Georgina Casas López holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from UAB and a Master’s Degree in Citizenship Education and in Values from the UB. She has extensive experience in the NGO sector, as an educator and developing DE projects.
Contact: E-mail geor.casas@gmail.com
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Abstract
The following article discusses the study to assess the citizenship education proposal: Global express, a teaching resource belonging to the NGO Intermón Oxfam aimed at secondary schoolchildren.
The article is structured in six parts; the first two introducing and presenting the teaching material, the main body of the article details the theoretical framework, the empirical framework and the findings of the assessment. Finally, the conclusions and improvement proposals are set out in the last part of the article.
The article’s conclusions demonstrate that the material partially contributes to the building of citizen competencies. On the one hand, Global express enables the students to have a more empathetic vision of reality and understand certain global issues; on the other, however, it does not achieve positive results when influencing the students’ ability to carry out social transformation actions.
1. Introduction
The evaluation process presented in this article was carried out during the 2010-2011 academic year. It consisted of evaluating the Global express teaching material, a resource of the NGO Intermón Oxfam (hereinafter, IO).
Fruit of the NGO’s interest and the researcher herself, the evaluation focused on the contribution of the material to the development of competencies that foster global citizenship. The process featured the participation of IO experts and teachers linked to the Teachers for global citizenship network .
The researcher’s experience in a working environment in the social and solidarity sector, as well as the recommendations collected in the Management Plan of the Agencia Catalana de Cooperación para el Desarrollo (Catalan Cooperation Agency for Development Cooperation in Spain) for the period of 2007-2010 , demonstrated the lack of evaluation in the majority of the educational activities and proposals made by Catalan NGOs. Therefore, the evaluation of Global express, beyond our findings, contributes to the fostering of a greater evaluation culture in the NGO sector. Conversely, the findings of the same evaluation have direct practical implications, since they enable decisions to be taken with regard to changes that are necessary for the material to contribute more effectively to the development of global citizenship.
The findings published in this article are the fruit of applying some of the techniques developed.
Despite the difficulties encountered throughout the evaluation process and the limitations of the research itself, these findings demonstrate the strongest and weakest competencies. Extrapolating the findings to other educational proposals raises questions and poses challenges that may be of use in debates and discussions with regard to assessing Citizenship Education.
2. Purpose and aims
The purpose of the research is to perform a pilot study to assess the Global express material with regard to the development of global citizenship.
In order to achieve this, the following aims are proposed:
EA1: Design techniques for the evaluation of Global express material.
EA2: Apply the techniques for the evaluation of Global express.
EA3: Analyse the changes in the students with regard to the development of a global citizenship, based on the application of Global express.
EA4: Develop an evaluation proposal for Global express.
The research also indirectly contributes to the NGO’s objectives of strengthening the Teachers for global citizenship network in Catalonia and of opening up spaces for reflecting on educational practice in terms of development education.
3. Presentation of the material
Global express is a teaching resource aimed at secondary education, which causes the students to question among themselves world events that spread through the media. The material fosters critical analysis of reality, enabling the students to gain a clearer idea of the world today and emphasises the situation in which impoverished countries live.
The preparation of the material is handled by an operating committee, which is responsible for the planning, preparing and approving the successive editions of Global express. Its work focuses on different tasks ranging from defining the topic, planning and preparing the teaching proposal (guide and activities) to supporting and validating the report; all tasks are performed by communication specialists who are not linked to the organisation. The commission is formed by one IO expert and six active secondary teachers.
The final outcome of this project consists of a teaching proposal with an informative dossier about the topic, a teaching guide with directions for the teaching body and an activities dossier for the students. This dossier includes different types of activities, which are organised in four phases:
1. The initial or motivational activities, which usually consist of viewing images or photographs.
2. The activities that introduce the students to the causes of the conflict.
3. The activities to discover the consequences of the problem, especially for the population.
4. The activities that analyse the role that, as active citizens, they could play when confronted by one of these situations.
Since 2001, 17 editions of Global express have been published, of which three were studied for this evaluation: ¡Viaje con nosotros… si quiere gozar! (Travel with us… if you want to have a good time!) (2007), ¿Consumista, yo? (Consumerist, me?) (2007) and Castillos de arena (Sand castles) (2010).
