Development Education - Higher Education Academy

Development Education,
Education for Sustainable
Development and Global
Perspectives within
Higher Education
Dr. Douglas Bourn
Development Education
Research Centre
Institute of Education

Aims of Paper
Increased interest in global perspectives
and students as global citizens
Drivers in these debates have been NGOs
from a development education perspective
and academics from a number of
universities
Issues from research on these matters at
IOE
Debates on global perspectives and global
citizenship needs to be recognised as a
key component of strategies on
sustainable development

Development Education- what is it?
Development education is about:
enabling people to understand the links between their own
lives and those of people throughout the world;
increasing understanding of the global economic, social and
political environmental forces which shape our lives;
developing the skills, attitudes and values which enable
people to work together to bring about change and to take
control of their own lives;
working to achieve a more just and sustainable world in
which power and resources are equitably shared.
‘Development education is an approach to learning that
lead to a greater understanding of (global) inequalities, of
why they exist and what can be done about them. It
encourages learners of all ages to explore how global
issues, such as poverty, link in with their everyday lives. By
challenging stereotypes and encouraging independent
thinking, development education aims to help people
develop the practical skills and confidence to make positive
changes locally and globally.
(DEA)

Academic Status of Development
Education
Despite wealth of practice in UK and other
industrialised countries, no distinct body
of thinking, writing or research within
higher education
NGO and practice driven agenda
Yet development education principles and
practices been influential in number of
areas, including teacher training, youth
work and more recently in the debates on
global perspectives within higher
education.

ESD – what is it and where has it
come from
Environmental education
Environmental education plus
Environmental education and development education
Environmental education, development education plus …….
Education for sustainable development is the knowledge,
skills, understanding and values to participate in decisions
about the way we do things individually and collectively,
both locally and globally, that will improve the wuality of
life now without damaging the planet of the future.
Sustainable Development Education Panel (Final Report,
2003)

UNESCO ESD
The overall goal of the DESD is to integrate the principles,
values, and practices of sustainable development into all
aspects of education and learning. This educational effort
will encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more
sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity,
economic viability, and a just society for present and future
generations.
The basic vision of the DESD is a world where everyone has
the opportunity to benefit from education and learn the
values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable
future and for positive societal transformation. This
translates into four objectives, to:
1. Facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction
among stakeholders in ESD;
2. Foster an increased quality of teaching and learning in
education for sustainable development;
3. Help countries make progress towards and attain
Millennium Development Goals through ESD
efforts;
4. Provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate
ESD into education reform efforts.
(Unesco.org.).)

UNESCO ESD themes
ESD will be shaped by a range of perspectives from all
fields of human development and including all the acute
challenges, which the world faces. ESD cannot afford to
ignore their implications for a more just and more
sustainable process of change. The plan notes the
important perspectives provided by: human rights, peace
and human security, gender equality, cultural diversity and
intercultural understanding, health, HIV/AIDS, governance,
natural resources, climate change, rural development,
sustainable urbanisation, , disaster prevention and
mitigation, poverty reduction, corporate responsibility and
accountability, market economy.
(www.unesco.org/esd)

Strategies on ESD within HE
In our view the greatest contribution higher
education has to make to sustainable
development is by enabling students to develop
new values, skills and knowledge. The main
(though not the only) way to make this happen is
through curricula and pedagogy’
‘sustainable development is the remit of those
who manage estates or teach environmental
management’
‘upgrade skills on sustainable development’

International Strategies within
HE
Perception:
internationalisation is about recruiting
international students… speak to the International
Office’
But at Birmingham for example includes ‘ensuring
academic programmes have an appropriate
international dimension embedded within the
curricula
At Leicester develop ‘programmes and learning
processes that promote the internationalisation of
the University and foster global perspectives
amongst students.

Response to Globalisation
Enabling graduates to develop the
appropriate knowledge, skills and
values to be effective in a globalised
world would seem to be a necessary
component of being ‘world-class’

Global University and University
as Global Citizen
UCL sees global citizenship within the
context of:
increased focus in departmental
literature on different perspectives
Developing graduates in the round
Student Volunteering

Internationalisation
Internationalisation is… ‘the process
of integrating an
international/intercultural dimension
into the teaching, research and
service of an institution.
Leeds Metropolitan University.

Students as Global Citizens
Students today live in a global society - a
society where they cannot ignore global
interdependence and global inequalities.
How are today's students going to
understand and to respond to the
freedoms, problems and the
responsibilities they are inheriting? How
are today's students going to find their
individual roles in a global society? And
where do they start?
(Students As Global Citizens People and
Planet, DiA, , EWB, STAR)

IOE student perceptions
- Somebody who is aware of issues
both locally and globally and wishes
to positively improve the world.
- A global citizen is someone who
travels, uses the internet, mobile
phones, watches TV,we are all global
citizens
- Treating everyone the same and
everybody who lives in the world

UCL Student Perspectives
Majority of students were ambivalent about their own identity,
were not sure how to define themselves both in relation to their
own community and the wider world.
Virtually all of them said they would like to learn and engage more
in wider world issues and questions. Several said they wanted to
make a positive contribution to the world and studying at UCL
gave them additional opportunities to do this.
Globalisation was seen predominantly about opening up
communities to world trade and to being more interconnected
with people around the world.
Few however directly related their views to the role and purpose
of the university.
On being a global citizen seen as an elitist concept .
Those students who have lived and travelled around the world and
who came from more than one specific cultural background were
more positive about the term.
On role in the world in the future, those students who did get to
this area tended to have a low opinion of their own potential
contribution despite their interest in the world.

Global Perspectives in Higher
Education
Understand our situation in a wider context
Make connections between local and global
events and scales
Develop skills and knowledge to interpret events
affecting our lives
Learn form experiences elsewhere in the world
Identify common interests and explore wider
horizons
(Bourn,MacKenzie, Shiel, , 2006)

Areas to consider
Corporate Responsibility and Behaviour –
the University as a global citizen.
Curricula and pedagogy – embedding
Global Perspectives into the curricula.
Extra-curricular activities to support
citizenship and international awareness.

Global Perspectives at
Bournemouth University
values methodologies, techniques and academic analysis
from other cultures
challenges and discards prejudice
considers with sensitivity the effect of our actions on others
locally and globally, both now and in the future
questions Eurocentric, rich world, restricted perspectives
and takes into account viewpoints and circumstances from
all regions of the world
presents learners with the capcity to calculate the risks of
decision making
acknowledges the global forces that affect us all and
promotes justice and equality
empowers learners to bring about change
provides an international curriculum and seeks
opportunitites to develop students international awareness
and competence

Development Education –ESD
–
Global Perspectives
‘Global perspectives and education
for sustainability may have a
different focus, they are linked
conceptually and in terms of
developing students as global
citizens. (Otter)

Concluding Thoughts
Development education is an important
component of ESD
Debates on ESD in HE needs to recognise
connections with debates on internationalisation
and global perspectives
However need to move beyond slogans and
phrases like ‘being a global citizen’ without
undertaking research to assess how the terms
are perceived and understood and related to
learning
Global Perspectives provides a useful framework
within which to debate and take forward these
debates

d.bourn@ioe.ac.uk