Geography plays a part in promoting development education in schools, but thinking about the global dimension implies a step change from stereotypical ‘development indicators’ and ‘case studies’. A global approach presents teachers and students with a range of challenges and opportunities.

Using a global dimension geography teachers can:

• participate in curriculum renewal, finding new ways to teach current issues such as poverty reduction, food security, population movement, sustainable development
• create lessons that connect to students’ lives and imaginations
• provide renewed focus for the study of the home locality as a dynamic global ‘meeting point’
• reinvigorate the basic concepts of place and scale as powerful tools to analyse uniqueness of outcome with universality of human and physical processes.

For students, geography lessons:

• become a powerful way of addressing issues
• help them develop a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of their locality
• help them deconstruct everyday events in order to build their understanding of multiple perspectives
• provide a sense of empowerment
• provide opportunities for pupils to envision possible, probable and alternative futures in relation to sustainable development
• encourage debate and develop communication skills
• help them understand that human rights (and responsibilities) are universal

For the DEA, DCSF and GA these approaches are inextricably linked – read statements from each of these organisations here. See also the GA’s manifesto for school geography, A Different View, for further information.