GLOBAL EDUCATION
Participants agreed that global education should contain the following elements:
> Common universal values/goals - that there should be a certain set of values or goals that education is trying to encourage such as human rights, sustainable human development and peace.
> Solidarity/Empathy - global education should encourage solidarity among human beings from around the world in achievement of these goals. Global education should aim to develop a sense of ‘togetherness‘ or solidarity among the people in the struggle to achieve the agreed goals. An important element of solidarity is empathy or the involvement of a certain amount of human emotion.
> Cultural lntercultural links - global education should take into account the cultural diversity in the world and to promote mutual respect and understanding of the different cultures in the world. This would also involve respecting ‘other-ness‘, that is to respect and try to understand cultures that are not one‘s own and at the same time find the space for peaceful and harmonious co-existence.
> Global Citizenship - Global Education should encourage global citizenship where the people are aware of their rights in the world as well as their responsibilities to the world.
> Interdependence of issues - Global education does not concern single issues in isolation such as ‘human rights‘, ‘sustainable human development‘, ‘environment‘, and ‘peace‘, but these issues are interdependent. An integrated or a holistic approach is required and global education should seek complementarity of these issue areas.
As far as methodology is concerned, participants agreed with the presentations of the
previous day that global education should be:
• student-centred based on the needs and demands of students;
• experiential to reinforce the learning process through actual life experiences;
• participatory involving teachers, parents and community who learn alongside the student;
• learning inside and outside schools;
• lifelong learning, with the ability to learn and unlearn and relearn.
There was little disagreement among the participants concerning global education. One issue where there was slight disagreement concems ‘social justice‘. Whilst many argued that equity and justice should be at the heart of global education a few felt that in practice this is not the case.