The first, published in May 2007, deals with responsible tourism. The second analyses consumerism in society and introduces a responsible consumer exercise as an alternative to build a fairer and more equitable world. The last Global express we analysed focuses on one of the main topics of discussion today: the financial and economic crisis.
The selection of editions that served as the focus of this research was suggested by the IO’s technical team, which consulted with some of the teachers from the Global express operating committee. The three editions that were chosen share a common theme: the economy. Furthermore, they are editions that the teachers have used, and the issue they all deal is still relevant today.
Despite only working with the three aforementioned editions, the evaluation techniques have only been applied to Global express, which deals with the topic of responsible tourism. The results, therefore, make direct reference to the material entitled ¡Viaje con nosotros… si quiere gozar! However, the majority of the conclusions can be extrapolated to the three editions that were the focus of this research.
4. Theoretic framework
4.1. Concept of Citizenship Education
The teaching material analysed forms part of the IO’s educational strategy Education for Global Citizenship. This can be described succinctly as a combination of educational activities and practices, the aim of which is to help people to participate actively and responsibly in society with the guidance of solidarity and justice criteria (de Paz, 2007).
This strategy is the fruit of a previous project, the aim of which was to conceptualise the notion of global citizenship, performed by the entity with the aim of establishing its educational activity.
This thought process has given rise to the concept of citizenship as a process that overcomes the public perspective of the citizen as an individual subject with rights and obligations, in order to emphasise the feeling of belonging to a global community, making reference to political participation with the aim of creating a better world.
Therefore, it is a concept of citizenship that includes various conceptual elements (Cabrera 2002): active citizenship, due to the value placed on citizen’s commitment and the active and creative participation of citizens in common issues; cosmopolitan citizenship, beyond national and transnational frameworks; responsible citizenship, because it places emphasis on the social responsibility and commitment aspect and links it to the feeling of belonging to a community, and critical citizenship, as it places emphasis on the desire of creating a fairer society.
Concurrently, the IO’s Education for Global Citizenship strategy is also fruit of the global educational situation. Firstly, we must discuss the evolution of the Development Education (DE) concept, which in the 1990s reached its 5th generation (Boni, 2006), something that involved a paradigm change in itself – from North/South to exclusion/inclusion – and brought action, protest and mobilisation to the forefront.
Secondly, we must also mention the implementation of Education for Citizenship (EfC) as a school subject. The consolidation of EfC as a school subject across Europe has encouraged the appearance of different EfC models.
We shall then move on to briefly discuss the model proposed by the University of Barcelona’s Intercultural Education Research Group (GREDI, under its Catalan acronym), due to the connections that can be made with the IO’s educational strategy.
La educación para la ciudadanía crítica e intercultural (Education for critical and intercultural citizenship)
GREDI defines its proposal of education for critical and intercultural citizenship as an educational process for the entire education community with the aim of ensuring all those involved learn to participate actively and responsibly in the creation of a more just and cohesive intercultural society. (Bartolomé and Cabrera, 2007). This proposal is based on the concept of intercultural, critical, active and responsible citizenship (Bartolomé and Cabrera 2007), which introduces three key aspects of citizenship as a process: the feeling of belonging to a community, citizenship competencies and citizen participation.
In keeping with these three aspects, the GREDI proposal has an impact on the facilitation of processes in which students learn to create a feeling of belonging to a community or group. It also aims to foster the creation of a school culture that promotes, through everyday practice, the participation of the entire education community and facilitate the development of citizenship competencies. Therefore, it dedicates a large proportion of its time working with students to clarify and help them understand concepts such as democracy, human rights or the development of intercultural communication and critical judgement skills.
Finally, this EfC model always aims to open real and effective paths with regard to the environment and the close community, with the aim of promoting active and responsible involvement in group issues. Based on this approach, the school institutions become a privileged space to put civic participation into practice.
The Intermón Oxfam Education for Global Citizenship proposal
The education for global citizenship proposal means, as Paz (2007) defines it, a new way to think about and perceive education. A perspective that is committed to others; a critical, participatory and democratic perspective; a constructive and thoughtful perspective; a dialogical perspective, a transformative perspective committed to education that focuses on humanity.
