Georgea Hughes, Programme Manager at The Wood Foundation – operational manager and principal funder of Global Learning Partnerships
There has never been a greater need for meaningful global education. The role and influence of a teacher should not be confined to making pupils memorise textbooks.
Teachers can, and should be, a source of inspiration and equip learners with the skills, confidence and opportunities for critical thinking and enquiry.
In terms of promoting and building upon the aims of the SDGs, this approach is vital.
In the education profession, there is a recognised need for Learning for Sustainability and Global Education. Yet understanding how this can be implemented alongside other priorities and heavy workloads is seen as a challenge.
Effective CPD/CLPL is vital in addressing this perceived challenge. Showing education professionals that these are not add-ons but how they can be weaved into and enhance the teaching of other subject areas. Context-based learning is a hugely important tool, particularly when relating to the SDGs.
Lived experience of education in another culture is transformative for practitioners. Stripping teaching back to basics, challenging themselves and embedding themselves in a society vastly different to their own reignites a passion for teaching, promotes leadership qualities and changes views on resources.
These elements combined, as well as having a first-hand experience to hang examples of Learning for Sustainability from, significantly enhances lessons promoting the SDGs directly to pupils, as well as to other education practitioners.
Empowering this generation of education professionals is one of the most effective ways of delivering a systemic adoption of the SDGs. They are in a unique position to empower their pupils, their learning environments, as well as the wider community.
Global Learning Partnerships is an 18-month unique and immersive CLPL opportunity, accredited by GTCS. A four-week placement in Rwanda or Uganda is augmented with a number of pre and post-departure interventions and opportunities for collaboration with practitioners from throughout the education sector in Scotland. Applications for the 2019 cohort are being accepted until the end of January 2019.
