International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 63
Teachers as agents of
social change
Douglas Bourn
Director, Development Education Research Centre, UCL Institute
of Education, University of London, UK
Abstract
Teachers are seen as key actors of change within programmes and projects on
global learning. But all too often they are regarded in an instrumental way or
as promoters of some form of ideal global teacher. Evidence from the UK and
elsewhere suggests that if a pedagogical approach is taken to the role of teachers
within the process of learning, then three distinct locations of teachers as change
agents can be identied. These are as change agents within the classroom, within
the wider school, and within society as a whole.
Keywords: global learning, critical thinking, transformative learning, social justice
Introduction
In an interview on the role of teaching (2013), Professor Arnetha Ball from Stanford
University suggests that teachers should see themselves as agents rather than as
objects of change.
In many societies around the world, teachers are looked upon as the individuals
who can help to bring about positive changes in the lives of people. ey are seen
as natural leaders who can give advice on various aairs in the community. For
example, in many countries in the Global South teachers are seen as key players in
securing change within communities (Freire, 2005; Tikly and Barret, 2013).
Global learning and its related concepts of global education, global citizenship,
education for sustainable development, and development education are all built
on the assumption that learning is closely linked to personal and social change (see
Bourn, 2015; Kirkwood-Tucker, 2009; McCloskey, 2014). Within these discourses and
practices, the role of the teacher as the agent for promoting these changes is often
assumed but what it means is rarely discussed.
Douglas Bourn
64 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
Projects led by non-governmental organizations, for example, often tend to assume
that the learners will want to change the world merely as a result of learning about
global poverty. Funders of development education, usually ministries or bodies
responsible for aid budgets, see their role as funding projects that lead not only to
increased understanding of global development issues, but also to greater public
engagement in support of development. Teachers are usually seen as the vehicles
through which this transmission and engagement in learning for global social
change takes place.
is paper aims to address the role of teachers within the theories and practices
around global learning and in particular their role as agents for change. e paper
will rst of all review how and in what ways the concept of change is reected within
global learning. It will then discuss the role of teachers within societies and education
more widely before directly relating this to global learning. It will also review the
relationship of these debates to a range of theoretical inuences, including critical
pedagogy and transformative learning. It will conclude by positing that there
are dangers to assuming that there is an ideal role for teachers, some ideal global
teacher. It will instead suggest that a more helpful approach would be to break down
the concept of change into three elements: change within the classroom, the school,
and the wider community and society as a whole.
Policy-makers’ and practitioners’ approaches towards global
learning and change
Since the 1970s, there has been funding support for promoting learning about
global and development issues in many industrialized countries. Funding has
been primarily driven by bodies that wish to see greater support and engagement
in international development issues. While many of these funded programmes
emphasized increasing knowledge and understanding of development (see DFID,
1998), they were also based on the assumption that there is a moral purpose to
securing support for ‘building a better society’, particularly among young people
(Verulam Associates, 2009).
Among policy-makers and bodies close to strategies on development education in
the European Commission, there has also been a stronger and more overt change
agenda of citizenship involvement to secure change towards a more just world
(Rajacic et al., 2010b).
Many NGOs see their approach as coming from a values base of social justice and
human rights, as seeking to secure behaviour change in the learners they were
working with, so that they can oer better support and involvement with their
campaigns (Krause, 2010: 13).
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 65
Weber (2012), in her research on the work of Save the Children in the UK and Canada,
notes that the approach taken depends on whether the organization is promoting a
specic narrative or is seeking dialogic collaboration.
One NGO that has attempted to bridge these dierent approaches and to recognize
the relationship between learning, reection, and action is Oxfam UK, who state that
their educational work is based on three principles:
Learn: exploring the issue, considering it from dierent viewpoints and trying to
understand causes and consequence.
ink: considering critically what can be done about the issue, and relating this to
values and worldviews and trying to understand the nature of power and action.
Act: inking about and taking action on the issue as an active global citizen, both
individually and collectively.
Oxfam UK, n.d.
Central to Oxfam’s approach is also the usage of the term ‘global citizenship’, to
empower ‘young people to be active Global Citizens’ (Oxfam UK, n.d.). e inclusion
of this term is important in understanding and engaging with the debates on change
and global learning, because behind the usage of the term ‘global citizenship’ is the
assumption of a relationship to and involvement in society. e usage of the term
‘citizenship’ for example brings with it a range of themes regarding human rights,
sense of identity, and place in the world. Debates on global citizenship and education
tend to be polarized between a passive, or soft, identity and humanitarian sense of
the term on the one hand and an active, or critical, and therefore socially engaged
sense on the other (see Andreotti, 2006; Oxley, 2015).
ese debates pose questions about the purpose of global learning within education.