It rests on three main pillars: a comprehensive concept of education, an education based on values that develops an ethical perspective and a socio-politcal perspective that stimulates the need to act and commit to improving the situation of those who have been excluded. It is also based on a global vision of the citizen as part of a worldwide community where each member of the community is equal. Thus, it develops the feeling of belonging, emphasising the acquisition of that which Edgar Morin (2001) calls earthly civic conscience, in which humanity is inseparable from the biosphere.
The IO’s Education for Global Citizenship involves, as with the GREDI proposal:
1. Education for justice and solidarity, which tackles issues such as respect for human rights, peace and democracy, gender equality, interculturality, environmental justice or human development and sustainability.
2. The desire to foster education for change aimed at commitment and favourable action towards justice and solidarity, which teaches the students to treat the community and the environment responsibly.
3. Citizen participation proposed from the perspective of glocal citizenship .
The comparison between the different models shows that, despite substantial differences, both have an impact on certain shared elements: the creation of committed to the improvement of their surroundings, aware of their responsibility and power as citizens, and ready to actively participate in the transformation of society.
4.2. Key competencies: concept and features
The term competencies was conceived in the business sector at the beginning of the 1970s. The term is used to identify the tools that characterise the individuals capable of efficiently performing a specific task. Since then the term has become more widespread, being used even in a school environment. The OECD, in its report Definition and Selection of Key Competencies (OECD, 2005), defines ‘competency’ as “the ability to meet demands to perform tasks in an appropriate manner. It arises from a combination of practical skills, knowledge, motivation, ethical values, attitudes, emotions and other social and behavioural elements that move as one to achieve an efficient action”.
The European Union (2006) also established its own definition of competence, defining it as “combination of skills, knowledge, aptitudes and attitudes, and the willingness to learn, as well as knowing how to do so. Key competencies represent a multifunctional and transferable set of skills, attitudes and knowledge that all individuals need to develop personally and in a social and work environment. The key competencies must have been developed as necessary in terms of terms of teaching or compulsory education, and they should act as a basis for subsequent learning, continuous lifelong learning”.
The introduction of key competencies in a school environment aims to respond to the current need for people to intervene in all aspects of their life, and involves a lot of effort because it requires an extensive transformation of the school system (Zabala and Arnau, 2007):
• It corrects the widespread belief of the intrinsic value of theoretical knowledge, which results in a form of education that prioritises knowledge above skills and where the value of knowledge itself determines the characteristics of education systems.
• When faced with the concept of a selective and propaedeutic school system, key competencies help to consolidate education’s social function. Firstly, teaching is seen as a journey of overcoming obstacles in which those who are left by the wayside are labelled as ‘school failures’. Conversely, teaching for all, irrespective of their professional possibilities, allows people to be trained in all the human skills, with the aim of being able to respond to life’s problems.
This concept of education, derived from the introduction of key competencies in the syllabus, is reinforced by bodies such as the UN, UNESCO or the OECD who are committed to comprehensive personal training.
In this sense, the Delors report Learning: the treasure within (1996) identifies the four key pillars of education: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together.
To assess the Global express material we have used the concept and classification of key competencies in the Catalan law on education .
Based on this legal framework, and with the aim of establishing the subsequent selection of competencies and competence dimensions, prior work has been carried out examining the syllabi of the different areas in secondary education to see which content and objectives coincide with the selected Global express editions.
Thus we have discovered that the aims of the three Global express editions used in this study are present in 7 of the 12 areas of the secondary school syllabus (Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, known in Spanish as ESO and Bachillerato). The coinciding areas are as follows: Languages, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, People and Citizenship, Arts and Social Sciences.
All these subjects contain one or many of the competencies that Global express aims to develop: the social and citizenship competence, mathematics, the understanding and interacting with the real world competence and the communication and linguistic competence. This is due to the fact that key competencies are not individually associated with a single subject. Rather, they are linked to many subjects. One of its aims involves making the syllabus more interrelated, so that two subjects that appear to have nothing in common can contribute to the evolution of the same competency.
4.3. The assessment in terms of key competencies
The appearance of key competencies forcibly changes the way we think of assessment, given that only interaction between the contents of the syllabus and real life contexts allow us to see students acquire competencies.
