Global learning and the school curriculum

The global society of today is one that children and young people are aware of but this has not been fully recognised by education policy-makers despite the efforts and activities of many civil society organisations and the enthusiasm of teachers. Since 2010 in England, a government-sponsored programme, the Global Learning Programme, has been a conscious attempt to equip children and young people with the knowledge and skills to not only understand but actively engage with global issues. This programme is beginning to show the value of a 'whole school' approach in terms of increasing not only knowledge and understanding about the wider world but putting themes such as social justice and concern for the environment as key themes of a child's learning

Pedagogy of hope: global learning and the future of education

Global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency campaigns and the Black Lives Matter movements have recently posed challenges for educationalists about their role, particularly in relation to promoting positive visions of the future. Development education and global learning has a major contribution to make within these agendas, particularly if it brings into its practices the ideas of Paulo Freire and his concept of the pedagogy of hope. Hope can often be considered an idealistic and utopian term, but if it is grounded in real life issues and challenges, then it can provide a valuable approach to learning about global issues. Recent examples in the UK and the initiative by UNESCO on Futures of Education demonstrate ways in which questions can be posed about the future of education that can be empowering to all learners

Fairtrade in Schools and Global Learning

This paper aims to provide an overview of evidence of schools’ engagement in Fairtrade in the UK through the Fairtrade Foundation’s Fairtrade School Awards programme. The paper provides a summary of the comments from schools’ engagement with the programme based on data from teachers and pupils’ learning with evidence from the different levels of the award. The paper also aims to locate the evidence from the award programme within the broader landscape of global learning in the UK

Global education and global development and skills

Development education has its roots in Europe in response to decolonization and the need for public support and participation in international development. From these roots, it grew as a field of educational practice to incorporate themes of global citizenship, postcolonialism, and critical pedagogy. Global education, on the other hand, has its roots in broader traditions around international education in North America and Europe. Today, both educational fields have been united in many countries under the title of global learning or education for global citizenship. This article reviews this growth from a UK perspective and then describes an area - skills - that to date had a lower profile than knowledge and values

The role of social work professional supervision in conditions of uncertainty

In the UK, a number of serious case reviews within social work and social care highlighted systemic failures within care organisations, resulting in wholesale structural reforms aimed at improving services. These have combined with increased inspection and surveillance of professional practice alongside calls for more staff training and supervision. Less attention has been given to examining the cultural aspects of social care organisations that may have contributed to such failures and the potential roles that front line managers play in promoting or mediating organisational culture within their individual relationships with front line staff. Professional supervision is cited within the social work literature as one of the most effective tools for facilitating and supporting individuals to contain and work with the anxiety that naturally arises within social work. Through its different functions, supervision provides an opportunity for managers to engage staff with the vision of the organisation and its standards. This paper explores how some of these opportunities are actually utilised and reports on the findings of a small scale qualitative study which captured data of digital visual recordings of management supervision and the managers’ own reflective accounts about the effectiveness of their supervision skills. Closer analysis of this data gave a glimpse into the different roles that managers perform within the supervision context and this paper discusses some of the strategies the managers used to communicate or mediate aspects of organisational culture to individual staff and support them in their stressful jobs. Some tentative recommendations are made regarding the importance of prioritising particular functions of supervision and for managers in providing space for staff to reflect critically on the context in which they work. These strategies may allow the tacit or taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs in every-day practice to surface and also to increase the participation and engagement of staff in delivering quality services

What happens in supervision? An exploration of the use of stylistic devices in professional management supervision and their role in mediating organisational and professional culture within a social services department

A number of serious case reviews in UK social work and social care have highlighted systematic failures within care organisations. Calls for structural reform in the provision of services have been accompanied by increased inspection, staff training, supervision and surveillance of professional practice. Less is known about cultural aspects of statutory care organisations and the role of front line managers in mediating organisational uncertainty. Staff management supervision is cited as an effective tool in facilitating and supporting organisations members to contain and work with anxiety arising naturally from such challenging and emotionally distressing work. It is also used to engage staff with change and the organisations aims. Based on a small study of managers following a HE accredited award in professional social work management, this paper explores some of the strategies managers might use within supervision and whether managers mediate aspects of organisational culture through their supervisory interactions with staff. ‘Supervision, Mentoring and Workforce Developments’ module encourages managers with supervisory responsibilities to develop, hone and reflect on their supervisory skills. Participating managers make a visual recording of a supervision session and assess their own skills by reviewing this using structured critical reflection. An analysis of the content of these recordings examined the different roles that managers perform within the supervision context. Using visual analysis the role of rhetorical practice in organisation was examined for its influence in seeking to manage local culture and what strategies managers use to trade between persuasive talk and institutional reality. An analysis of management actions and behaviours at this level helps to generate some insights into power relationships. Management learning can be enhanced through proactive critical reflectivity or the surfacing and critiquing of tacit or taken for granted assumptions and beliefs important to staff participation and improved staff management relations and ultimately quality services