What is Global Citizenship Education and how is this being implemented in Australian schools?

Welcome to Finance and Fury, The Furious Friday edition. 

This is part 4 of the series around the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. 

Going through the first SDG today – SDG4 – Education

If you haven’t listened to the first 3 – Maybe go back and check it out as today – finish the first part on people –

So far gone through the UN, media, and trauma-based society

Previous episodes:

Part 1 UN

Part 2 Media

Part 3 Trauma-based society

Today –

Do a quick overview on SDG 4 - Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all Run through the history of education – look at education model today – Look at current formal education as part of the SDG4 – how it is being implemented and by who within Australia

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is explicitly recognized in the SDGs as part of Target 4.7 of the SDG on education

UN hopes to educate children on the importance of the SDGs - “By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development,” – Long statement – lets break this down This job is given to UNESCO promotes the Global Citizenship Education (GCED) as a complementary approach They State that it is important to emphasize the importance for this in relation to the other 16 SDGs Why? Where does education fit in with climate change, how we live, sustainable economy, and the rest? UN says it enable individuals to contribute to sustainable development by promoting societal, economic and political change as well as by transforming their own behaviour Remember from the first episode in the series on Julian Huxley - Quote from founder about changing public minds – again it starts with the people – people need to willingly do this Global citizenship education(GCE) is a form of civic learning that involves students' active participation in projects that address global issues of a social, political, economic, or environmental nature Civic Learning - the study of the theoretical, political and practical aspects of citizenship, the study of government with attention to the role of citizens―as opposed to external factors―in the operation and oversight of government – political action through advocacy - The two main elements – 'global consciousness'; the moral or ethical aspect of global issues, 'global competencies', or skills meant to enable learners to participate in changing and developing the world

Definitions mean a lot

– words have different meanings to them – Whether and weather – sounds the same but spelt differently – but what skills are needed to change the world?

Protest or advance engineering? – Both have a chance of changing the world – to what end? The UN admits they don’t know – as progress is difficult to track: 75 percent of countries have no (or insufficient data) to track progress towards SDG4 Which are targets for learning outcomes (target 1), early childhood education (target 2), and effective learning environments. Data on learning outcomes and pre-primary school are particularly scarce; 70 percent and 40 percent of countries lack adequate data for these targets, respectively - This makes it hard to analyse and identify the children at greatest risk of being left behind. Left behind – No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) brought test-based school accountability to scale across the United States Maths and Reading – 71% of schools spending more time on these neglecting other subjects – Doing more tests – focused repetitive leaving on reading and maths – not learning outside of repetition Whatever the government teaches kids can either be good for the kids or good for the Government – Kids - where they become independent strong capable people ready to conquer the world and form a network of friend’s family and neighbours to provide support. But this heavily reduces the reliance of the individuals and by extensions communities on the Government, as if everyone was out following what they discovered how to do on their own to provide value, versus a system that at the core was no different to the slave/peasantry class in Rome, or factory workers in the 19th century provide an education system in a way where Stop and think about the education system – 12 years of schooling – choose a career or to go to uni - Go to uni – select one degree – Probably get a HECS debt – so by the time you come out – one career path then to follow – spending years to pay back debt at reduced income - or go back to uni – more debt

 

Let’s go back a little way to the late 1940s China – Mao – needed to create people with new loyalties, new motivations, and new concepts of individual and group life Education was recognized as playing a strategic role in achieving this Used to create revolutionaries ready to fight against the old society and establish a new order and, at the same time, to bring up a new generation of workers to take up the multitudinous tasks of development and modernization – in the form of collectivisation farming/factory work The People’s Republic of China generally makes no distinction between education and propaganda or indoctrination - share the common task of changing people Under this system - the schools constitute only a small part of the educational program – TV, news, movies – all were used – remoulding the behaviour, emotions, attitudes, and outlook of the people But this new Chinese Government had no education experience – so borrowed from their Northern neighbours – Soviets The Soviet model was the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association (SSFA), inaugurated in October 1949 Stalin – Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

 

The real struggle here is between what is education, and what is propaganda. Biggest influences on the education models were based on the fascist/communist states at the time – Socialist states where education was mandatory, free and you only taught what the government told you to. Why?

 

The education programs – global citizenship programs – not taught how to think but what to think –

Rise and repeat programming how to become social advocates – or tools used to subvert democracy - First is Education or re-education

Pretty simple when you break down the core drivers – promoting problems to solve through global advocacy – inequality between developed and developing countries, social unrest, fears of melting alive from global warming – Lots of education is needed to achieve the 17 SDGs –– isn’t on the fringe – regardless about however hearing about it - policies are signed on to implement by 193 countries almost 4 years ago

 

In Australia

High Resolves is a secondary school educational initiative - implemented by the Foundation for Young Australians

Consisting of a Global Citizenship Programme for Year 8 students and a Global Leadership Programme for Year 9 and 10 students. It aims to enable students to consider their personal role in developing their society as a global community through workshops, simulations, leadership skills training and hands-on action projects – bussing to protests against Adani From their website - High Resolves designs and delivers award-winning learning experience – break down this ‘fuel a powerful personal transformation that inspires an individual to think, feel and act in the long-term collective interest, more and more often’ collective interests = someone doesn’t share views – not in a group – social control through isolation ‘reframe their long-term memory through an immersive peak experience, which is reinforced through repeated practice and application in the real world over time’ which over time contributes to our collective transformation towards a more just, equitable and inclusive world thanks to a growing generation of global citizens who think, feel and act in the long-term collective interest of humanity, and leaders who inspire others to do the same

 

Sounds nice – but is Describing brainwashing and social control? The process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioural outcomes All human being is susceptible to such manipulation – not a process that is directly observable – doesn’t work if you can see what is going on But repetition is an integral part of these techniques because connections between neurons become stronger when exposed to incoming signals of frequency and intensity

 

Heuristics – makes life easier – way to survive See a hot pan you know not to touch it – hear someone’s name you don’t like through repeated experiences or stories told by others Through education – the association between free markets and greedy bourgeoise middle class can be made This type of Formal education – not how to think but what to think – One thing that I never really thought about – in this podcast – hope to inform you on things – education – run through what, how, where, etc. – never tell you what to do – in finance especially – would be sued if I did – I don’t believe education should tell you what to do – but give you skills to think for yourself I talk about finance, economic, policy, politics, etc – the question of ‘how does this affect me’ is something that I can’t answer – Everyone is different – so depends on where you sit and what your goals are – But the reason that it is hard to take useful information and apply it into your own life to make decisions is due to the education you are provided – I was provided – we are all taught in this way – waiting to be given the right answer Science, maths, models – given models and then need to use them to get X – know how the models work? English – based around what the educators think Shakespeare or other poets meant – if it was personal interpretation = everyone should get an A+

 

What to do – if you have kids in school?

Pay attention to what they are taught – not the same as you

Check it isn’t creating trauma – someone who I work with – Black Crow book – fiction about time travel – but frames white Australians as evil and not something to live up to – one girl in the class said they are ashamed to be white – This is collectivised guilt – by-product of false memories and trauma induced guilt for something these kids haven’t done

 

That is a summary of SDG 4 – and bring a wrap to the people side of SDGs – Next episode – Start on the Economy - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Explore SDG 8,9,10

 

Thanks for listening – if you liking content – let me know – review on iTunes – if you have any questions or want to get in contact you can do so here. 

Resources:

Theory of change - https://highresolves.org/our-theory-of-change/