Type of project: Early Years
Duration: July 2007 – June 2010
Main funding body: Department for International Development (DfID)
Areas of work: Knowledge and Understanding of the World; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication, Language and Literacy; Creative Development
Target audience: Young children from 0 – 5 years old, Early Years Practitioners, Managers and Supervisors, Parents/Carers, Early Years Specialist Teachers and the wider community
Project Partners: Early Years and Childcare Services, Children and Young People's Services of Nottinghamshire County Council
Description
MUNDI has recently received funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) to start an exciting three-year project on developing global learners within the Early Years from July 2007 to June 2010.
Children's ideas about themselves and the world around them are formed at an early age. Young children express an interest in the wider world and try to make sense of global trends and problems. In the course of a day, children pick up information about the wider world from a wide range of sources: parents/carers, siblings, other significant adults, teachers, television (especially the news), stories, internet and travel (holidays, school visits). As new communications technology brings countries closer, children are being exposed to all parts of the globe – no longer confined to their own community, or even their own country. Although many would argue that the under fives are too young to learn about these ‘complex' issues the following three quotes illustrate that this is not the case.
- ‘I'm going to write them a nice letter so that they can be happy again.'
A five-year-old's response to the news of the Boxing day tsunami.
- ‘I couldn't sleep last night I thought we would be bombed.'
A four-year-old's comment after bombing started in the first Gulf war.
- ‘A two year old boy in my setting kept building towers of lego and then flying a toy plane into them' A practitioner recounting a child's response after watching news footage of the planes flying into the twin towers on September 11 th 2001.
The children quoted put into words and/or actions their fears, as well as their caring, concern and empathy. There is a glimmering of awareness that perhaps they should do something about global problems they encounter on the news. They show that they are forming rudimentary conceptions, and misconceptions, about issues of peace and conflict, human rights, global development and the environment.
In order to develop confident and knowledgeable global citizens it is vital, therefore, to start at a young age. This project plans to lay the foundations for developing global citizens by working directly with early years practitioners and indirectly with the young children and their parents/carers. The ultimate target group for the project are young children from 0 – 5 years old in the Foundation Stage within the formal education context of Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) Early Years settings that are Local Authority (LA) nursery grant funded and inspected by Ofsted.
The project aims to promote an understanding and awareness of global and local perspectives, interdependence and development issues amongst Early Years Practitioners and Specialist Teachers, parents, Local Authority and NGO advisors and policy makers in Nottinghamshire, and the application of this understanding to prepare young children for life as global citizens with positive attitudes towards diversity in a rapidly changing interdependent world.
It will do this by enabling practitioners to make local to global links with the children through the following topics, starting with ourselves and our local community moving out to our friends and wider communities and finishing with our world. The following themes will be covered within these three topics - food, homes, music, stories, rhymes and songs, dance, celebrations and clothes (for everyday and for special occasions) that acknowledge children's particular beliefs and cultural backgrounds.
The project partners are MUNDI, Nottingham 's Global Education Centre and the Early Years and Childcare Services, Children and Young People's Services of Nottinghamshire County Council. The project team will consist of the project coordinator at MUNDI, the Early Years Specialist Teachers and the project co-ordinators at each setting. The team plan to work with 10 Early Years Settings per year for each of the three years.
If you would like to find out more please contact Alex Kosogorin at:
MUNDI Centre for Global Education, School of Education , Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham , NG8 1BB Email: Alexander.kosogorin@nottingham.ac.uk
Tel: 0115 951 4485 Website: www.mundi.org.uk
Latest news
The project will be formally launched with the first ten Early Years settings at South Forest Leisure Centre , Edwinstowe from 9:30 – 12:00 noon on Tuesday 16 th October. This launch event is planned to:
• Welcome all of the 2007/8 project participants
• Introduce the project team
• Introduce the project and what settings can expect to gain from involvement
• Provide a proforma to audit current practice related to the development of global learners
• Demonstrate some exemplar global activities
• Provide letters and project summaries for parents/carers and setting managers
• Provide details of a follow up one day training event – Wednesday 7 th November 2007 at Edwinstowe House
A follow up one day training event exploring global perspectives and anti-discriminatory learning environments will take place on Wednesday 7 th November 2007 at Edwinstowe House.
