The Specifics of a Practice of Global Education in Australia : Through Lesson Analysis of a Unit "Is Water More Precious than Gold?"

Abstract

In Australia, global education has been developed through a national project named Global Education Project. One of the notable products of this project is the publication of three books that introduce some lesson plans, named "Global Perspective Series". The purpose of this research is to reveal 1) how the Series of books is used in real lessons in a school, and 2) the factors which support a high-quality practice of global education. Firstly, I confirmed the three essential aspects of global education based on the theory of Margaret Calder and Roger Smith, who have led development education and global education in Australia theoretically and practically. Next I pointed out that the Series doesn't reflect the three aspects sufficiently. Then I analyzed a unit "Is Water More Precious than Gold?", which was practiced by two teachers for students of grade 4 and 5 at a school in South Australia, to look at how these three essential aspects were realized. As a result, I showed that the Series of books is regarded by teachers as useful for their lessons, and that the teachers realized the areas that were lacking in the Series and adapted the lesson plans to overcome this. I also pointed out two factors which supported this high-quality practice. These were the expertise of the teachers, and accumulated accomplishment of development education which is the predecessor of global education.