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Responding to global poverty : young people in England learning about development

The purpose of this study is to explore how young people learn about global poverty and development. Its focus is on the process of learning, understood here as the way in which individuals respond to opportunities to learn about global poverty and development (e.g. in terms of emotion, cognition and behaviour) and the way these responses interrelate in the construction of understandings. The empirical element of this qualitative, constructivist research focuses on nine 12–15 year-olds living in the South and South East of England. Their perceptions of learning about global poverty and development, across a range of contexts, were explored through semi-structured interviews. This data was analysed using a model of learning developed by Jarvis (2006). This model was selected because of its resonance with themes within the empirical data and also within literature and research relating to global education, the academic and personal context of this research. The study proposes a slightly adapted version of Jarvis’ model which better reflects the way in which young people in this study learn about global poverty and development. This adapted model emphasises the role of young people’s emotional response to learning about global poverty, the relationship of this response to a behavioural or action response, and the significance of young people’s reflection on themselves in relation to global poverty and development. This research is unique in two ways: in applying learning theory directly to empirical evidence of young people’s learning about global poverty and development; and in applying Jarvis’ theory of learning to young people. In doing so it highlights the merits of drawing on the rich body of learning theory that exists to explore how young people learn about global challenges and contributes to wider debate about the ways young people learn and become themselves in today’s world.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:667746
Date January 2015
CreatorsBrown, Katharine Jessie
PublisherUniversity College London (University of London)
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10021961/

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