BC Teachers for Peace and Global Education

Michael Wiskar

1)

Professional Association - BC Teachers for Peace and Global Education.

           

How did you find out about it – Through Social Issues in Education class.

           

Mandate - “Global Education is a philosophy of living and a methodology that seeks to link issues of peace, human rights, environment, and equitable, sustainable development to our personal and professional lives. It also seeks to find and implement ways of infusing these interconnected issues into our existing curricula and institutions by coming to understand the natural and human engineered systems in which they exist”.

 

Projects of association –

-         The Global Educator, journal of the B.C. Peace and Global Educators (PAGE), is published twice yearly.

-         Sponsorship of professional development initiatives for teachers, for example, “The Future Lives Here…Uniting Schools and Communities, Oct 21, 22 with key note speaker Stephan Lewis”.

-         Provides resources for teachers to infuse global issues into their curriculum.

Funding – Association is a membership organization in which the general public and teachers become members and pay an annual fee.

Other organizations it works with – the association sponsors professional development for teachers with different school districts, municipalities, teacher associations, and other educational organizations etc.

Website - http://www.pagebc.ca/

2)  In the Winter 2009 issue of The Global Educator there is an article entitled, “NGOs Provide Global Education Resources: Recommendations from the BCCIC”.  This article provides information on global education initiatives, projects, workshops and resources that have been created by non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) for BC schools and educators.  The umbrella organization named the BC Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC), is a coalition made up of these ngo's who also operate locally to “reduce global poverty and achieve sustainable development”.  Incorporating global education into the classroom is the main focus of BC Teachers for Peace and Global Education, and this article provides information on various ngo’s within the BCCIC, and their efforts to engage students in global education.

An example of one of the ngo's in the BCCIC from the article is the Victoria International Development Education Association (VIDA) who has been involved in educating youth, students, and teachers about global issues and empowering them to get involved outside of the classroom setting for over thirty years.  VIDA is currently offering free interactive workshops on issues such as, “Migrant Labour, Ethical Consumption and the Chocolate Trade, and Colonialism, Power and the Global Economy”.  VIDA's website also offers other learning resources on topics related to “community development, the environment, and free trade”.

3)  For a grade 5 social studies class, while teaching the Prescribed Learning Outcome, E3 “explain why sustainability is important” which is in the section “Human and the Physical Environment” I would use a Problem Based Learning (PBL) strategy approach to introduce the topic of “why sustainability is important”.  I would take a global perspective (as is discussed in the article) and provide students with an example of  human's negative impact on the planet (eg) destruction of Borneo's rainforests and the impending extinction of the Orangutan from extensive palm oil plantations.  I would use different methods to communicate this “problem” to the students (eg) lecture, films, documentaries, books, news headings etc. and design certain activities and/or projects around this topic which would encourage students to critically think about humans relationship with other species and with the planet in general.  The problem-based learning strategy could also be incorporated into other subjects such as Language Arts where student could read stories about Orangutans and the destruction of their habitat, or Science where discussion around the topic of “describe potential environmental impacts of using BC’s living and non-living resources” (Grade 5 science PLO) could allow students to connect the problems associated with rainforest destruction in Borneo to their home rainforests in BC.