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2 February 2009

Children, Schools and Families Select Committee

House of Commons

7 Millbank

London

SW1P 3JA

Dear Sir/Madam

Response to Inquiry into Teacher Training

Please find attached our evidence submitted for this inquiry. We would be happy to supply further evidence on any of these areas if required.

Yours faithfully

Hetan Shah

Chief Executive

Submission of Evidence from DEA to the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee Inquiry into Teacher Training– February 2009

Executive Summary

  • Globalisation presents a number of social, political, cultural, environmental and economic challenges and opportunities.Teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting young people to understand and respond to this complexity to the benefit of all young people and the society in which we live.
  • Our Ipsos MORI research with young people and with teachers shows that they see global learning as very important but do not believe enough is taking place in their schools.
  • DCSF, and the Government as a whole, has a significant range of policies and aspirations related to global learning. However, teacher education needs to be developed significantly to realise these goals.
  • More and better global learning is needed to meet these challenges and commitments. Greater status and investment is needed for teacher education in global learning.
  • Teacher retention can be improved by teachers thinking about how teaching contributes to making the world a better place.
  • Better joining up is needed across government to address the many government priorities related to global learning, including those of DFID.
  • Support is needed for reflective teacher education on cross-curricula and enquiry based approaches.

About DEA

DEA is an education charity that promotes global learning. We work to influence schools, curriculum and policy so that children and young people develop an understanding of global issues and events and a global outlook. DEA has a network of member organisations working directly with schools and teachers across the country.

Analysis and recommendations

  1. Recognising the global context

Globalisation presents a number of social, political, cultural, environmental and economic challenges and opportunities. These affect children and young people in a wide range of ways and will increasing affect all aspects of their lives. Teachers have an important role to play in supporting young people to understand and respond to this complexity to the benefit of all young people and the society in which we live.

DEA defines global learning as education that puts learning in a global context, fostering:

  • critical and creative thinking;
  • self-awareness and open-mindedness towards difference;
  • understanding of global issues and power relationships; and
  • optimism and action for a better world.

There are 8 overlapping concepts that are at the heart of global learning and educators bring these out in different ways depending upon the context:

  • Global citizenship
  • Interdependence
  • Social justice
  • Conflict resolution
  • Diversity
  • Values and perceptions
  • Human rights
  • Sustainable development

Young people, teachers and employers all put forward the case for learning that prepares young people for a global future. This, in turn, requires significant developments in teacher training, as is set out in the rest of this submission.

Young people want global learning; do not get enough of it; and demonstrate significant attitude change when they do experience it. Ipsos MORI research with secondary school pupils shows that:

  • Almost one in five (19%) have not discussed news stories from around the world at all in school. These young people are being excluded from understanding the global society they live in.
  • Only around two in five (42%) of pupils believe that what they do in their daily life affects people in other countries, showing they are not making the connections about, for example, climate change.
  • Only 50% of pupils think it is a good idea to have people of different backgrounds living in the same country together. 14% actively disagree with the idea. Black (76%) and Asian (66%) pupils are significantly more likely than White pupils (47%) to believe it is a good idea.
  • The research shows, however, that those who experience global learning at school are more likely to feel there is something they can do to make the world a better place, be more open to those from different backgrounds and appreciate that what they do in their daily lives can affect those in other countries. For example, 72% of pupils who have thought about news stories from around the world from different points of view at school say they try to do things to make the world a better place, compared to only 49% of pupils who have not done this at school.

(Ipsos MORI surveyed 1,955 pupils from 82 middle and secondary state schools in England between 11th January and 28th March 2008 on behalf of DEA. See for full details.)

Teachers report that their creativity is stifled and they do not have enough space to reflect on the deeper issues in education. Our research has found,

“there is a large gap between the proportion of teachers who think schools should prepare pupils to deal with a fast-changing and globalised world (94%), and the proportion who believe the current school system actually does this (58%). This gap is even starker when it comes to secondary school teachers (just 53% of secondary school teachers agree the current system prepares pupils well, compared with 62% of primary staff).