Is it primarily interested in the learner and the process of learning, or in the wider
societal concerns? In her research on Save the Children, Weber found the work of
Askew and Carnell (1998) particularly valuable, as they saw the relationship between
educational goals and the purpose of education could be positioned in dierent
ways, particularly in terms of social change, between a liberatory approach that
emphasized the individual and a social justice one that emphasized the collective
(Askell and Carnell, 1998: 83–96, quoted in Weber, 2012 and 2014).
It is suggested here that both approaches have value, but what is needed is some
debate on the role of the teachers as actors within this process of change around
global learning.
Douglas Bourn
66 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
The role of teachers within global learning practices
In a range of academic studies on global learning and global education, the role of
teachers is seen as central to their success. Kirkwood-Tucker had noted in 1990 that
‘teachers were more inuential than textbooks as the primary source of information
for students about global education’ (Kirkwood-Tucker, 1990: 111). Much of the
literature on global learning also suggests that the role of educators has often been seen
in terms of the promotion and transmission of specic perspectives and approaches
towards learning (Hicks and Holden, 2007; McCloskey, 2014). is can take the form
of goals the teachers have to work towards in their own professional development,
such as increasing their knowledge base, developing a strong ethical and values
commitment to social justice, and encouraging and supporting participatory
approaches towards learning. An example of this in the UK is the Global Teachers
Award, promoted by many Development Education Centres (DECs). is award
mentions including activities within global learning that can ‘measure changes in
attitudes of their pupils’ and an understanding of ‘how to promote informed, active
global ‘citizenship’ (CoDEC, n.d.).
Many NGO-led projects on global learning tend to emphasize the change element
with regard to both teachers and pupils. For example, the Global Fairness project,
which includes a consortium of NGOs from ve European countries, states:
We expect Global Fairness to have a variety of eects on schools in the area of
global learning. ese include, among other things, the integration of global issues
in the curriculum and school programmes, improved competencies of teachers and
increased commitment from children as ‘Agents of Change’.
BGZ, 2015
As another example, a project by NGOs and universities in the Czech Republic
and Poland is directly entitled ‘Teachers: Agents of Change’. is project aims to
strengthen those competencies in teachers from these countries that would enable
them to introduce innovative approaches towards development education (Varianty,
2013).
Andreotti, one of the leading theorists in global learning, suggests that:
a teacher who is not a global citizen and global learner cannot teach global
citizenship eectively. In other words, a teacher who has not experienced global
learning … will nd it very dicult to practice global education grounded in an
ethics of solidarity.
Andreotti, 2012: 25
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 67
She further suggests that a combination of personal experiences and supported
intellectual engagement with social analyses provides the basis for being a global
citizenship teacher.
A range of studies have recognized the need to develop global education competencies
among current and future teachers (O’Connor and Zeichner, 2011; Steiner, 1996;
Kirkwood-Tucker, 2009). O’Connor and Zeichner suggest that global education
needs to do more than raise awareness of global problems; it needs to encourage
and support students to move towards taking action, to encourage a sense of hope
that students can make a dierence. is, it is suggested, means moving beyond
encouraging charitable actions by those that promote solidarity and empathy with
oppressed peoples in the world (see Merryeld, 1997). Fisher argues that teachers
who want to promote transformative change among their students should also be
willing to embrace the struggle for change within their own places of employment
(Fisher, 2001).
Steiner (1996), in her seminal work on the global teacher, stated that she saw this
concept as meaning a teacher who:
• Is interested in and concerned about events and movements in the local,
national and global community;
• Actively seeks to keep informed while also maintaining a skeptical stance
towards their sources of information;
• Takes up a principled stand, and supports others who do so, against injustice
and inequalities; …
• Informs themselves about environmental issues as they impact upon their own
and other communities;
• Values democratic processes as the best means for bringing about positive
change and engages in some form of social action to support their beliefs
Steiner, 1996: 21–2
While many of these concepts have validity and relevance to the current debates on
the role of teachers as agents for change within global learning, there are a number of
assumptions that need greater exploration. e rst is that teachers should be seen
as people who are socially responsible and actors in securing change in both their
own educational community and in wider society. Secondly, there is an assumption
that teachers who are teaching global issues from a global learning perspective need
to have themselves a clear values base rooted in social justice and social change.
For NGOs and other providers involved with global learning, there is a further
assumption that many teachers are lacking in these skills and approaches and
that what they need is a combination of further exposure to dierent worldviews,
Douglas Bourn
68 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
professional development opportunities, and opportunities for self-reection and
to be given the space to recognize that they need to change their own perspectives.
Teachers’ perceptions about their role
Teaching has always been seen as more than just another profession or job. Hansen
refers to it as a ‘moral practice’ (Hansen, 2011: 4). