Global Education in Vocational Teacher Education

Global Education  course was a really great way to reaffirm what I have experienced over the years with my work in UK and also in the international IB school in Finland.

We looked at the definitions of culture:

The toolkit by which we construct not only our worlds but also our very conceptions of ourselves and our powers. (John Bruner, 1996)

Just as the life of a person can’t be frozen in time, so it is true of living cultures … it is an active and perpetual creative process. (Cajete, 1994)

We can see how different epistemological ideas can ground our vision of culture from philosophy, nature to Christian beliefs and ancient history. There is also a difference between western and eastern way of looking at the world, in the sense that according to eastern view, our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs are cyclical not hierarchical and very interconnected with other aspects of being.

We have also looked at tools that can help us in our work and study of intercultural sphere. (Skills, critical thinking and analysis, changing perspectives or multi – perspective approach, recognise negative stereotypes and prejudices, intercultural competences in communication, teamwork and cooperation, empathy, dialogue, assertiveness, dealing with complexity, contradictions and uncertainty, dealing with conflict and conflict transformation, creativity, research, decision-making and dealing with media).

In addition, important tools and methods are dialogue and questioning that are then further opening a third space that needs more openness and change in perspective:

Spaces rather than places. They’re often risky, unsettling spaces – where the security and familiarity of our own place of belonging has to be left behind. We have to be prepared to shift, to be open, to listen, to change. (Dudgeon and Fielder, 2006)

What is global education?

Although often discussed loosely as a new step on the path of “going international”, globalization means something qualitatively new. (Kaivola, T., Melen-Paaso, M.,2007, p.9)

In the phase of “internationalization” the states or authoritarian governments were in the position to prevent people from collaborating across the border, nowadays states have had to remove many obstacles that they have created and to deregulate many aspect of social and economic life.

Globalisation also has its dark side as it can create the deregulation of economy and further to exploitation of workers, especially in indigenous communities. This can also spread to "psychological and intellectual dimension". it  can be seen as a way to prevent some of the negative side effects, especially in terms of educating about racial tolerance, empathy and human rights. Cultural literacy will be crucial in the future and there are many challenges with being able to share knowledge across cultures:

“It is a form of cultural capital that enables us to act sensitively and effectively in a world of differences.” (Kaivola, T., Melen-Paaso, M.,2007,p.77)

Finland like many other countries is becoming a society with people with many ethnic backgrounds and we all need to live and work as equals with respect for each other’s differences: “The global village will not be created by immigrants everywhere adopting to host societies but only by “host societies” also adopting to immigrants and both immigrants and host moving to a more sophisticated awareness of intercultural problems.”(Kaivola, T., Melen-Paaso, M.,2007,p.78)

There is process in accepting difference, values based process.

What are the challenges of bringing global education into your classes in Scotland or Finland?

During the course we have also had the chance to collaborate with the group of teachers who were studying for their teaching qualification at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. We created a lesson plan based on a Global Education theme that we then shared with the teachers in Scotland and discussed further online.

My lesson plans were for a photography and special needs education. I did a lot of research to create an interesting photography lesson content based on the idea: How does exterior (landscape, urban environment) affect the interior (sense of identity). This topic was inspired by a lecture that I saw at Aalto University by Liz Wells, called Sense of Place (On landscape photography, region and identity).

The idea was to look at images by photographers such as Marja Pirelä, Marti Jämsä, Margareta Klingberg, Maud Sulter, Ingrid Pollard and analyze the subjects relationship to environment and nature. Asking questions such as: How does the photographer present the subject in relation to the environment? What are the cultural attitudes? Is the photographer criticising particular ideas that have become associated with land or environment? (Globalisation, colonialism, gender issues).

I think that our discussion with the Scottish team went well, although I was aware that I had a more politicised view of culture and global education. Perhaps they have not addressed these issues so much through their studies and I was happy to be able to share some of the content that we were able to elaborate on.

Margareta Klingberg Vallinberget - On the move 2001, Seasonal workers in Sweden

References:

Kaivola, T., Melen-Paaso, M. (2007). Education for Global Responsibility: Finnish Perspectives. Helsinki: Finnish ministry of Education. Retrieved from: http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2007/liitteet/opm31.pdf

Wells, L., (2011) Land Matters : Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity, I.B. Tauris, London

Marti Jämsä ( Summertime, 1994-2003)

http://www.galleriaheino.com/nayttely.php?aid=20538&k=20139

Margareta Klingberg ( On The Move, 2006-2008)

http://www.listen.no/sted_event.php?sted_id=1360&nummer=56079

http://www.kc-nord.org/projektmedel/projekt-i-urval/till-skogsdo-lasu-margareta-klingberg.html

Ingrid Pollard (Pastoral Interlude, 1988 )

http://www.ingridpollard.com/pastoral-interlude.html

Maud Sulter (Smart as Clio, 1989)

http://ohlookhistory.tumblr.com/post/17275209537/poet-dorothea-smart-as-clio-the-muse-of-heroic