New research on young people's interest in global issues
Thursday July 29 2010The results of a new survey from DEA member GLEAN (the Global Learning Network South West) offers an interesting picture of young people's interest in and knowledge about global issues.
Participants were asked about their views on 11 sets of global issues. The research (pdf) covers a wide range of views and issues, and found that:
- Almost 9 in 10 young people (87%) say that all 11 global issues matter to them, posing a challenge to perceptions of widespread disengagement amongst young people. Some of the young people surveyed said that this perception is a major barrier to their participation in tackling global issues.
- Despite its high profile in recent years, young people know and understand relatively little about fairtrade, in comparison to climate change, racism and human rights. The researchers suggest that this is because the latter issues are integrated throughout the curriculum and throughout the year, whereas fairtrade is generally covered only in ‘Fairtrade Fortnight' once per year.
- Almost universally (97%), participants agreed that they have an important role to play in shaping the future of the world.
299 students took part in the survey, from amongst the network of schools across the south west that work with GLEAN. Participants were between 12 and 21 years old and 75% were 12-14. The positive responses to the survey may have been partly because the participants were drawn from schools already working with GLEAN. If this is true it would give further indication of the effectiveness of global learning in schools, reinforcing research on the impact of global learning from DEA published earlier this year.
