Global Learning as an opportunity for teachers' agency: the case of one Greek primary school

Abstract

Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Global Learning in this study is understood as a pedagogy of learning that focuses on exploring global issues as well as questioning issues of inequality and social justice. The importance of this pedagogy has been highlighted by many international agencies such as GENE and UNESCO and it has been explored by researchers within different contexts across the world in formal and informal education spaces (Bourn, 2020). However, the concept of Global Learning has been underdeveloped in the context of Greece, although the country has been affected by globalisation trends, such as the refugee crisis. The limited number of studies that explored the aspect of citizenship in formal education practice in the country, show that there are limited opportunities in the school curriculum to explore global issues and critically engage with them (Bastaki, 2016; Karagrigoriou, 2018; Noula, 2014). This study through an action research methodology, explores the implementation of Global Learning in one Greek primary school. Teachers from the school have had the opportunity to engage with theoretical underpinnings of Global Learning, reflect on them and implement them as part of their teaching and learning practice. Questionnaires, lesson observations and teacher interviews were used to collect data in the different stages of the study. Preliminary findings from lesson observations present how teachers adopted their teaching and learning approaches to incorporate Global Learning, as well as how their practice changed through the different stages of the study. Also, further evidence from interviews, lesson observations and teachers’ reflections, suggest that teachers viewed their engagement with Global Learning practices as an opportunity to professionally develop and enabled them to act as “agents of social change” (Bourn, 2016).