Education for Global Citizenship

Educon International School has focused very keenly on the innovations in pedagogy which is the heart of the teaching - learning process.

The school academic policy has a motto of "Developing Global Citizens" to which educators of all the sections, Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary work in parallel with the ICSE curriculum imparting Education for Global Citizenship through their innovations in the teaching pedagogies, they are as follows:

1. Student Centered Pedagogy : The teachers are continuously trained and they implement the international dimensions into the curriculum which is interwoven in the chapters very thoroughly. An international activity rubrics is made by the teachers and subject coordinators of all the three sections in the beginning of the academic year and as per the education for global citizenship pedagogy, its further implemented in their regular teaching and interweaved in the curriculum. These innovations are such that it does not burden the pupil instead it creates interest in the pupils for the academics.

2. Extended Learning beyond the Classroom Teaching : The educators of all the sections incorporate practical based teaching mostly in all subjects.

a. Pre-primary pupils are given exposure to the practical based learning by exposing them to nature trails, through puppet shows, and imparting values through assemblies. Pre-primary section educators also create their own innovations in teachings by developing our own school curriculum that is in synchronization with Education for Global Citizenship. The educators have designed their own worksheets for the core subjects like English, Science, Mathematics and General Knowledge.

b. E-learning: The educators of Pre-primary section frequently use E-learning to impart the teaching in an effective manner. They create their own presentations to show few concepts that are a bit mind boggling for the toddlers. The innovative activities of academics done in the class are regularly posted via e-mails to the parents. The toddlers are also exposed to internationalism at their level by an array of innovative activities in assemblies and exhibitions. The extended learning beyond classroom teaching in Pre-primary section is done by organizing color days, food days, toy days etc. The students are taught through puppets as well as field trips to understand the concepts better. The numeracy skills are taught through play way method and paying individual attention to each and every child. Teachers implement Role play, Ranking exercises, Class participation and Community inquiry with global perspectives.

c. Advanced E-Learning: At the Primary and Secondary level the educators broaden their innovations in the pedagogy by using more of E-learning through internet in their regular teaching classes at least twice in a month, by celebrating days especially of UN recognition, encouraging students to write essays on International and National days. These essays are just not kept in the notebooks, but few of the write ups are published in the quarterly News Letter of our school.

d. Interweaving Internationalism into CCE: Educators for Primary as well as Secondary sections conduct a Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) on an international activity. This activity is mostly related to a particular subtopic of the text book of all the subjects but in correlation with any other country identified for the research. All this is as per the Education For Global Citizenship parameters that the school has devised for learning.

e. Global Curriculum collaborative Projects with partner schools across the globe and in India: School proposes to have partner schools abroad and one partner school within the country. Both the Primary as well as Secondary Section educators would devise innovations in the pedagogy by carrying out joint collaborative projects and live video conferencing with the pupils and educators of the partner schools. Our educators make sure the pedagogies are truly innovative and learning effective with the pupils. These pedagogies are regularly analyzed by the continual improvement team too. The collaborative projects deal with subjects like Geography, English, Science and Literature. The educators also take in the innovations from the partner schools in to their teaching pedagogies such as correcting the books with a green pen and implementing a wide array of evaluations that suit the individual needs of the students. The curriculum projects are further used in classroom teachings as well.

f. Educators of the Primary and Secondary section also ensure that they give practical based teaching especially in Geography, Science and Mathematics. They incorporate practicals as well as demo experiments to clear the complex topics.

g. STEM based teaching: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are a part of the Education For Global Citizenship. Teachers blend STEM in the pedagogy by organizing student visits to Museums, Science Centre, Cultural Centers of our partner school Consulates so as to give the practical approach and sight experience of what the students see in the text books. School proposes to organize visits to NASA / CERN and also to take membership of Science and Research Centers of repute in our Country where in the students would be rigorously exposed to Robotics, Experiments, Conferences, and Projects catering to STEM Education.

h. Education For Global Citizenship: Although the Education for Global citizenship is absorbed in each and every subject, the teachers still use it as a separate segment by asking the students very simple questions during the regular teachings as well as by conducting the chart making competitions. These questions are thought provoking like; i) How do you as an individual see the world? ii) How are we interdependent on each other in this whole world with respect to culture, food, religion, politics and many more. There are certain activities too that promotes the Education for Global Citizenship; such as organizing a debate competition on conflict resolution or just having a talk show during the assembly. Like while eating breakfast in the morning, how are we connected to most of the countries of the world as each and every ingredient of our breakfast is taken from some or the other country as well as our states of India. Picture talks as well as stories are narrated to the students of Pre-Primary sections, especially Folk tales as well as of international Origin to connect them to the world. A wide array of activities is conducted during whole academic year and all of them are regularly monitored as well as improved yearly by the continual improvement team.

“In a fast-changing and interdependent world, education can and should help young people to meet the challenges they will confront now and in the future.”

