Written Evidence Submitted by DEA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— DFID's work on Building Support for Development
has had a significant impact on public understanding of development
issues, especially through work with schools.
— DFID's development awareness work should
continue and be increased. It is effective and there is a need
for much greater public understanding. It should be widened to
support other sectors of education, particularly youth work.
— DFID must ensure that it does not lose
the educational focus of its development awareness and move towards
less effective, shallow, campaign based approaches.
— DFID could be more effective by working
more closely with DCSF and its agencies.
— Sharing learning from the range of work
DFID supports would increase their effectiveness.
ABOUT DEA
DEA is an education charity that promotes
global learning. We work to influence schools, curriculum, youth
work and education policy so that children and young people develop
an understanding of global issues and events and a global outlook.
DEA defines global learning as education that puts learning in
a global context, fostering:
— critical and creative thinking;
— self-awareness and open-mindedness
towards difference;
— understanding of global issues and
power relationships; and
— optimism and action for a better world.
DEA has a network of member organisations working
directly with educators across the country.
ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Our response refers particularly to the fourth
issue raised by the committee:
The effectiveness of DFID's strategy for strengthening
public support for its work
1. DFID's work in strengthening public support
for its work was outlined in their 1997 White Paper. It was
described in detail in Building Support for Development
in 1999. In their 2006 White Paper, "Eliminating World
Poverty: Making governance work for the poor" DFID states
that the UK will, "Double our investment in development
education, as we seek to give every child in the UK the chance
to learn about the issues that shape their world" (p124).
The budget for Development Awareness is £19 million
during 2008-09, rising to £24 million in 2009-10. All
these commitments are welcome.
2. DFID's funding and programmes have had
a major impact on public understanding of development issues,
especially through schools, and should be continued or, ideally,
increased. We believe that this contribution has been largely
effective although there are always minor areas for improvement.
3. Please note that DEA has moved from using
the term, "development education" to talking about "global
learning". The reason for this is that, as the White Paper
recognises, "in today's increasingly interconnected and
interdependent world, our lives in the richest countries are affected
by what happens in developing countries, and we also have an impact
on the lives of people there."(p123). We have found the
term, "global learning", to be more useful in working
with educators as it helps people to appreciate this global interdependence
and they can see it as a mainstream educational agenda.
4. Development issues are challenging for
educators who are not familiar with the complexities of the debates.
There is not currently enough global learning taking place. For
example, DEA commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey young people in
2008, they found:
— Almost one in five (19%) have not
discussed news stories from around the world at all in school.
— Only around two in five (42%) of pupils
believe that what they do in their daily life affects people in
other countries, showing they are not making the connections about,
for example, climate change.
(Ipsos MORI surveyed 1,955 pupils from
82 middle and secondary state schools in England between
11 January and 28 March 2008 on behalf of DEA.
See www.dea.org.uk/research for full details.)
5. Organisations which DFID funds such as
Development Education Centres (DECs) play an important role in
producing education materials and supporting teachers and other
educators to engage with global and development issues. They help
young people to make sense of the global context of their lives;
recognise that what they do affects people and the environment
in other countries; and understand and respond to some of the
complexity of development issues. Most of this work would not
be possible without DFID's support. Examples of the positive impact
of DFID's support can be seen in collections of case studies such
as "Global Matters" and "Think Global".[28]
6. The key word, from DEA's perspective,
in the 2006 commitment is education. Public support cannot
be built by simplistic public relations and awareness raising
campaigns. The public may believe these and support them when
they see them but will soon forget and will not feel strongly
enough about them if they have not thoroughly thought the messages
through and made connections to their own lives. For example,
many people were involved in Make Poverty History but the evidence
shows that their engagement was largely shallow.[29]
The role of education is to ensure that people reflect critically
on the issues and come to own their responses whilst maintaining
an openness to review in the light of new circumstances.
7. DFID currently supports national level
development education organisations, including the DEA, as well
as Cyfanfyd (Wales), IDEAS (Scotland) and the Centre for Global
Education in Northern Ireland. Moves are also being made by DFID
to strategically engage DCSF and DCLG (the latter on Community
Cohesion). This is positive but more needs to be done, in particular
to engage with other agencies in the mainstream education sector.