As well as the particularities of the key competency assessment, we face the challenge of adapting the assessment to a specific education reality. In this sense, we have used as reference some of the thoughts that Cabrera (2011) mentions in his article “Evaluación y construcción de ciudadanía. Atendiendo a la diversidad: Evaluación participativa autogestionada” (Assessment and creation of citizenship. Attending to diversity: Self-managed participatory assessment in English), where it establishes a series of questions, for example: how do we establish an assessment process in which the students and the teachers collaborate? Or how can our assessment contribute to the development of active, responsible and autonomous citizens?
The proposal, which Cabrera (2011) labels ‘self-managed participatory assessment’, has helped guide our research.
It is an assessment process that vindicates its pedagogical and intrinsic value for generating democratic citizenship, which promotes self-sufficiency, empowering the students and making them responsible for their own learning. Below we shall summarise its main characteristics:
1. Promote assessment strategies that recognise the diversity and plurality of the classroom.
2. Strengthen the students’ active role in self- and co-assessment of fellow students.
3. Propose significant assessment activities.
4. Promote creative individual work in order to assess with activities that provide the students the opportunity to create using the knowledge they have acquired.
5. The collaboration between equals enables each student to contribute their individual competencies, so that the ability to work as a team comes into play, while they also learn to manage diversity and conflicts.
6. The debate between and participation among the students is a display of citizenship in itself.
In summary, and in the words of Cabrera (2011), this assessment proposal’s potential lies in its conception as a process in which ethics and values play a more important role than the technical aspects.
5. Empirical framework. Characteristics of the evaluation, phases and techniques
Below we shall detail the characteristics and phases of the assessment process, as well as the assessment techniques used.
Evaluation is characterised by:
1. Being an external and negotiated evaluation. It has been developed by the researcher in collaboration with the NGO’s experts and teachers linked to the entity. Its starting point is an inter-subjective agreement between the participants linked to the competencies and competence dimensions that should be assessed and the indicators that should be used.
2. It is primarily based on qualitative techniques, with the exception of one of the techniques, which is quantitative.
3. It is an assessment aimed at interpreting the results and drawing conclusions, as well as making decisions which enable the material analysed to be improved. (Patton, 1997 quoted from Mateo, 2008).
4. It aims to contribute to the generation of assessment experiences in the third social and solidarity sector that may serve as an example for other entities. In pilot study format, the assessment is also aimed at the generation of knowledge insofar as it can be transferred (Patton, 1997 quoted from Mateo, 2008).
The assessment process has been carried out over 12 months and has been organised in 4 phases, which are detailed below:
7 data collection techniques have been developed. When developing the techniques, we used the previous indicator development and competence dimension selection project as a basis, organising the results obtained in a table, linking competencies, competence dimensions and indicators. We also took into consideration that the techniques would be applied by the teaching body and that facilitating the task and maximising the information collected was necessary.
The techniques designed are as follows: analysis of the cases (pre); observation form, project guide; co-assessment reports, analysis of the cases (post); final learning report and group discussion with the teachers.
The techniques were designed in three phases:
1. The first development phase consisted of reducing the maximum number of techniques with the use, for example, of the Global express activities as an assessment tool. Furthermore, with the aim of making the assessment more meaningful, self- and co-assessment techniques were included for the students.
2. In the second phase the tools were presented and revised. This task was performed in a workshop, within the framework of the Global citizenship teachers network “Como evaluar propuestas educativas en clave de competencias” (How to assess education proposals in terms of global citizenship, in English), held in Barcelona on the 22 January 2011.
3. During the last phase the strategies were redeveloped, based on the processes suggested during the seminar.
The empirical study involves applying the techniques and monitoring the application of the material in three 3rd year ESO groups and two 2nd year groups.
The techniques were applied by the teachers, alongside the IO’s staff and the researcher herself. Even so, the majority of the assessment tools must be applied by the teaching body, which itself must carry out the (pre and post) case studies, the structure of the project, the co-assessment record and the final learning record. Non-participatory observation is the only techniques for which the staff not belonging to the education centres were responsible.
Only 3 of the 7 techniques developed have been applied, representing 43% of the techniques.
The techniques applied are as follows:
Non-participatory observation. A total of 20 observations were performed in five groups of 3rd and 2ns ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education). Approximately 100 students were observed. The observations were performed by two of the NGO’s experts and the researcher.
