Principles and rationale

The training aspect has been designed to draw upon the personal experiences of people involved with or from minority ethnic backgrounds and to enhance their skills and knowledge of how to bring global issues alive at a local level.

The content of the course has three parts: ‘Principles and values’, ‘Key elements of the global dimension’ and ‘Methodologies’. The training has been accredited by the Open College Network (OCN) and consists of at least 70 hours of training, mentoring or personal work.

The training is about exploring our values and perceptions to review what we know and to learn new perspectives. The training is like a journey in which the travellers were reminded that the map (the picture of the world that we create in our minds) is not the same as the actual territory they are travelling through (the reality).

Participants learned and discussed global education, particularly the eight key elements of the global dimension. The training focused on three of these elements: diversity, conflict, and interdependence. The focus for the session on diversity was interculturalism, for conflict was racism, and for interdependence was migration.

Methodologies include critical literacy, the world café and Forum Theatre. We also deliver a session that linked global education to the school curriculum as we hope that the course learners will be a valuable resource for schools. Part of the course evaluation involves each participant implementing what they have learned, by designing a training session.