It would also be valuable for DFID to work more closely with other
government departments which have an interest in education for
sustainable development (DEFRA and DECC), and culture (DCMS).
8. DFID worked together with the Education
Department in 2000 to produce "Developing the Global
Dimension in the School Curriculum". The joint working was
positive for all concerned. Furthermore, the booklet was revised
in 2005 and over 50,000 copies of the second version
were requested showing a very high demand from teachers.
9. DFID funds the Global Dimension website
which provides teaching resources for teachers. It receives 25,000 visits
per month. This also shows the value which teachers attach to
finding quality resources for global learning and the demand that
exists for this agenda in schools.
10. DFID puts a large proportion of its
funding into supporting links/partnerships between schools and
communities in the UK and those in other countries through the
DFID Global Schools Partnerships programme and through a Community
Linking initiative. Some of this work is good but when done badly,
linking can reinforce negative stereotypes rather than contribute
to an understanding of the root causes of poverty. We would recommend
that further research be carried out into the impact of linking
on learning. Anecdotal evidence suggests that DFID's other education
work is more effective than this linking approach.
11. One of DFID's key programmes for schools
work is "Enabling effective support for a global dimension
in education" (EES). This costs about £1.5 million
per year and aims "to build capacity within the UK's education
systems so they respond to the challenges of educating young people
to understand and help shape the globalising and interdependent
world in which they live." Each government region has
a different strategy in response to EES. The "enabling"
aspect of the strategy makes evaluation particularly difficult
but from our close engagement with those involved, we believe
that this strategy has been excellent value for money in increasing
the capacity of schools to grapple with the development agenda.
12. DFID's Development Awareness Fund grants
have been a very significant element of the funding for organisations
supporting global learning since 1997. The total budget for 2008-09 is
£4.5 million with £1.86 million of this being
for new projects in this financial year. There is excellent education
work being done by small NGOs, including the UK's network of 45 Development
Education Centres (DECs) which would not be possible without this
funding.
13. DFID's work with young people has tended
to focus on schools. However, there is increasing demand from
the youth sectors to introduce development awareness and global
learning into their work in response to the interests and concerns
of young people and the recognition that global youth work can
enhance the positive outcomes for young people and their communities.
Global youth work can also bring quality global learning to young
people not engaging with school; it can support and take forward
the learning from international volunteering and exchanges; and
can help give young people the confidence and skills to be involved
in international decision-making forums on issues that affect
them. At present there is very little support for global youth
work and no strategic coordination that could ensure the potential
of this work is maximised. We strongly recommend that this is
addressed.
14. More work should also be done in Further
Education and Higher Education, working with the strategic national
bodies for these sectors would be a valuable first step.
15. DFID's work could be made more effective
if they were able to do more to ensure an even geographical spread
of support programmes across the UK. For example there is only
one Development Education Centre in the whole of London and only
one in the whole of the North East.
16. With the DFID Development Awareness
Fund grants, more work needs to be done to ensure that learning
from projects is captured in such a way that it can be used by
DFID, current and future grant holders and other stakeholders.
Project evaluations are done but these need to be brought together
so wider conclusions can be drawn about which projects have the
most positive impacts and how the grant programmes might be adapted
to encourage more of these. The Development Awareness Fund also
tends to fund new projects and there should be consideration for
drawing on the best of existing projects for further funding,
development and potentially rolling out on a wider basis, rather
than purely a focus on innovation.
17. Further research is needed into global
learning to ensure that DFID builds on its best work and develops
the most effective programmes it can, for example:
— What impacts do different kinds of DFID
funded interventions make? Which are the most effective and have
the most long term effects?
— What constitutes good quality global
learning, and what are the pitfalls that need to be avoided?
— How does global learning impact on standards,
teacher retention, community cohesion and other key issues in
schools?
Submitted by DEA on 20 February 2009
28 DEA (2008) Global Matters Think Global (2008) is
available from: http://education.guardian.co.uk/thinkglobal Back
29
Darnton, A (2006) Make Poverty History: End of Year Notes,
From the "Public Perceptions of Poverty Research Programme".
Available from: http://www.bond.org.uk/data/files/resources/70/ad_mph_notes.pdf Back
| 
