Education for development

Development Sectors

Development Activities

 

Example of projects in education for development

Guidelines of EC for the Education for Development programme: Support to actions in the EU and acceding countries aiming at raising public awareness of development issues and promoting education for development, to mobilise greater support for actions against poverty and fairer relations between developed and developing countries.       

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see also www.oxfam.org.uk/education

 

Oxfam’s DEYP strategy proposes two goals:

 

To enable and empower young people in the UK to become global citizens, equipped with the values, knowledge, understanding and skills to respond effectively to global issues and thereby influence the environment in which Oxfam campaigns.

Young people take effective action as part of the global movement to overcome world poverty.

These goals require changing ideas and beliefs in order to change behaviour:

 using a range of approaches for different target audiences and contexts,

influencing policies and education practices to ensure the most conducive environment for global citizenship and education for sustainable development and

working with young people in formal education (schools) and through mobilisation around campaigns and themes and through informal education.

Oxfam’s Development Education & Youth Programme (DEYP) enables people to understand links between their own lives and those of people throughout the world, and aims to:

Increase understanding of the economic, social, political and environmental forces which shape our lives;

Develop skills, attitudes and values which enable people to work together to bring about change and take control of their own lives;

Achieve a more just and sustainable world in which power and resources are more equitably shared.

The eradication of global poverty will depend as much on effective education as it will on international and national policy reforms and resource management.

 

What's development education all about?

There are pages of this site dedicated to explaining what development education is all about.  The development education team’s work is centred around the Curriculum for Global Citizenship formulated and published by Oxfam’s DE programme in 1997. Click here to view these pages and to find out more about Education for Global Citizenship (E4GC).

Can I look at or borrow your resources?

Priced resources for schools:
A description of every educational resource we sell is available from our website:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/catalogue.htm

Oxfam Staff:
If you are based in Oxford, Cardiff, Glasgow or London you are welcome to visit our offices there. Please let us know you would like to come so we can make sure someone is there to greet you. You may be able to borrow resources for a short amount of time. Please check with the office concerned.

If you are elsewhere in the UK, there are many Development Education Centres around England, Scotland and Wales that have copies of many of Oxfam's resources. For a comprehensive list of Centres where you might be able to look at our resources, click here 

If you are based outside the UK, you can browse our resources through our website:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/catalogue.htm

Non-Oxfam staff:
There are many Development Education Centres around England, Scotland and Wales that have copies of many of Oxfam's resources. For a comprehensive list of Centres where you might be able to look at our resources, click here 

Free resources for schools, politicians, decision-makers, school governors, young people...:
Our website, Cool Planet, has activities and information for young people, as well as downloadable resources for teachers. The site also has information about Oxfam's Curriculum for Global Citizenship. 

Anyone unable to access the Intranet will find a wealth of resources about development education, and development, on Cool Planet.

How do I order development education resources?

Ordering resources is simple for Oxfam staff. They can be ordered through the Library by contacting Ros Buck (x3757) and you receive a 20% discount.

Other organisations and individuals can order from our online ordering service: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/catalogue.htm or by phoning our distributors, BEBC, on +44 (0)1202 712933.

I've a friend who's a teacher. How can they find out about Oxfam's development education work? 

Oxfam's Cool Planet website has pages for teachers that explain all about our development education programme. The site also contains information about how to order resources, links to allow them to browse through our catalogue of resources.

You can reach Cool Planet by using this link: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/index.html

The Supporter Relations team have a lot of information they are able to send out about our DE programme and resources. They can be contacted by phone: 0870 333 2700 or email: education@oxfam.org.uk

How do I know what resources you have available?

You can browse our priced resources on our website at: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/catalogue.htm

Or check out the free resources at: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/resources/index.htm

If you have specific questions about which resources might be appropriate for different topics or types of education, feel free to contact the DEYP administrator.

Do you send speakers into schools?

Yes, Oxfam has fully trained speakers who go into schools to help pupils aged eight and above explore a range of issues that affect their world - including poverty, health and education - as well as the work of Oxfam, and the ways they can take action to make a positive contribution in their local and global communities.

School speaker sessions are suitable for work across the curriculum, especially Citizenship, Geography and PSHE. A session costs £20. Every school that books a session will receive a copy of Oxfam's popular poster pack, Change the World in Eight Steps, which is full of ideas for follow-up work. Speakers can also advise teachers on resources and local support for bringing a global approach to the classroom. They will tailor the session to each school’s specific needs.

Please note: The School Speaker Scheme is not being rolled out to Scotland or Wales at present.

Schools can request a Speaker via Oxfam’s website for teachers at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/schoolspeakers, or by calling Supporter Relations on 08700 333 2700.


Do you work outside the UK?

Oxfam's development education programme has staff in England, Scotland and Wales.

We are closely involved with advocacy, training, and capacity building work in Europe, through the Development Education Forum of CONCORD (the Confederation of European International Development NGOs and networks) to ensure development education is a priority within member states of the European Union and in the international development co-operation and thematic policies of the EC.

During 2006-07, under the project heading DE Global we plan to extend and strengthen international alliances in DE, working with the DE Forum, the European DE networking project DEEEP2, Council of Europe’s North-South Centre, and Oxfam International affiliates. DE Global will work through shared training and small-scale partnership projects to focus on MDGs, and to bring diverse nation perspectives on the implementation of Global Citizenship Education (E4GC) and Sustainable Development in awareness raising strategies for young people and civil society, with a particular focus on learning in new member states of EU.

We have also started work developing links with Oxfam programme staff in a number of regions around the world. Development education is relevant to work in any context where education takes place since it is about empowering individuals to take action, make informed decisions, and change their world. We are working through SCOs 2 and 4 to develop connections with programme staff in areas where development education might be appropriate.

 

I would like to encourage my child's school to do development education. What could I do?

Find out whether development education and global citizenship issues are already being taught in your child's school.

If your child is at secondary school in England, he/she should be having Citizenship lessons and part of the Citizenship curriculum concerns global issues. In Wales, schools should be teaching children about sustainable development.

Make your child's school aware of the Oxfam Catalogue for Schools (for further info about the catalogue click here, and the Curriculum for Global Citizenship (click here).  If you have the chance, take copies of Oxfam's materials for teachers to your child's school. 

If you would like to talk further about what you could do to get your child's school involved, feel free to contact Lucy Stephens in the first instance.

I want to go into a school to talk about Oxfam's work. What support can you offer me?

If staff members would like advice about speaking to young people we can offer some guidance and suggest educational activities that might be appropriate for particular age groups and on particular topics (e.g. current campaigns issues).