Week Scotland 2013 will be staged between 17th and 23rd June, and this year’s festival will celebrate the contributions that refugees and asylum-seekers have made in their Scottish communities and the welcome that they have received. There is a fascinating mix of heritages and cultures among people who have made new homes in Scotland, adding to the diversity and richness of everyday life in our communities. This annual celebration provides a focus for exploring and demonstrating that richness, and there will be events in many parts of the country. Details are available in the programme downloadable from the RWS webpages.

It is also an opportunity for educators. Many schools will run special activities during the week, bringing in members of the local community who came to Scotland as refugees to explain their situation and present aspects of their cultural, linguistic and religious background. Teachers will facilitate discussion and investigation of topics such as migration, citizenship and identity with students. Issues such as prejudice and discrimination, and the media coverage around subjects such as immigration, are discussed frequently. There are high-quality education materials and teacher resources, often produced by charities such as the British Red Cross, which assist teachers in planning activities on a Refugee theme.

May 9th, 2013

Holocaust Education update

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories citizenship, CPD, international, religious and moral education, secondary schools, social studies

Scottish Government has announced funding for a further two years of Scottish schools participation in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme managed by the Holocaust Education Trust. This programme has already enabled hundreds of Scottish high school students and teachers to learn more about the genocide of World War Two through preparatory seminars with Holocaust survivors, a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, and follow-up work back in Scotland. Students commit to sharing their learning from the experience, and this sharing takes many forms: school assemblies and presentations are most common, but a growing number of students have made videos to spread their message and some of these are now available on YouTube for a worldwide audience.

The extension of the programme will enable two large-scale groups each year in the autumn of 2013 and 2014, and HET will be recruiting participants from Scottish schools very soon. A BBC Scotland story reported on the extension of the programme.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust recently revealed that the theme for national commemoration events in January 2014 will be ‘Journeys‘. The campaign materials and resources produced by HMDT each year are  well used by teachers and tutors to support learning about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

The need to challenge prejudice and discrimination in society, preparing our young people to be active and responsible citizens, continues to be a major impetus behind these kinds of educational programmes.

April 10th, 2013

Campaign against Hate Speech online

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: hate speech
 : Categories citizenship, europe, ICT, international, languages, religious and moral education, social studies

In recent years the continuing development of the Internet, especially in the areas of mobile access and Social media applications, has enabled positive examples of free speech and ‘people’s voice’ but also many examples of Hate Speech. This form of Human Rights abuse “covers all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, antisemitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance” (Council of Europe definition). One current example might be Romaphobia and the abuse of Roma people.

Now the Council of Europe has launched an online portal for its ‘No Hate Speech movement’, as part of its programme of work with young people in support of democratic citizenship and Human Rights. This European youth campaign aims to combat racism and discrimination  “by equipping young people and youth organisations with the competences necessary to recognise and react against such human rights violations”. The project is achieving this through training cohorts of young activists, raising awareness, lobbying policy-makers, etc. The campaign website includes presentation slides for local use as a stimulus for discussion and participation, accompanied by use of social media and YouTube channels to disseminate material and encourage action.

Teachers and others working with young people may find this campaign useful for students and young people learning about cyber-bullying and behaviour online, and also for citizenship issues such as equality and diversity. Adult learners could equally explore these issues from a community concern perspective.

April 5th, 2013

Regional events – presentations now available for download

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: CPD, events, learner voice, resources, school improvement
 : Categories biodiversity, citizenship, community, CPD, curriculum areas, early years, expressive arts, games and sport, health and wellbeing, homecoming, international, languages, leadership, learner voice, mathematics, outdoor learning, primary schools, religious and moral education, renewables and climate change, sciences, scottish culture, secondary schools, sharing practice, social studies, sustainable development, technologies, waste

Thank you to all those who took part in Education Scotland’s regional event programme exploring children’s rights, global citizenship and outdoor learning. We hope this proved to be a valuable and worthwhile professional learning opportunity.

The majority of the presentations, handouts and videos from all three regional events (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness) have now been uploaded to Glow for practitioners to access. These are available from the Developing Global Citizenship Glow Group at: http://glo.li/XtMdn9

Remember too that on-going support, advice and networking opportunities are available anytime through our professional learning communities on Glow: http://bit.ly/DGConline (global citizenship), http://bit.ly/12qxI1u (outdoor learning), http://bit.ly/10jWdgK (rights, support and wellbeing).

