“Learning for local, everyday change” at WIL24

GCDI team members Laurence Piper and Wilma Lundqvist-Westin presented Learning for local, everyday change: The short-term impact of the GCDI in producing change-agents for sustainability at the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) 2024 conference in South Africa this past April.

During the conference, the case that the GCDI does encourage students to see themselves as change agents for local sustainable action was generally well received. However, much of the discussion centred on the WIL 'critique' of the GCDI, specifically, the lack of explicit reflection on becoming a change agent outside of the research process. ‘Reflection' in education was suggested as a direction for exploration. 

There were also some suggestions about better preparing students for the GCDI before the process and debriefing after. As a project that aims to centre student voices and needs, the GCDI team agrees that continuing to explore avenues for student engagement and reflection both before and after Global Classroom events is important and necessary. Our approach to co-design extends beyond process design in the classroom, as we continue to iterate our program with students.

Gaining insights from other papers presented at the conference, Laurence suggests, “ …it would help to find operationalisations of aspects of 'change agency' (motivation, confidence, and power) that we workshopped in existing literature to strengthen the case.”

Stay tuned for more research from the Global Classroom! Our next presentation is with the Participedia community at their 2024 Partners Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.