Unit rationale, description and aim

Highly skilled educators benefit from an awareness of diverse world views and cultural perspectives. In order to effectively engage with people and communities characterised by diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, students benefit from an immersive overseas learning experiences.

This unit includes both study and placement experiences that will enable the development of an ethical and international perspective on education. It focuses specifically on the international context of developing nations including academic study into developing nation educational contexts, fostering critically reflexive skills in the areas of intercultural and ethical understandings in education, comparative studies between developed and developing nation contexts and an in-country professional and community engagement experience program where students will have the opportunity to engage with the local community and schools. It is anticipated that students will have the opportunity to facilitate learning activities during the in-country experience. 

The aim of this unit is to foster critically reflective and ethically responsible educators who can contribute to the global education community.

NOTE: Admission into the unit is achieved through a competitive application and selection process.

2025 10

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  • Term Mode
  • Professional Term 8Online Scheduled

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Identify and describe different political, social ...

Learning Outcome 01

Identify and describe different political, social and economic contexts and relate these to the Human Development Index
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC6, GC9, GC10, GC11

Critically analyse the place of education in addre...

Learning Outcome 02

Critically analyse the place of education in addressing inequities in countries situated at different points on the Human Development Index
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11

Demonstrate capacity to actively engage in cultura...

Learning Outcome 03

Demonstrate capacity to actively engage in culturally sensitive and appropriate ways in an international context (APST 1.1, 1.3, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 6.3, 7.1)
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12

Critically analyse and report on personal and prof...

Learning Outcome 04

Critically analyse and report on personal and professional experiences and observations of life in a country (Australian or international) and, subsequently, develop an engaging and activist multimedia campaign to raise awareness and promote action for social and global justice and equity and rights and responsibilities as global citizens
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics will include:

Module 1: The Human Development Index and Equity and Justice

  • Human Development Index (HDI) and its relationship to different political, social and economic contexts across the world
  • Developing/developed - Global North and Global South World countries
  • Anthropocentric and Eco-centric worldviews
  • World Sustainability Goals
  • Gender Equity
  • Poverty
  • Sustainability
  • Education
  • Universal Human Rights
  • How and Why Education Matters
  • Hand Up or Hand Out?


Module 2: Personal and Professional Learning

  • Personal and Professional Learning Goals
  • Individual Research on an Issue of a low HDI country
  • Critical Reflexive Practice


Module 3: Your International Placement

Content will be relevant to specific countries in which students are involved and will cover:

  • country-specific communication and cultural awareness
  • country-specific expectations for engagement
  • country-specific capacity-building activities to be planned for and undertaken
  • In-country engagement and application of relevant personal and professional learning goals. This experience will be supported in-country by program leader(s).


Module 4: Reflection and Action for Lifelong Learning

  • Application of Theory to the International Experience (Sustainability Goals, Quality Education for All, Capacity Building)
  • Critical Reflection and Comparative Analysis of Individual Experiences (including Presentations from Assessment Task 3)
  • Critical Reflection and Analysis of Rights and Responsibilities as Global Citizens – acting and campaigning for equity and justice in the world.


Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes by submitting all assessment tasks and obtaining a combined score of at least 50%. A pass in Assessment Task 2 is a further requirement to meet the learning outcomes of this unit as LO3 is only assessed in this task.

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1 Report on a World Sustainabili...

Assessment Task 1

Report on a World Sustainability Issue

Students research and write a literature review of a political, social and/or economic issue associated with the specific context of the individual student’s in-country placement.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2

Assessment Task 2 Critical Reflection on Placeme...

Assessment Task 2

Critical Reflection on Placement Experience

A critical reflection and analysis of the individual student’s engagement in the placement. Include a description of the cultural context and reflect on at least three World Sustainability Goals and subsequent personal and professional learning from their in-country experience. 

Weighting

35%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

Assessment Task 3 Multimedia Presentation A mu...

Assessment Task 3

Multimedia Presentation

A multimedia campaign regarding equity and justice for a selected issue relevant to the international placement experience.

Weighting

35%

Learning Outcomes LO4

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

There are three assessment tasks in this unit; each contributes to meeting the unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes and is consistent with University assessment requirements. Each task is designed to meet a particular goal of global citizenship: background knowledge and content; critical reflection on experiences; planning for action. These goals are reflected in the nature of the three assessment tasks respectively.

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to:

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL

1.1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.

1.3 Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

3.5 Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.

4.1 Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.

4.4 Describe strategies that support students’ well-being and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.

6.3 Seek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching practices.

7.4 Understand the role of external professionals and community representatives in broadening teachers’ professional knowledge and practice.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Davies, I. (2017). Education for a better world: The struggle for social justice in the twenty-first century. In S. Choo, D. Sawch, A. Villanueva, R. Vinz (Eds.), Educating for the 21st century: Policies and practices from around the world (pp. 131-145). Singapore: Springer.

Gibson, K., Rimmington, G., & Landwehr-Brown, M. (2008). Developing global awareness and responsible world citizenship with global learning. Roeper Review, 30(1), 11-23.

Global Education Network Europe [GENE]. (2016). Global Education Towards a World of Solidarity. Report from the November 28, 2016 GENE Paris Conference. Retrieved from http://gene.eu/wp-content/uploads/GENE-Paris-conference-report.pdf 

Goodwin, A. L. (2010). Globalization and the preparation of quality teachers: rethinking knowledge domains for teaching. Teaching Education, 21(1), 19-32.

Mansilla, V., & Jackson, A. (2011). Educating for global competence: Preparing our youth to engage the world. New York, NY: Asia Society.

Marx, H., & Moss, D. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during a teacher education study abroad program. Journal of Teacher Education, 62(1), 35-47.

Mundy, K., Bickmore, K, Hayhoe, R., Manion, C., & Read, R. (Eds.). (2017). Comparative and international education: Issues for teachers (2nd ed.). Ontario, Canada: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Smith, W., Fraser, P., Chykina, V., Ikoma, S., Levitan, J., Liu, J., & Mahfouz, J. (2017). Global citizenship and the importance of education in a globally integrated world. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 15(5), 648–665.

United Nations. (2015), Education 2030 framework for action: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/ED/pdf/FFA_Complet_Web-ENG.pdf

Walker, M., & Unterhalter, E. (2007). Amartya Sens’ capability approach and social justice in education. New York, NY: Palgrave McMillon.

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