We believe that Education for Global Citizenship is essential in helping young people rise to those challenges for the following reasons:

The lives of the children and young people are increasingly shaped by what happens in other parts of the world. Education for Global Citizenship gives them the knowledge, understanding, skills and values that they need if they are to participate fully in ensuring their own, and others, well-being and to make a positive contribution both locally and globally.

Education for Global Citizenship is good education because it involves children and young people fully in their own learning through the use of a wide range of active and participatory learning methods. This engages the learner while developing confidence, self esteem and skills of critical thinking, communication, cooperation and conflict resolution. These are all vital ingredients in improving motivation, behaviour and achievement across the school.

Current use of the world’s resources is inequitable and unsustainable. As the gap between the rich and poor widens, poverty continues to deny millions of people around the world their basic rights. Education is a powerful tool for changing the world because tomorrow’s adults are the children and young people we are educating today. Education for Global Citizenship encourages children and young people to care about the planet and to develop empathy with, and active concern for, those with whom they share it.

Education for Global citizenship gives children and young people the opportunity to develop critical thinking about complex global issues in the safe space of the classroom. This is something that the children of all ages need, for even young children come face to face with the controversial issues of our time through the media and modern communications technology. Far from promoting one set of answers, Education for Global citizenship encourages children and young people to explore, develop and express their own values and opinions, whilst listening to and respecting other people’s point of view. This is an important step towards children and young people making informed choices as to how they exercise their own rights and their responsibilities to others.

Education for Global Citizenship uses a multitude of participatory teaching and learning methodologies, including discussion and debate, role-play, ranking exercise and communities of enquiry. These methods are now established as best practice in education and are not unique to Education for Global Citizenship. However used in conjunction with a global perspective, they will help young people to learn how decisions made by people in other parts of the world affect our lives, just as our decisions affect the lives of others.

The scope of Education for Global Citizenship is wider than a single scheme of work or subject. It is more than simply the international scale in Citizenship, or teaching about a distant locality in geography. It is relevant to all areas of the curriculum, all abilities and all age ranges. Ideally it encompasses the whole school – for it is a perspective on the world shared within an institution and is explicit not only in what is taught and learned in the classroom, but in the schools ethos. It would be apparent, for example, in decision-making processes, estate management, purchasing policies and in relationships between pupils, teachers, parents and the wider community.

Our curriculum for Global Citizenship is based on years of experience in development of education and our core beliefs. But of course not everyone will agree what makes an effective Global Citizen and different people will have different ideas about the key characteristics of the ‘good’ and ‘responsible’ Global Citizen. See the box below for ours;

EIS demonstrates its commitment to providing its students with an education enriched with awareness of international/intercultural aspects through some or all of the following mechanisms:

1. Includes a firm commitment in the school's Mission and Vision Statement to providing international/intercultural experiences to students. Uses active methods to monitor the practical applications of these commitments.

2. Adds International Dimension to Curriculum by Integrating Education For Global Citizenship in the curriculum.

3. Introduce international/intercultural aspects into curricular and co-curricular programmes in as many areas as possible (especially social sciences, language & culture, arts & music courses). Activities such as Model United Nations or similar could be offered.

4. Use recruitment policies aimed at creating national, linguistic and cultural diversity on the staff.

5. Encourage foreign students to join the school, either on a Full-term basis or on short visits.

6. Encouraging our own students to travel internationally on educational trips and/or exchanges.

7. Invite speakers and performers from other countries and from other cultural groups to contribute to school life.

8. Encourage its own students to maintain pen-pal or key-pal contacts with students in other cultures and/or countries, using more than one language if possible.

9. Encourage students and teachers to establish joint projects with schools in other countries - including via internet communication and/or video-conferencing.

10. Encourage teachers to become involved in visits, exchanges and professional development activities abroad.

11. To increase staff capability towards international understanding and international dimension of learning

12. Sensitizing children towards complexity of global issues and help them to develop critical thinking skills to become global citizen.

13. To sustain and develop links with schools in various part of the world.

14. Involve students in community service in other countries through fund-raising and/or practical tasks.

15. Celebrate and/or arrange projects around UN Day and other National or Cultural Days.

16. Ensure the school library/media centre provides students with access to information and leisure sources from more than one culture and in more than one language.

17. Ensure that all human interactions in the school community take place in a spirit of tolerance, understanding and celebration of national, ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences.

18. Ensure students have ample information on Further Education opportunities in a range of countries and languages, and that they receive advice and support in making relevant admissions applications.

19. Help students from one country or culture to create relationships with families from other countries or cultures (e.g. student from non-host culture spending weekends with family from host culture).

20. Establish and use mechanisms (including counselling where necessary) to counteract the effects of international and/or intercultural tensions.

21. Ensure major world issues are addressed with students through debates, discussion and interdisciplinary learning.

22. To understand how we relate to the environment and to each other as human beings.

The above mentioned guidelines act as Aims and Objective of School’s International Dimension Policy and is monitored and reviewed continuously in order to add International dimensions in our teaching learning Pedagogies.