We hope these resources and communities are useful and provide further inspiration, ideas to support your work. Thanks once again to all those who participated (and supported the event) for your commitment and enthusiasm to these important areas of learning.

February 27th, 2013

Diversity, equality and respect

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: diversity, equality, rights
 : Categories citizenship, religious and moral education, social studies

The aspiration that our young people become ‘Responsible Citizens’ in a flourishing and diverse society is a fundamental part of the Curriculum for Excellence. Schools do excellent work in encouraging pupils to develop positive values, respect differences, and create a fairer more inclusive society. Teachers can take advantage of the many resources, projects and competitions which help young people to become active thoughtful contributors to society.

Education Scotland has a new publication for schools which aims to support them in promoting diversity and equality through planning successful learning with their students. Titled “Promoting Diversity and Equality: developing responsible citizens for 21st century Scotland“, it is available for free download.

Another new resource comes from the ‘Stand Up to Sectarianism’ project, which targets youth workers and teachers and assists them to develop new work with their students or clients that will change attitudes and challenge discrimination. The online resource is complemented by training sessions for youth workers.

February 7th, 2013

Scottish Learning Festival 2013 – could your school be involved?

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: CPD, events, learner voice, rights, school improvement
 : Categories citizenship, CPD, curriculum areas, early years, expressive arts, health and wellbeing, international, languages, leadership, mathematics, primary schools, religious and moral education, sciences, secondary schools, sharing practice, social studies, sustainable development, technologies

The Scottish Learning Festival 2013 will take place on Wednesday 25^th and Thursday 26^th September in the SECC, Glasgow.  The theme for SLF 2013 is Raising the bar in Scotland – transforming lives through learning.

The Global Citizenship Team would love to showcase some of the excellent work taking place in Scottish schools on the theme of children’s rights, global citizenship, pupil voice, sustainability and outdoor learning. If your school has ideas and interesting practice to share then we’d like to encourage you to propose a seminar.

SLF 2013 will support practitioners explore a wide range of practical approaches, resources and research aimed at improving achievement and attainment for all our learners in Scotland.

The Call for Participation is now open and full details of the theme along with the online submission form are available on the SLF website.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/slf/aboutslf/callforparticipation.asp

If you would like to submit a proposal for consideration please do so before Friday 8^th March.

The 2013 conference programme and registration will be launched in May and will feature the sessions that have been submitted and selected for inclusion.

If you would like any further information or talk through a potential proposal then please contact the Team at globalcitizens@educationscotland.gov.uk

January 29th, 2013

Regional events – rights, citizenship and outdoor learning

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: CPD, david livingstone, democracy, events, human rights, learner voice, school improvement
 : Categories citizenship, commonwealth, curriculum areas, early years, expressive arts, games and sport, health and wellbeing, homecoming, international, languages, leadership, mathematics, primary schools, religious and moral education, sciences, scottish culture, secondary schools, sharing practice, social studies, sustainable development, technologies

Who should attend:  School leaders, local authority staff and those with a whole school responsibility for global citizenship, sustainability, children’s rights and outdoor learning

Sectors: Early Years, ASN, primary and secondary schools

When:                 

• Edinburgh (Wed 13^th March)
• Glasgow (Wed 20^th March)
• Inverness  (Mon 18th March)

Education Scotland will host three regional events in March 2013 to explore the implications of the Learning for Sustainability report and Children and Young People’s Bill

The Bill, which will be considered by the Scottish Parliament in 2013, will seek to enshrine the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child in Scottish legislation, thus placing statutory duties on all public sector bodies including local authorities and schools.  These events will also help schools consider how to move forward strategically in a range of related areas including children’s rights, pupil voice and participation, global citizenship, sustainability, outdoor learning and Games Legacy activities.

These events will showcase interesting practice from around the country and include input from school inspectors about the changes taking place within the policy landscape and how this might impact on schools. The events will also highlight the many inspiring moments of learning taking place in 2013/14, such as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Year of Natural Scotland, which provide exciting opportunities for schools to develop coherent whole school approaches.

Places will be limited and offered to local authorities on a pro-rata basis but if you’re interested in attending then please note the above dates for your diary.

