Global development education
Published: Aug 12, 2019 Reading time: 2 minutes
Global development education helps us to better understand the interconnection between the world and the global society that we are part of. This is a life-long process of education that inspires us to scrutinise the world around us constantly and to make an effort to understand the relationship between us and other people and places around the world. The goals of such education include promotion of certain values in people, such as global responsibility and respect for themselves, other people and also for the Earth and its limits.
Through Varianty, we help teachers work with the topics comprised in global development education and introduce this approach in all aspects of school life. We want to move towards a society where all people can live a dignified life that satisfies them, in harmony with others and with the Earth. And therefore we want education to help each person to become self-confident, open-minded, well-established and engaged.
We endorse the concept of Global Citizenship as conceived by UNESCO and the process of meeting the goals of sustainable development. We are attempting to implement the National Global Development Education Strategy and the Framework Education Programme. We also cooperate with organisations abroad and contribute to the network of Czech organisations www.globalnirozvojovevzdelavani.cz.
We concentrate on values such as respect and open-mindedness towards others, solidarity, justice, freedom and respect for human rights. We bring to a method of working with schoolchildren’s knowledge base, attitudes and skills in lessons.
We put together programmes and educational materials which:
- help schoolchildren see their lives in contexts, teach them to take an interest in the world and to orientate themselves in it
- reinforce pupils’ affinity for the place where they live and for the whole world
- develop a feeling of having common aims with others and increase motivation in schoolchildren to tackle the challenges of today’s world, both close and distant
- guide schoolchildren towards critical evaluation of information, teach them to form their own opinions supported by arguments.
For a deeper understanding of the issues covered by global development education, we also work with the innovative method Philosophy for Children which helps find answers to the most pressing issues of today’s world, and with the concept of active citizenship which, based on their experience, gives schoolchildren an insight into the interdependency of the world.
We offer teachers long-term support for systematic inclusion of global development education in tuition and create topic-related and methodological materials.
