As a transition teacher supporting Primary 7 pupils across four primary schools to navigate their journey in to High School, bridging the curricular gap between the primary and secondary sectors has been an enduring challenge. Curricular experiences, even between two or three P7 classes in the same school, can be vastly different, not to mention the differences that become apparent between primary schools. An ambitious solution to this challenge might be a learning community approach to curriculum development, where key concepts, skills and their progression from early years to S3, when the Broad General Education (BGE) phase theoretically ends, are mapped out. Until such consensus emerges, how else can we establish a consistent curricular experience for pupils navigating this transition? Transition teachers are uniquely placed to be part of the solution. And Global Citizenship Education could be how they start.
"An ambitious solution to this challenge (transition) might be a learning community approach to curriculum development, where key concepts, skills and their progression from early years to S3."
The Global Goals
Last year my learning community introduced Global Citizenship as a teaching context for P7 and S1. Each week the young people were introduced to one of the 17 Global Goals. The lessons had a focus on the actions people were taking at home and abroad to help us get closer to achieving these goals. The agency of young people in these initiatives was always central, for in a world where the climate crisis is such an emergency that young people feel climate anxiety, they need to be empowered to believe they have agency.
After learning about Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, several excitable P7s were eager to tell me during our next lesson that not only had they stopped leaving the tap running while brushing their teeth, but they had convinced their whole household to do the same. Small victories among a classroom of young people matter because they inspire their peers to follow suit. But experiences inspire too.
"Among Global Citizenship education’s greatest assets for schools is its emphasis on interdisciplinary and real-world contexts for learning."
Partners for Learning
Last year our S1 Global Citizens visited the Alberta Whittle Exhibition, connecting their learning in the classroom on Goal 10 Reduced inequalities to the artistic exploration of colonialism, xenophobia and climate change at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Connecting classroom learning on Goals 14 &15 Life on Land and Life Below Water, a visiting representative from the Scottish Seabird Centre explained to S1 the effects of climate change on sea bird populations in Scotland, and the fascinating scientific solutions they are deploying to replenish those numbers and protect these precious birds. S1 were also visited by the Moredun Institute’s BioBus, a hands-on experience that linked pupils’ learning about sustainability to a local scientific centre that is innovating vaccine technologies to protect livestock and promote sustainable farming.
Bringing together everything they had learned throughout their Global Citizenship experience, we partnered with United Nations House Scotland (UNHS) to facilitate our learning community’s first ever Model United Nations. This event simulates the actual workings of the UN General Assembly and invited learners to practice the public speaking, international diplomacy and negotiation associated with the passing of a resolution relating to food security (Goal 2 Zero Hunger).
"S1, having been fully introduced to the 17 Global Goals in P7, are now homing in on Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, with the Israel-Palestine conflict as the context for developing their capacities as peacemakers"
Global Goal Passports
This year, to illustrate Global Citizenship’s relevance to all subjects in the High School, S2 have been tasked with completing ScotDec’s Global Goals Passport. Every time a lesson links to a Global Goal (and teachers are planning for these experiences within their existing curricular frameworks) the young people complete the relevant page of their passport. The more goals they manage to cover, the greater the reward with Bronze, Silver and Gold among the possibilities. S1, having been fully introduced to the 17 Global Goals in P7, are now homing in on Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, with the Israel-Palestine conflict as the context for developing their capacities as peacemakers. Their challenge? To come up with a peace plan that would be acceptable to both Israel and Palestine as a win-win solution to this 76 years old conflict. What could be a more relevant real-world context for learning than understanding the roots of the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza right now?
IDL Approaches
Among Global Citizenship education’s greatest assets for schools is its emphasis on interdisciplinary and real-world contexts for learning. It brings both the local and the global in to the classroom. Young people’s learning, particularly as they progress in to the senior phase preparing for exams, becomes increasingly siloed and abstract from the world outside the school gates. Global Citizenship education keeps those gates open and provides opportunities for young people to discover who they are and their place in the world. It has, therefore, the capacity not just to bridge the transition but to enhance the entire BGE and senior phase experience too.