The discussion group. Four teachers, two experts from the NGO and the researcher participated in the group discussion.
Final learning record . Applied by the three teachers involved in the process and a total of 87 records have been collected.
Analysis of the data collected was performed using the competencies table, and triangulated with the data collected in the group discussion with the teaching body.
6. Results obtained
The results obtained, as intended, serve to outline different improvement proposals for Global express, as well as for the assessment techniques used to assess the material and its practical applications.
However, we must mention the potential appearance of specific obstacles that, when added to the limitations of the research itself, have made it difficult for the overall process to be as rigorous as was originally intended.
6.1. The technique assessment and application process
The first specific aim, which consisted of developing techniques to assess the Global express material, has been satisfactorily achieved from a quantitative point of view. As a result of the research, 7 Global express assessment techniques have been developed and validated.
Meanwhile, in qualitative terms the shortcomings are obvious. The research’s lack of planning and consequent improvisation have made validating the techniques difficult.
With regard to the second aim, applying the assessment techniques, as we have previously stated, this has not been achieved at the desired level. Only 3 of the 7 techniques developed were applied, representing 43% of the techniques.
There are two reasons for the low application percentage. Firstly, the lack of time to apply them. Despite the techniques intending to make the most of the Global express activities and not generate extra work, the teaching body has felt stretched for time.
The Global express activities offer a lot, and may take up a lot of time, and applying these tools only highlights this fact even more. (Discussion group, teaching body)
Secondly, we have also noted a lack of accompanying documentation in the strategy application process. Despite a support guide being made available to the teaching body, the experts involved have not been able to monitor the problems or obstacles the teachers encountered when applying the techniques in order to propose the necessary changes.
To conclude, we shall present some results linked to the assessment process itself, which we have developed based on the teaching body’s thoughts and by exchanging opinions with the IO’s experts:
The figures show (table 2) that the assessment process has contributed to the IO’s aim of consolidating the Teachers for Global Citizenship network in Catalonia. We must point out that, in this case, we are referring to the assessment process in its widest sense, including the participation data from the teachers who participated in the assessment programme Conectando Mundos (Connecting Worlds in English).
The teachers that participated at some point in the process approached the collaborative work that the Network offers and suggested the possibility of joining some of the groups or commissions that already exist, while others agreed to actively participate. (Informal assessments, IO’ experts)
6.2. The development of competencies to promote global citizenship among the students
Primary analysis of the information obtained allows us to state that Global express clearly contributes to strengthening of two of the six competence dimensions analysed:
Awareness of North-South inequalities, their causes and consequences and the individual or group options to create a fairer world.
Awareness of the individual responsibility in global issues.
Of the four remaining dimensions, one of those is partially strengthened and shows some peculiarities when measuring it:
Critical attitude and reflection when assessing the available information, comparing it whenever necessary.
Finally, three of the six competency analyses are not sufficiently strengthened according to the established criteria:
Putting citizenship into practice by proposing or implementing feasible alternatives.
Ability to imagine projects and carry out the necessary activities to develop the actions and plans within the framework of group projects, taking responsibility both in individual and social and labour terms.
Predict and make decisions autonomously and with initiative, in a world in which the advances that take place happen very quickly and have a decisive influence on people’s lives, society and the natural world.
The following table demonstrates the degree of compliance for each competence dimension in terms of the indicators to which it is linked.
The findings (table 3) demonstrate that Global express makes a decisive contribution to the cognitive aspects of the competencies assessed, and that attitudes are partially strengthened.
