Development Education and Higher Education: Pedagogy for Global Social Justice

Douglas Bourn,Development Education Research Centre, Institute of Education

Aims of the Paper•Reflect on relationship between

development education and internationalisation

•Recognise linkages to global citizenship, global perspectives

• Identify influences of critical pedagogy, postcolonialism, transformative learning

•Pose relationship to practice and value of partnerships with NGOs.

What do we mean by development education?•Approach to learning about global and

development issues that recognises interconnectedness of people’s lives

•Challenges assumptions about how people perceive the Global South

•Promotes critical thinking

•Develop skills and confidence to support change towards a more just and sustainable world.

(DERC promotional leaflet)

Variations on this

•Active learning process- founded on values of solidarity, equality, inclusion and co-operation

•Moves from awareness to understanding and informed actions

(www.deeep.org)

Perspectives from the South• Development education discourses

predominantly Northern discourse

• But term used in Southern Africa with regard to promotion of indigenous knowledges within education (Odora Hoppers)

• In South Asia with regard to dialogical education and influence of Gandhi (Kumar)

• In Latin America in relation to popular education and influence of Freire.

Linkages to other concepts•Global Education - umbrella term for

adjectival educations and universalist view of more values based education

•Global Learning - education in response to globalised world

•Global Citizenship Education - personal social responsbility and action for better world.

Development Education and Higher Education in the UK

•Building on practices in schools and other sectors of education

•Global Perspectives in Education (DEA-2003,2006,2008)

•Initiatives at Bournemouth, Leeds Met, Leicester.

•Curriculum connections - health, engineering, teacher education.

Assumptions about DE and HE•Body of practice that has considerable

expertise in enabling the learner to make connections between global and development issues and their own experiences and enthusiasms.

•Participatory Methodologies

•Critical thinking and dialogue

•Learning for global social justice and global responsibility

Where has DE come from•Desire from NGOs and policy-makers for

support for development

•Move in 1980s onwards to more radical, critical approach

•But been primarily funding led

•Lack of relative autonomy as a body of practice or independent discourse

Why is it so marginal in HE

•Consequential lack of theory - few academics engaged in this area

•Seen as about NGO led-practice even in higher education.

More than learning about development•Not development studies

•More than an optional module on development

•Includes but more than just international experience

How DE has influenced HE debates•Concepts such as Global Perspectives,

Global Citizenship•Making connections between learning

inside a university and personal experience and social action.

•Bringing in viewpoints and perspectives outside of academia

•Having a global outlook - value of different perspectives and voices.

•Impact of learning in societal change

Towards a Pedagogy for Global Social Justice•Promotion of the interdependent and

interconnected nature of our lives.•Ensuring voices and perspectives of

Global South are promoted, understood and reflected within learning spaces.

•Values based approach with an emphasis on social justice and equity

•Linkages between learning, sense of moral outrage and desire for action for change.

Key Influences•Freire

•Critical Pedagogy (Giroux)

•Transformative Learning (Mezirow)

•Postcolonialism (Said, Spivak, Andreotti)

•Globalisation and Identity Theories (Beck, Baumann)

Implications for Debates in HE•From Internationalisation to Global

Perspectives

•Role of Critical Pedagogy

•Different ways of seeing your subject- how it is taught and content

•Relevance to the wider world

•Values base

Global Dimensions Curriculum in HE• Engineering• Health• Travel and Tourism• Archaeology• Teacher Education

Global Engineer

•Interdisciplinary - making connections outside of main field to social sciences

•Recognising different perspectives, cultural interpretations

•Role needs to include understanding the problem as well as here to solve it

•Social responsibility

Conclusion

•Recognition of contribution of development education to the debates

•Still under-theorised•Relationship to curriculum and practice•Role of NGOs•Global Vision and Perspective

Issues to Discuss•Cross-fertilisation of learning across

disciplines?

•Valuing ‘other’ perspectives

•Differing perspectives versus global perspective

• Role in terms of social responsibility

•Differentiation between disciplines/subjects

Thanks

•d.bourn@ioe.ac.uk