Local4Global

Global Citizenship Virtual Schools Project

Our proposal was designed to embed Education for Global Citizenship as a feature of the secondary provision for teacher training at the Cass School of Education, University of East London. It aimed to do this through the framework of virtual schools – an innovative on-line
problem based learning solution- over two phases using the strong partnership with school based colleagues to support this initiative.
Within phase one, which took place between September 2008 to July 2009 we:

• Introduced a global dimension into the virtual schools our virtual learning environment (VLE). The use of 12 'virtual schools' as a vehicle enabled us to bring trainee teachers across different disciplines together around the themes associated with Global Citizenship.
• Identified nine citizenship teachers from partnership schools who were willing to act as mentors in the development and facilitation of the project from September 2008.
• Offered a core session on Global Citizenship that introduced the global dimension to trainee teachers through a core lecture and activities in conjunction with the Humanities Education Centre in October 2008.
• Involved the mentor group in developing a briefing that was delivered in December 2008, and followed by workshops, which aimed to prepare trainee teachers for the planning of a five-hour day of activities based around the theme of Global Citizenship.
• Encouraged interventions on the VLE in response to this Global Citizenship core input.
• Ran, under the guidance of the nine citizenship teachers, a Global Citizenship day in February 2009 in which each 'virtual school' planned 5 hours of activities and resources for year 7/8/9 pupils. Each virtual school presented their work to UEL and Partnership school staff at the end of the day.
• Ensured that, after monitoring and evaluation, the finished resources were posted up on the Virtual School sites by May 2009.

The core session which was held in October 2008 saw trainee teachers within each virtual school picking one of four themes ('Journeys', 'Conflict Resolution', 'Sustainability'; and 'Identities'). These themes would inform work on the virtual schools for the year and underpin the Global Citizenship Day. The December briefing required them to decide:

• What activities their pupils would do during the day?
• What resources they would create to support those activities?
• Who would be doing the activities (e.g. whole of KS3? All year seven?).
• How would the day be run (e.g. suspended time table?)?
• What human resources would be required (e.g. collaboration between teams, outside speakers etc)?
• What physical resources would they need on the day (e.g. DVDs/Flipcharts etc)?
• What physical resources would their 'virtual pupils' require (e.g. scissors, glue, ITC labs etc)?

With varying degrees of success each virtual school worked collaboratively on these questions between the December briefing and the Global Citizenship Day in February 2009. On February 12th all secondary trainee teachers were brought into the main lecture hall at the start of the day and briefed. Their task was to:

1. Fill out an activity plan for the day (5 hours worth of activities) based on the December briefing day.
2. Produce resources to support the planned activities for the day.
3. Prepare a 10 minute presentation detailing the day's activities to other virtual schools, partnerships and UEL teaching staff.

Each virtual school was allocated a base-classroom in which they worked supported by one of the nine citizenship teachers acting as advisors to the groups.
Evaluation of the project was based on the feedback received from 111 evaluation forms that were filled out by the trainee teachers and the nine citizenship teachers from our partnership schools at the end of the day. The following summary points have been taken from these evaluations:

• Overwhelming support for project to run next year with improvements suggested from both trainees and mentors (see below).
• Many trainee teachers referred to 'creativity' as a feature of the day, in part, due to the opportunity to work with different trainee teachers from different subject disciplines.
• Despite being introduced to 'citizenship' on their courses and in the schools in which they trained many felt that the day had produced a greater awareness of what citizenship means and its relevance for their practice.
• The day introduced new teaching ideas, styles and approaches
• The pressure of having to create resources and activities under limited time conditions, although initially problematic for some trainees, forged creativity and working relationships.
• The fostering of group dynamics and professional attitudes that the day engendered was, for some trainees, akin to working in real schools.
• Some trainees commented on the benefits the project had for creating significant evidence for Standards Portfolios

Suggested improvements to the project from trainees and mentors:

• Many trainees felt that project should run over two days. While for some, the time constraints clearly motivated the groups to deliver by the end of the day - others felt that they would have gained from a day of just preparation and a day where they could witness the presentations from all 12 schools.
• The realisation of the significant benefits of working in the virtual school came too late for many trainees. If the project ran earlier in the year this would cement relationships in the virtual schools and allow the virtual schools to play a more formative role in overall ITE provision.
• While many trainee teachers felt that benefits had been gained from the project many felt that their work should be recognised by being formally assessed. It was also felt that by being assessed this would ‘up' the level of participation of the virtual school members.
• Trainees and partnership mentors commented on the sizes of the virtual schools. Dividing a cohort of over 180 trainee teachers into twelve virtual schools for the day meant that despite the schools being ‘cross-curricular', large group sizes meant that some trainees reverted to smaller subject groupings during the day thereby diminishing the cross-curricular nature of the work. In some cases group dynamics also affected by the dominance of certain members.
• It was universally felt that Citizenship specifications should be given in advance of the day's activities. Initially the decision was made to filter these through during the day rather than giving these to the schools in advance. This decision was made on the basis of not wanting to limit the creativity in ideas by restricting trainees to any specifications. However trainees commented on how useful they were in channelling that creativity.
• Many trainee teachers felt that greater provision of resources (e.g. lap-tops, laminators etc) would have enhanced the day. While ICT provision was backed up with a bank of extra lap-tops, nevertheless the large sizes of the groups meant that there were elements of frustration experienced by trainees as and when they were preparing their resources.

In planning Phase Two - September 2009 onwards - of the Global Dimension work we have been able to allocate two days to the project. In effect we have taken out the presentation component of the day and moved this to the end of the course. This has the advantage of increasing the face to face time given to the project whilst also extending the time that each virtual school group can devote to producing the materials and subsequent presentation. It also offers the opportunity to trial materials in a school between the time of the Global Dimension Day in February and the presentation of this work in June. This allied to mentor involvement with the development of the presentation within the virtual school is likely to have an impact on members of the ITE partnership outside of the walls of the institution.

It was clear from the evaluation of last year's work that some trainees viewed this work as carrying lowered status. This has been rectified this year by ensuring that the virtual school activities are closely allied to our assessment scheme and we have made the presentation around the project one of the key outputs here. It is hoped that building in the assessment component will raise the status of the project and its outputs both amongst trainees and UEL staff, the evaluation will test this proposition.

Last year's evaluation focused on the process of the intervention with a view to fine tuning this process. This has been done and we have set out to look at the impact of the intervention with this year's cohort. To this end we have produced and administered a questionnaire that will provide a base line against which changes in knowledge and understanding can be judged. In parallel with this, a separately funded project will look at the perceptions held by participants and at the changes in perception that being involved in the project invoked.

The evaluation of the first year of the project formed the basis of a presentation at the UK ITE Network for Education for Sustainable Development/Global Citizenship Conference held in July 2009. It is our intention to target this event again in 2010, to capitalise on the strands of interest that were developed from the first presentation. This paper will also be submitted for publication. Another audience will be approached through submission to the Teacher Education Advancement Network Conference.

We will continue to ensure that the resources produced by individual virtual school groups are made available through the virtual school wiki. We will also consider the possibility of publication of those resources via other means (for example through subject associations e.g. ATSS (Association of Teachers of Social Sciences). It is also hoped that the network established between the participating teachers might act as a catalyst for future research by some of those respondents involved.

Neil Herrington, University of East London

 
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