Global Citizenship blog

Today’s job at the convention on student quality centres involved being a judge on school case studies. Now, being a huge fan of X factor I’d always assumed I would be more of a Simon Cowell, ruthless and opinionated. One presentation in from a group of Nepalese fifteen year olds and I was the Cheryl Cole of the panel - visibly moved, and asking only nice supportive questions (though I can’t say my comparison to Ms Cole extends to looks).
What came out of the case studies was just how many global examples there of school council equivalents. Nepal, Sri Lanka, India , Mozambique were just some of the countries presenting to me on the way they as students had identified an issue and found a solution for it. It was inspirational and I was lucky to be able to hear some many global stories of young people recognising they have a voice and that they are using it in a range of settings.
What perhaps suprised me the most though, and which I have noticed all day, is the relationship between adults and young people out here. Gruelling questions from my fellow judges not only highlighted them as the Cowell on the panel, but showed me this formal and diadactic style of learning so different to the UK. Where I was asking the students what they got the most out of, my fellow judgees where asking more direct questions about their potential failures in their equivalent school councils. Whilst at first this shocked me it seems to be of  benefit to the students, forcing them to be self critical and  challenges them intellectually. Having critical thinking and debate as key values of quality control circles here, however probably further encouarage a more challenging relationship between students and teachers, which has no doubt in turn encouraged the students passion and ability.

It has also highlighted to me just how far we have come in the UK in terms of how we teach, collaborate and learn with young people. Our shared passion with children and young people, and the way we faciliate and question now rather than dictate and answer. It makes working with young people an inspiration, when young people and practitioners become equals - a value all so important when promoting student quality circles, or youth participation methods as we would say.

Anyways, time for the results part of the day now , where no doubt I will be trying to ’save’ one school. Watching 50 different schools highlight how they have made a difference in various countries surely highlights the global enthusiasm for particpation. No doubt in my closing remarks I will conclude saying something like they are all winners for their passion and enthusiasm (very cheryl-esque ) but definitely true. *cringe*

Hi there, for those *keen* followers of this blog who aren’t aleady aware, Tony Breslin our CEO, Ruth Le Breton from the Go Givers team and me from The Youth of Today will be blogging everyday from Lucknow, North India. We have been incredibly fortunate to be invited to a convention on student quality control circles which in our ’speak’ means student participation - something which we are all committed to both through our work and our personal lives.

Hopefully over the next week we shall be able to give you an insight into global experiences on student participation, how it works , how India is working on it , and more importantly our views on a school with no less than 38,000 students (imagine that dinner queue in the canteen at lunch …!)

So far it is overwhelming how welcome we have been made to feel from the garlands round our neck to the regular requests for photos and autographs (local celebs much ??) . For me though I can’t quite get over the enthusasism of the students here for their school. Is it because they are involved in student voice? Is it because the school is adorned with motivating slogans about their power and role as global citizens?: Or is it simply pride for their school? I’m hoping to get to the bottom of what makes this school so passionate this week compared to so many others and will no doubt blog my answer!

For now though , it’s off to hear more speeches global practice - hoping the jet lag won’t start to kick in !

Nicola

Citizenship Foundation is looking for a political speaker to take part in this year’s Margaret Quass Debate* ‘Can we still be global citizens in a worldwide crisis? Facing the challenges of financial insecurity, global warming and scarce resources together’. The debate will take place on the 10th of December 2009 at London’s Commonwealth Foundation and its aim is to bring young people into dialogue with a panel of experts on global citizenship.

The other members of the panel are:

Paul Hilder - Director of the Avaaz Campaign
Ransford Smith - Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Gillian Temple - Head of Oxfam’s Public Engagement Team

The programme of the day is:

3.30pm - Arrival of Guests and speakers
4pm - Welcome and introductions
4.15 - 4.45 -Questions from students and debate panel and public
5.15 - Close of debate followed by informal reception
6.30pm -Close of event

The venue is:

Commonwealth Foundation
Marlborough House
Pall Mall
London
SW1Y 5HY

*The Margaret Quass debate is established as an annual event run by Citizenship Foundation in recognition of the work and heritage of Council for Education in World Citizenship (CEWC) which became part of Citizenship Foundation in 2008. Margaret Quass used to be the director of CEWC. CEWC has had a momentous history in informing young people about the purpose and nature of the UN. At its height the UK government funded CEWC, and education ministers from all political parties were supportive. CEWC and its members have helped the birth of many important organisations including Oxfam, Freedom from Hunger, Voluntary Service Overseas, Community Service Volunteers and the Association for Citizenship Teaching.

Citizenship Foundation will start the work on a new project this month. This is the first project that is funded by DFID at the Citizenship Foundation and it is run in partnership with Relief International UK.

Act Global aims to develop young peoples’ understanding of the connections between actions in their communities and the causes of global poverty, and it empowers them to take action on these causes at the local level.

The programme will involve 1,800 youth (600 per year) from Greater London in online discussions on the links between global poverty and actions within their community. These discussions will be moderated by experts from relevant fields and will utilise interactive media. 150 participants (50 per year) will be recruited as Global Youth Activists and attend a residential leadership training in which they work in groups to plan a project that addresses the causes of global poverty from within their communities.

 Watch this space for more updates!

Citizenship Foundation has been informed on Friday, 14 August that the European Commission accepted to fund a large scale development education project we are a partner in. The other organisations involved are: Plan UK (lead partner), Partners Bulgaria, Plan Netherlands and other three Plan offices in Africa: Senegal, Kenya and Malawi.

The project will focus on raising awareness on climate change issues by linking schools in all the countries invovled via a website platform. The students will learn from a series of resources on climate change, developed by Plan UK and updated by the Citizenship Foundation and will also receive training on running active citizenship campaigns (based on Citizenship Foundation’s Youth Act model) in their countries. The proejct is to start in January 2010 and will run for three years. Citizenship Foundation will employ a project officer to work on recruiting schools in the UK and supporting the teachers throughout the project.

These are exciting times for the development of international work at Citizenship Foundation! Watch this space for more updates!