In a number of shared previous actions in the field (Youth of the World!, TeachMDGs, Changing Habbits for Good – in which different partners or experts in the current partnership were involved), the project partners have identified the need to take specific measures to ground global education on the very local level, in small localities (under 50 000 inhabitants, but aiming for smaller) which are often isolated from new trends and processes. Especially when working on Youth of the World!, which targeted youth work and non-formal education, it was concluded that much more innovative approaches could be considered for further engaging (young) people in settings outside of the formal educational system. Building on these experiences and feeding from direct contact with target groups and beneficiaries, the project partners worked collaboratively to build the current proposal. The process was initiated by C.E.G.A. who have built the current partnership based on the experience of the project partners and the value they would bring to the project.
About us
Our story
Our Project
Global Education Goes Local is a 3 years long-term project that brings together 7 partners to foster commitment of European citizens to take an active role towards meeting the challenges of the interdependent world we live in. The project will engage over 30 small localities (under 50 000 inhabitans) where the main intervention of the activities will take place, involving young people. Raising awareness, capacity building of local structures and taking actions are part of the process foreseen in the project.
Our Core Approaches
It employees two specific approaches: Going Local & Going Pop
Going Local
While foreseeing a number of international activities and processes, the project’s main intervention is in small localities (at least 50 000 people, but aiming for smaller) in the six involved EU countries. ‘Grounding’ global issues and global education processes on the very local level is a red line throughout the whole project, answering a lack of concentrated efforts to engage communities in small towns to build awareness in global issues (usually more isolated from tendencies and disadvantaged in terms of opportunity for learning and interaction). The combination of learning efforts and action allows to better connect local realities with global issues and take local actions for global change. Finally, the project doesn’t just touch the local level, but considerably invests in building enough institutional and personal capacity for learning and acting around global issues beyond the lifetime of the project.
Going Pop
The idea of using pop culture as a medium and a starting point to explore global issues with young people is somewhat innovative and bears a lot of potential. Global awareness has so far mainly been addressing young people through schools using curriculum-based contents. The approach to take pop culture which young people already consume and are highly interested in, is expected to bring new perspectives in the future pedagogical development of global education. Based on what young people are currently trending around, the project will produce a youth-friendly guide and an online course, connecting global issues to popular music, movies, series, TV shows, memes, Youtubers and vloggers, video games, comics, street art, social networks. Through the actions young people will have the chance to plan the idea of using pop culture for raising awareness on global issues and standing up for SDGs is expected to find further development.
Our Core Methods
The rest of the methods employed by the project include
Empowering the target groups
The involvement of the target groups is crucial for the project implementation, as it aims not only to “address” them, but to empower them and give them space for action
Trans-national events
a tool that will provide a common space for the project partners, the target groups of the project and other stakeholders to come together for capacity building, learning, reflection and planning of actions
Combining online and offline work
The partnership has built on previous experience and while the project provides for a number of offline events and processes, it also follows new tendencies and brings many of its outputs and processes online
Sharing experience
This method will be used on a few levels: sharing experience within the partnership; sharing among the local structures; sharing among the young people; sharing among other actors
Effective learning processes
The project partners share common vision on effective training activities, which involve participative and learner-centered training methodologies, which support the learners in constructing knowledge, skills and values.
Scaling up
Apart from directly intervening in 30 localities and generating global education recourses, the project design foresees enough efforts that the results, know-how and content generated through these activities, are properly disseminated and exploited.