http://www.dea.org.uk

In a fast changing, globalised world, education needs to help people understand the wider world around them and make the global connections between issues such as poverty or climate change and their own lives. It should prepare them to live and work in a global society and economy and engage them to make the world a better place.
DEA defines global learning as education that puts learning in a global context, fostering:

critical and creative thinking;
self-awareness and open-mindedness towards difference;
understanding of global issues and power relationships; and
optimism and action for a better world.

This is a broad concept, and DEA encourages educators to think about the global learning needs of their students, which will be different in different contexts.
There are eight overlapping concepts that are at the heart of global learning:

Global citizenship
Interdependence
Social justice
Conflict resolution
Diversity
Values and perceptions
Human rights
Sustainable development

Educators will bring these out in different ways depending upon the context.

Why global learning?

The global learning challenge

DEA's work programme presently focuses on young people. Today's young people will go on to live and work in a truly global age. Failure to give them a global perspective through their education has major consequences:

For children themselves, who will live and work in a truly global age, yet are missing out on essential global learning, leaving them feeling powerless, holding parochial attitudes and with damaged prospects for future success.
For parents, who already fear that the school system does not give their children a wide enough set of skills for life.
For communities, because it diminishes our chances of tackling the defining issues of our time: national and international poverty, climate change and racial and religious tensions.
For society, in achieving goals related to world class education, social mobility, community cohesion, environmental sustainability and international poverty reduction.
For employers, who are concerned about a workforce with a narrow skills base, and a ‘little England' mentality without the ability to succeed in a global economy.

The impact of global learning

DEA/ Ipsos MORI evidence shows that global learning has a very real and positive impact on children. Discussing news stories from around the world led to a 35% increase in the number of young people agreeing that it was a good idea for people from different backgrounds to live together in the same country. Discussing what people can do to make the world a better place led to an increase of 48% in the number of young people who want to understand why there are problems in the world, and an increase of 64% in the number who understood that what they do in their daily lives affects people in other countries.

Connect - Challenge - Change. A Practical Guide to Global Youth Work

Publication date: March 2010
Category: Handbooks

In March 2010 DEA published this Practical Guide for Youth Workers.
The Guide contains practice information, tips and learning from the five Global Youth Action projects run over five years in England.
Also part of this series of DEA Youth Work publications are A history of global youth work and the Global Youth Action Project Evaluation Summary.

The online version of Connect - Challenge - Change is a large file. Please download the book in three parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Please contact dean.weston@dea.org.uk for a free hard copy.

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The impact of global learning on public attitudes and behaviours towards international development and sustainability

Publication date: March 2010
Category: Research

This summary of new research on behalf of DEA from Ipsos MORI sets out compelling evidence that government can reap significant benefits by educating people in the UK about global issues. This ‘global learning' is a powerful way of engaging UK people in contributing towards a number of public policy priorities around international development, tackling climate change, building a responsible society and encouraging community cohesion.

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Number of pages: 12
ISBN: 978-1-900109-39-0