Engage with Strathclyde (University) – Thursday May 3rd 2012
This event which was held in the McCance Building provided a showcase for the work done in year 2 of the Global Storylines Project by WOSDEC <www.wosdec.org> in collaboration with Glasgow City Council and the University of Strathclyde.
Sallie Harkness, Maureen Bell from St Charles Primary, Ruth Barr, Steve Bell, Lynn Baxendale, Diana Ellis and Laura Wilson from St Patrick’s Glasgow.
This year, eighteen primary teachers and four secondary teachers continued to trial the revisions of last year’s Global Storylines and began the process of piloting, reflecting on and evaluating two more Global Storylines. These new storylines are: Our Food, Our World (Level 1 CfE) which investigates fair-trade and organic farming, and The Farming Community (Level 2 CfE) which explores the issues of food security and land grabbing. (For more information contact diana.wosdec@btconnect.com)
After a welcome and introduction by Nick Morgan of Education Scotland Ruth Barr, Quality Improvement Officer, Glasgow, described her support for this work as part of her responsibility for developing Global Citizenship in Glasgow Schools. She was very encouraged by the enthusiasm of the teachers involved and with the results she has seen in the classrooms. As the major support tutor, Diana Ellis gave an illustrated report of her work during the year. Class teachers from Notre Dame, St Charles and St Patrick’s Primaries described their work. All the teachers were amazed by the strength of the pupils’ involvement and their willingness to immerse themselves in the dramatic development of the stories. The photographic evidence was compelling. Dr Marie Jeanne MacNaughton of the University of Strathclyde then described the early results of her research into this use of Global Storylines. She was most impressed by the results to date and was looking forward to the third and final year of the project. Finally, Steve Bell, Storyline Scotland, congratulated all the participants on their hard work and enthusiasm and spoke of the long years of Storyline development that had led up to this point.
Following these presentations there was time for informal discussion and an opportunity to examine the many examples of classroom work that were on display.
Marie-Jeanne McNaughton