Global Learning and Education: Key concepts and effective practice

What is globalisation?

How are its effects felt by different people across the world?

How can we help young people flourish in a world characterised by globalisation?

Conflict, poverty, breaches of human rights, and environmental sustainability are everyday issues for global citizens today, old and young. Global Learning and Education presents a detailed and challenging introduction to a central concern facing education systems and curricula around the world: How young people understand and experience globalisation and how meaningful global learning can be developed.

Encouraging a critical and reflective approach in order to advance understanding of a range of theoretical and practical factors, it considers the meaning and definitions of globalisation, global citizenship and global education. Global Learning and Education explores key issues including interconnectedness and interdependency, cultural diversity, social justice and sustainable development. It considers how global learning should and can imbue all aspects of education, within curriculum subjects, through project based learning, and through extra-curricular activities that help students participate and engage in global issues. It argues the importance of the mission and ethos of a school itself, of shaping global learning for different educational contexts, and of ensuring teaching and learning meets the needs of individual learners.

Global Learning and Education is a comprehensive, thought-provoking - sometimes contentious - introduction for educationalists concerned with what globalisation means for our young people. Illustrated throughout with case studies that seek to inspire creativity and hope, and including questions and suggested reading for further investigation, it is essential reading for all those involved in the teaching and learning of young people, as well as those studying this vital topic on Education Studies and Masters level courses.

Andrew Peterson is Senior Lecturer in History and Civic Education at the University of South Australia, Australia.

Paul Warwick is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Futures, Plymouth University, UK.