There is great congruence between global education and the Australian Curriculum.

Goals

Global education aims to develop global citizens through promotion of open mindedness and a willingness to take action for change, respecting and valuing diversity, and being active in the development of a peaceful, just and sustainable world. It has much in common with the Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for Young Australians (2008), which promotes equity and excellence, development of successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.

Approach

Global education promotes flexible learning, which empowers students to learn about the world, develop values around a positive sense of self, appreciation of cultural diversity, passion for social justice and human rights and building sustainable futures. Like the Australian Curriculum it is cross-disciplinary to broaden and enrich each student’s learning. Teachers are able to choose how best to introduce concepts and processes and how to progressively deepen understanding to maximise the engagement and learning of every student.

Skills

The skills developed in global education are similar to the general capabilities of the Australian Curriculum, equipping students to be lifelong learners able to operate with confidence in a complex, information-rich, globalised world. The general capabilities particularly relevant to global education because they focus on ways of thinking, acting, behaving or learning to live with others are:

• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical behaviour
• Personal and social competence
• Intercultural understanding.

Perspectives

A global perspective encompasses the Australian Curriculum’s three cross-curriculum priorities that assist learning to be relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face.