(DEA/Ipsos MORI, Publication forthcoming (March 2009), Teachers Omnibus 2008 for DEA)

The effect that globalisation has had upon the way that business operates and thus upon business needs from employees is also significant. In succeeding in the drive to cut carbon and operate in a sustainable way, business will obviously be dependent on the levels of understanding amongst employees. Furthermore, to compete successfully in a global marketplace, businesses need employees with a global perspective, who are able to communicate with people from wide range of social and cultural backgrounds,“PWC’s young people will have to take on some very complex global challenges in the years to come, and they will need more than business skills and an MBA - they will also have to be socially aware, possess intercultural communication skills, be thoughtful, committed to accountability and above all compassionate.” Price Waterhouse Coopers[1]

  1. Government progress on global learning

DCSF, and the Government as a whole, has set out a range ofplans and aspirations in response to the challenges of our global future. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stated, “I want to see the teaching of global issues given more weight in our schools and colleges and already we have taken steps to make issues like globalisation, environmental sustainability and citizenship a core part of the curriculum” (DEA, 2008, ‘Global Matters’). Furthermore:

  • The new secondary curriculum is aims-led and includes much more global learning, including a global and sustainable development dimension across all subjects.
  • DCSF has a Sustainable Development Action Plan and has introduced a ‘Sustainable Schools’ programme to embed sustainability, including the global dimension in the curriculum and culture of schools. The Government wants all schools to be ‘Sustainable Schools’ by 2020. This agenda is linked to the work of DEFRA and DECC.
  • The key domestic education goal of the DfES 2004 International Strategy, ‘Putting the World into World Class Education’ is, ‘Equipping our children, young people and adults for life in a global society and work in a global economy’.
  • DFID’s 2006 Eliminating World Poverty White Paper states that they “seek to give every child in the UK the chance to learn about the issues that shape their world”.
  • With cross party support, Citizenship has been introduced as a National Curriculum subject and despite its slow and difficult implementation, this is beginning to have positive impacts.
  • The Race Relations Amendment Act and the duty to promote community cohesion put legal requirements on schools to promote race equality and an understanding of diversity.

However, all these plans and aspirations require considerable cross-departmental collaboration and significant developments in teacher training to be fully realised.

  1. Implications of global learning for all teacher education

To address the issues and commitments outlinedabove, teachersmust have global learning embedded in their ITET and CPD.

Challenging issues around the global dimension,sustainable development, race equality and community cohesion do not currently receive a high enough priority and status within ITT or CPD. Teachers need more support around their understanding of complex and sometimes controversial issues such as war, poverty, climate change, or the changing global economy.Schools have visions and policies with words such as diversity and inclusion. The question remains as to how deeply these concepts have been discussed and understood by staff. A tick-box approach is not enough.

Globalisation challenges our ideas about knowledge and about the role of the teacher. Teachers need to feel comfortable with the fact that there are things which they do not know; things which are contested and which people have a range of valid views on; and things which nobody has definite answers to, such as the best way to address poverty. This means that teachers need to be comfortable with the role of facilitator rather than imparter of knowledge in certain contexts. This type of teacher education requires space for personal reflection not just the passing on of a set of ‘methods’ to teachers.

Training provision in these areas remains patchy and requires significant status and investment. This should not mean an approach of reactive, snap decisions based on limited research. Time is needed to ensure sustainable embedding of global learning across institutions.

The Joint International Unit chairs a cross-agency ‘Global Dimension Working Group’ Representatives from TDA and training bodies should join this group to consider how the global dimension can be mainstreamed in their work.

  1. Teacher Retention

Ensuring that teacher training includes the global dimension can make an important contribution to teacher retention.

“A high proportion of all teachers (80%) agree that thinking about how teaching contributes to making the world a better place motivates them to stay in teaching. The balance of opinion is more positive among primary than secondary school teachers, with the most positive responses among those interviewed teaching foundation/reception years and Key Stage 1. In particular, this motivation appears to be an important factor for teachers in the sample with 10 years’ experience or less, who show a considerably higher net agreement than those who have been teaching for 11-15 years. The sentiment is most prevalent among newly qualified teachers and among teachers with 1-5 years’ experience, suggesting that it may play an important part in attracting teachers to their profession, and in retention of teachers at early stages in their career.”

(DEA/Ipsos MORI, Publication forthcoming (March 2009), Teachers Omnibus 2008 for DEA)

  1. Entry into teaching

Teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the world and their ability to cope with complexity prior to entry into ITET is important. One major teacher training institutionasks all primary PGCE applicants about their understanding of the global dimension in interviews.

