Global Citizenship magazine for schools

'We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories'. Margaret Atwood's once impossible nightmare, The Handmaid’s Tale, and its description of theocracy and oppression somewhere in North America, seems increasingly prescient as the years pass.

Literature has always been a way to explore and make sense of the most complex issues, to personalise and humanise these, to inform and to warn.

Power of a story

Literature has always been a way to explore and make sense of the most complex issues, to personalise and humanise these, to inform and to warn. In the same way, teachers have always used stories as a way into exploring challenging issues with learners. Even very young children can appreciate the difficulties of arriving friendless in a strange country, such as Paddington Bear found himself dealing with. At the other end of the spectrum, Benjamin Zephaniah's Refugee Boy [1] provides a context for older children to explore the human impact of being forced to flee your home and seek refuge in a strange land.

An exploration of real world issues based on the principles of Global Citizenship offers rich and varied opportunities to develop learners’ skills in literacy. Over the years, teachers working with Scotland's DECs have been extremely creative in identifying such opportunities. These range from blogging and powerful speeches delivered to parliamentary committees [2] , to creating animations which raise awareness of sustainably farmed palm oil [3].

Engagement and motivation

How does this fit with the national attainment strategy and the push to close the gap, currently at the top of every practitioner's agenda? DECs and many teachers of the teachers they have worked with have consistently argued that providing opportunities for learners to use their learning as a basis for positive action has a beneficial impact on engagement and motivation to learn. There are many anecdotal examples of this.

One secondary Geography teacher planned learning around an environmental impact assessment in a local park, which identified challenges to this community space, such as vandalism and littering. Learners then used this as a basis for approaching local representatives to address the issues. Describing the reaction of one of his harder to engage learners, the teacher said, "As soon as we got into the library to write a letter to the council, as soon as she felt she could make a difference, she was all about it'. Children said 'We liked that we felt we could do something'."

Positive impact

Similarly, evidence is emerging that empowering learners to understand real world issues and develop the skills to take action in response can have a positive impact on attainment. An Ofsted report from 2009 stated, "head teachers cited examples of work on sustainability leading to higher levels of commitment and engagement and to improved performance on the part of their pupils. Some attributed this to the way that research into topics... had extended the pupils' critical thinking skills. Schools also commented on how pupils were motivated by the realisation that their efforts could lead to change." [4]

While further research is required to establish a cause and effect relationship between improved attainment and teaching and learning built around Global Citizenship, teachers' professional judgement on the positive impact it can have on attainment is an important measure of impact.

'We liked that we felt we could do something'.

Active citizens

Communication and co-operation, critical thinking, problem-solving, conflict resolution, leadership and advocacy – these are all skills which learning built around Global Citizenship aims to develop in young people. It is hardly surprising therefore, that teachers who engage with the themes and methods of Global Citizenship have a strong sense of the positive influence this can have on learners.

What is inarguable is that we owe it to those learners at risk of losing out in the educational process, perhaps more than to any other group, to develop their sense of themselves as empowered and active citizens, individuals who can take action to have a positive influence, on their own stories and on the stories of others - the people who are not in the papers.

Footnotes