These events will be free to attend. Please direct further enquiries to globalcitizens@educationscotland.gov.uk

January 25th, 2013

Global development goals – seeking the views of young people

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: development goals, global development, pupil voice, shape the future
 : Categories africa, citizenship, health and wellbeing, ICT, international, learner voice, religious and moral education, social studies, sustainable development

The current United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which underpin international efforts to reduce global poverty and support development in many poor nations, will come to an end in 2015. There has been great progress, and there will be more in the intervening years, but it is already clear that in some of the 8 themed areas the targets will not be met. The international community is now considering the next set of Development Goals which will follow the MDGs. A High Level Panel on the Post 2015 Development Agenda is leading this work, and Prime Minister David Cameron is one of the co-chairs of this Panel.

The Department for International Development has challenged Secondary schools acros the UK to engage pupils in the discussion about what the next set of goals should be. Its ‘Shape the Future’ competition, launched this week with the support of the Scottish Government, targets pupils from the first three years of secondary school. Each team of up to five students will discuss the issues and formulate ideas for the next goals. The team will then create a short presentation of their proposals in multimedia form. The deadline for this first stage is 28th March.

Five schools will be shortlisted for the second stage, and given mentor and workshop support to refine their proposals and prepare a final presentation. These school teams will gather in London to make their final pitches to an Expert Panel. The winning team will work with Oxfam on a special project over the subsequent months.

The challenge represents a great opportunity to get young people engaged with development issues that will change the world they will live in.

A dedicated resource pack for schools, to assist with taking part in the Shape the Future challenge, will soon be available to download from the Global Dimensions website. There are also many links to global citizenship resources and organisations from our own Education Scotland website.

An information sheet for teachers at Scottish schools is available for download and distribution.

Shape the Future schools competition – info sheet for schools (Scotland)

January 24th, 2013

Food, Hunger and Global Citizenship

nickmorgan

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: food, hunger
 : Categories africa, citizenship, health and wellbeing, international, religious and moral education, social studies

The ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ campaign in the UK launched this week, aiming to persuade “politicians, institutions, organisations, faith groups, private companies and individuals to reflect on their role in tackling global hunger and to take action”. If changes are made, in areas such as taxation and development aid, huge numbers of people will see improvements in their lives and health.

It is a consortium approach from a large number of UK charities, working together to highlight key issues around food, land, tax justice, trade, sustainable agriculture and much more. Partners include Christian Aid, Oxfam, SCIAF, ActionAid and many more.

The IF campaign website explains more about the issues and the activities the campaign partners will lead, and a Schools section has resources for teachers to support them in covering these global citizenship issues in the classroom. A video introduction is available on YouTube.

This campaign to reduce global hunger has the support of the UK government, and the Prime Minister makes a video statement on the Department for International Development website.

The BBC TV story “End hunger for ever campaign launched by UK aid organisations” and the Guardian story “Anti-hunger campaign ‘IF’ launches with call for G8 to act” provide background and commentary.

Some of the charities involved have also produced dedicated resources for teachers, to help bring these themes into lessons. For example, Oxfam suggests ways to engage pupils about global hunger. Christian Aid has also produced a series of assemblies and activities around the campaign

January 7th, 2013

Holocaust commemoration 2013

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories citizenship, europe, expressive arts, international, religious and moral education, social studies

In the UK we mark Holocaust Memorial Day each year on 27th January, the anniversary of the day on which the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated by Soviet armed forces. Many teachers will address the themes of genocide, prejudice and discrimination through educational activities during January. This work will not be solely contained in History lessons, spreading across many areas of the curriculum and school life.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust selects a theme each year as a focus for commemorative activities in the UK. In 2013 the theme is ‘Communities together: Build a Bridge’, aiming to remember the victims and to encourage today’s citizens to challenge hatred and prejudice and promote rights. Their 2013 campaign website provides background information, links to local events, and resources to help local organisers run appropriate programmes. The HMDT approach includes coverage of the Holocaust of World War Two and also more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and the Sudan.

Here in Scotland each year a different Local Authority takes the lead for Holocaust Memorial Day. Glasgow City Council will lead national commemorations, with events in the City Chambers and in schools in the weeks before and after the 27th. Education Scotland will use the national education intranet service Glow to extend some of this Glasgow activity to a wider audience in other Scottish schools; for example, a one hour online session on the 23rd in which school pupils interpret ‘Communities together: Build a Bridge’ through the arts in film, drama, song and more.

The Education Scotland Online Service has a collection of resources and links that will be helpful for teachers who are planning lessons around this issue.