The student body states it acquired new knowledge linked to the specific subject the didactic material deals with:
I have learnt that there are different types of tourism, which the best option is, the advantages and disadvantages. (final learning record, students)
I have learnt that responsible tourism is the best option for the stability of resources for future generations. (final learning record, students)
The teaching body reinforces this idea:
The great success of Global express is that is provides a clear, valid and to-the-point answer that enables an understanding of current issues and topics. (Discussion group, teaching body)
Furthermore, one of the dimensions that has been strengthened the most makes reference to the development of individual awareness with regards to global issues:
It is important that we deal with this topic because tourism is becoming increasingly widespread, and we must be responsible in order to respect one another. (final learning record, students)
What’s more, the teaching body that formed the discussion group talked of a second Global express virtue in the following terms:
Global express begins with a local situation, which affects students’ in particular, in order to subsequently connect them to the more complex global issue. (Discussion group, teaching body)
However, applying the material demonstrates its limitations when promoting this awareness among the student body:
The students are able to connect with everyday life, but are not very critical of themselves. They identify stereotypes but it is difficult to change attitudes. (Discussion group, teaching body)
The findings also demonstrate that the material contributes to the development of a more empathetic view of reality:
People from less-developed countries should not be treated as spectacles by tourists, since they are also people like us. (Non-participating observation, external assessors)
In the words of one of the teachers present in the discussion group: “Global express opens up a new door for them, it gives them a new perspective”.
Conversely, however, Global express also highlights the existence of unsympathetic attitudes:
If they come to our country they should get rid of the headscarf, just as we adapt to their customs when we go travelling. (Non-participating observation, external assessors)
Finally, the findings also appear to be sufficiently conclusive in terms of the material’s inability to contribute to the development of skills linked to the generation of action and transformation proposals.
The student body becomes aware of what is happening and they become outraged, but they find it difficult to make proposals. They become aware of individual responsibility, but they do not see themselves capable of instigating change. The proposals suggested by the student body are mainly theoretical proposals.
It is very difficult to improve the environment or promote human rights with an end of year trip. (Non-participating observation, external assessors)
We must think of less invasive ways of discovering other cultures. (Non-participating observation, external assessors)
The research also demonstrates certain difficulties in measuring the dimensions linked to the aspect of skills. In this respect, one of the teachers commented:
I personally think that Global express develops all the dimensions, however, some are more difficult to demonstrate or measure. How do we measure the student body’s real room for change? (Discussion group, teaching body)
To conclude, a small commentary in terms of the dimension referred to as the critical and thought-provoking attitude in assessing the available information, comparing it whenever necessary, where some difficulties appear when the time comes to measure the impact of the material on the competence dimension.
Global express develops this dimension, but the contrasting evidence is insufficient. (Discussion group, teaching body)
In spite of this, the findings from the non-participatory observations provide us with some analysis elements.
Global express contributes to the generation of an active debate when analysing and giving opinions: the students debate with skill, they listen to one another and try to make related comments (agreement and disagreement, and in some cases they back up these comments with expressions such as: “I also think that same as…”, “as my classmate says….” or “that’s how I see it too”, etc. However, they also demonstrate great difficulty in creating proposals based on the proposals of others. (Non-participating observation, external assessors)
In terms of language use, Global express does not have a great impact on the use of a specific type of language, but it helps to identify stereotypes and prejudices. (Discussion group, teaching body)
7. Conclusions and proposals
The assessment we have performed enables us to draw two conclusions:
1. The need to integrate assessment techniques in the structure of educational proposals
The difficulties for the teaching body to put the assessment techniques into practice are clear and compel us to propose changes in the assessment process. The inability to avoid time limitations in the formal education framework must also be taken into consideration when conceiving techniques that do not involve added time to the implementation of education proposals, thus facilitating assessment processes that allow advances in the creation of global citizenship.
Therefore, the possibility of including assessment techniques in the Global express structure seems a solution to the lack of time, opening up the possibility of contributing to the proposal’s ultimate aim of creating global citizens. Cabrera (2011) maintains that the assessment process holds pedagogical value from the moment it helps us strengthen the creation of citizenship.
The techniques designed for the assessment of Global express feature aspects that Cabrera (2011) considers fundamental pillars of his self-managed participatory assessment proposal, such as managing their own learning, reinforcing the student body’s active role in self-assessment, co-assessment of classmates and creative personal work in order to be able to perform assessments. Therefore, recovering these techniques will be necessary when proposing a new assessment model for Global express.
2. The need to improve the material’s internal cohesion
Global express is split into four phases. Each phase has an objective and contributes, in its own way, to achieving the material’s aim in such a way that, when putting the education proposal into practice in the classroom, balancing the weight of each of the phases is essential.
The assessment’s findings confirm, in general terms, the material’s validity as a tool to create global citizenship. However, the findings also demonstrate that there are some difficulties linked with creating proposals of change or attitudes that prompt the students to take a leading role in improving their immediate surroundings.
