Making links
Global issues are part of many young people's lives in a way that they never were for previous generations. Television, the internet, international sport and increased opportunities for travel all bring the wider world closer into daily life.
Society today is enhanced by peoples, cultures, languages, religions, art, technologies, music and literature originating in many different parts of the world. Economies around the world are more than ever interdependent on both trade with, and investment from, other countries. But while there have been huge changes for the better for millions of people, one in five of the world's population still lives in extreme poverty.
The activity on the right gives you an opportunity to link the wider world to your daily life.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
Part 1: for teachers
You may like to do this activity yourself to reflect on some of the issues before it is carried out at a staff meeting, or in an INSET session.
- Click on the Images icon to view the seven images. Choose one image which you feel has the most connection with your own life and one image that has the least. Note down the reasons for each choice.
- Look at the images again, this time concentrating on those that connect with:
- your school;
- the local community in which your school is based
- Look at your notes for the above choices. Are the images you chose different each time or are any repeats? Comment on why you think that is.
- Read the introductory paragraphs again (on the left). Write down three additional ways in which global issues are a part of all of our lives; some reasons may be prompted by the images.
- What questions or issues does this exercise raise for you about the curriculum in your school? Note down up to five questions or issues.
- Ask several colleagues to carry out the same exercise using some of your own images of people's lives around the world, for example from newspapers and magazines. Alternatively, go straight to the discussion of the way in which global issues have connections with all of our lives. Collect the questions and issues raised about the curriculum for use later in this unit.
Part 2: for pupils
Collect your own images of people's lives around the world to use for this part of the activity.
- Go to the 'Global Express' section of the Development Education Project (DEP) web site: Development Education Project Click on 'Classroom activities'.
- Choose one or more of the activities to carry out with your class, for example '19: Asylum seekers'.
- Note down two outcomes relating to pupils' perceptions of global issues.
