Global citizenship in teacher training

Stijn Dhert works as a teacher trainer at the Catholic University of Leuven and at the University Colleges Leuven-Limburg. He advises and supports schools and organisations that want to engage in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Stijn is co-founder of the Mysterie van Onderwijs (‘Mystery of Education’) and coordinates the Flemish Unesco schools network (ASPnet).

Yannick Letawe is a teaching fellow in mathematics and physics at HELMo-Gramme. He has a PhD in astrophysics and formerly was a teacher trainer at HE2B. He is specialised in the study and creation of interdisciplinary science – global citizenship teaching tools. He is also a researcher for the ‘Pacte d’Excellence’ within the C5 Consortium (technologies, techniques, manual labour).

The starting point of this workshop are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which also include a call to action in teacher training. Why is it important to embed global citizenship education in teacher training? What do we expect from prospective teachers? Which initiatives have already been taken by Flemish and Walloon education institutions? Stijn Dhert and Yannick Letawe showcase a few inspiring examples from both communities of Belgium. For instance, teacher training at the UC Leuven-Limburg has developed practice-oriented scientific research on global citizenship, whereas the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in Ghent focuses on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Furthermore, with a view of offering lively and relevant science teaching to students in their initial course, teams of teacher trainers of HE2B (Nivelles) present interdisciplinary modules including science addressing a global citizenship education issue. In the short term, a study will be carried out in the Fédération Bruxelles-Wallonie on interdisciplinary practices of teachers in order to better understand the relations between interdisciplinary school work and global citizenship education.