  1. Government support through DFID

In looking at CPD in global learning, it is important to be aware of the major positive contribution made by DFID. DFID’s work aims to ensure all pupils learn about development issues in school.

This comprises funding for a range of positive initiatives. A key one of these is ‘Enabling effective support for a global dimension in education’ (EES). It aims “to build capacity within the UK’s education systems so they respond to the challenges of educating young people to understand and help shape the globalising and interdependent world in which they live.”Each government region has a different strategy in response to EES. They offer a range of examples of how to work collaboratively, bringing schools, local authorities, universities and other providers together towards a common goal. This is a major ten year programme, with funding of over £1 million a year.

DFID also funds a great deal of support work in schools through its Development Awareness Fund. This fund spends approximately £1 million per annum on projects, mostly in the formal sector, that raise understanding of development and global issues.

DFID also funds the Global Dimension Website ( of teaching resources which is run by DEA.

DFID iscurrently planning a review of itsBuilding Support for Development strategy.Given it is probably the most significant funder supporting work around the global dimension in England, this is an important opportunity to strengthen its impact. There are a number of issues it needs to consider:

  • How can DFID use its funding most effectively to support teachers on the global dimension?
  • What has been the impact of the substantial funding DFID has put into education and teacher support? What have been the most effective interventions?
  • How can the work that DFID funds in the formal education sector support learning about complex issues rather than just awareness raising?
  • How can DFID,and the organisations which it funds, join up more effectively with DCSF (especially the Joint International unit, Community Cohesion unit and Sustainable Development unit) and with other education agencies such as QCA, TDA, Ofsted, SSAT, NCSL.
  1. Initial Teacher Education and Training (ITET)

The Centre for Cross Curricular Initiatives (CCCI) London South Bank University manage a UK wide network ( of those involved in teacher education around global citizenship and education for sustainable development. This receives some funding from TDA, ESCalate and WWF-UK. The network brings together good practice, has a website to disseminate policy, research and practice and runs an annual conference. The network also supports regional networks across the UK. The network has been highly successful in bringing together practitioners, policy makers and NGOs and has the full support of UCET, the TDA has been very supportive of the network and is represented on the steering group of the network. If the network is to sustain current activities and further develop it will require more permanent central funding.

Government priorities around the global dimension; education for sustainable development; and community cohesion should be made more explicit across the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status and the other Standards.

Training for ITET tutors is needed in innovative approaches including enquiry methods such as Philosophy for Children ( and Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry ( These kind of approaches were recommended in the Ajegbo Report (DCSF, 2007, ‘Curriculum Review: Diversity and Citizenship’).

Secondary ITET courses are currently largely structured by subject. This is an obstacle to important cross curricula themes such as the global dimension as well as to the implementation of the new secondary curriculum which encourages more cross curricula working. TDA and Ofsted have an important role to play in addressing this.

More Citizenship teachers need to be trained (there are currently just over 1,000). The TDA should recognise the important and transformative effect good Citizenship teachers can have on schools, not just on Citizenship teaching as a subject.

  1. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

We are concerned that the National Strategies are leading to a narrow and mechanistic ‘delivery’ oriented approach to CPD.

Teachers need support with more than literacy and numeracy. All subjects have important roles to play. Furthermore, the new secondary curriculum and the upcoming primary curriculum will require teachers and senior leaders to have much more support in curriculum development and making connections between areas of learning.

Challenging issues around the global dimension, sustainable development, race equality and community cohesion are not straightforward. They require discussion and reflection by all involved to be meaningful.

Creative spaces which are not necessarily billed as CPDbut which provide opportunities for discussion and peer learning can be extremely valuable. Examples include groups of teachers getting together to discuss how to use a particular resource or to develop a new resource for publication (for example, Birmingham’s Tide ~ Global learning -

Subject associations have an important role to play in supporting teachers to think about the global dimension and linkages to sustainable development in their subject. Government should consider a package of support for subject associations to provide CPD for their members around this area.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important role in providing teacher CPD around global learning, given their expertise on relevant issues. Uniquely, the UK has around 45 Global Education Centres (Development Education Centres) who support local schools to embed global learning. Support is, however, not consistent across different regions, for example, London only has one DEC. Work needs to be done to see how more consistent provision of such support can be provided in every region.