By linking the findings with the Global express phases, we can deduce that the fourth phase, in which the role of the youth as active citizens is analysed, has the most encouraging results. Hence the need to rethink Global express’ activities.
Therefore, the Service-Learning (SL) methodology is put forward as an option that would facilitate the development of skills and attitudes linked to the generation of justified and feasible action proposals when confronted with conflicts or injustice.
SL is an education proposal that combines teaching processes with a related service in the community in one well-defined project, in which the participants are trained while they work on their surroundings’ real needs with the aim of improving them (Puig, 2007).
SL projects are based on the real needs of the environment. Because of this, the majority of the projects focus on the area, the school, or the city, and develop intergenerational aspects, the acceptance of diversity or social inclusion.
Providing services that contribute to the creation of global citizenship is not an easy task. The limitations derived from the identification and analysis of the global surrounding for the subsequent specification of a service are a good example, as too are the difficulties of establishing a direct dialogue with the beneficiaries of these services, which tend to be people from poorer countries.
Despite the definition of global community services being a challenge and requiring creativity, we can find proposals in terms of collaboration with NGOs, for example, the Global express awareness campaigns. The students can spread awareness by collecting signatures, managing school information points, preparing school or neighbour mobilisation activities, etc.
Despite the possibility of negative interpretations, these proposals should not be perceived as the NGO using the children to its own benefit, but as a service that works to the advantage of the people who suffer problems stemming from inequalities, conflicts or humanitarian crises.
The inclusion of SL activities in the last phase of Global express would provide them with meaning and facilitate their adoption by the student body, since they would be better linked with their real life and their individual context.
To conclude, as well as the inclusion of SL methodology, the internal cohesion of the material would be strengthened by other measures that shall be summarised below:
Improve the teaching guide, the accompanying documentation and communication with the teachers. Organising an experience exchange course or workshop regarding the implementation of the material and the accompanying documentation would be a good option.
Propose a basic itinerary. This was the entity ensures that the teachers apply a minimum of activities per phase, which respects the process’ philosophy and does not affect internal cohesion.
Based on these premises, and to bring the article to a close, below we shall outline the basic proposal for the assessment of Global express. In order to provide the outline, we shall follow the material’s structure, including some of the assessment techniques such as the proposal’s activities and we shall outline new activities that could be developed in the future. The changes would focus above all on the first and last phases of the educational proposal.
PHASES ACTIVITIES
FASE 1: Proposal based on the initial or motivational activities, which usually consist of viewing images or photographs. We propose the inclusion of changes, with the aim of enabling the students to perform a diagnostic self-assessment and to understand personally and collectively what the starting point is. What their understanding of the subject is and what attitudes and skills they have. In this sense, we need to strengthen the initial activities.
Beyond the tool or the form of the self-assessment (individual test, image based group exercise, etc.), the aim is to make the students the protagonists, who have to collect the information resulting from this first phase, analyse it and become aware of the individual and group starting point.
PHASE 2: a project is proposed aiming to discover the causes behind conflict, inequality, etc. No changes proposed
PHASE 3: its structure is based on the project aimed at discovering the consequences of the problem, especially for the population. No changes proposed
PHASE 4: groups the activities that analyse the role that they, as active citizens, can play when confronted with situations of injustice.
The proposed changes aim to provide the material with more significant activities in this last phase and contribute to the improvement of the students’ ability to become actors of change. Incorporating the SL methodology in the main phase 4 activity is proposed. Furthermore, we also propose the use of a co-assessment form similar to that which was developed for this research, which enables the students, together with the teachers, to assess the work or service performed by colleagues and classmates.
PHASE 5 (NEW) The creation of a fifth phase is proposed, in which the students can assess what they have learnt and compare it with the self-assessment from the first phase.
Table 4: Global express assessment proposal (Source: prepared by author)
8. Bibliographical notes
- Arnal, J. (et al) (1992) Investigación educativa. Fundamentos y metodología. Barcelona, Editorial Labor.
- Bartolomé, M. and Cabrera, F. (2006) Construcción de una ciudadanía intercultural y responsable. Guía para el profesorado de Secundaria. Madrid, Editorial Narcea.
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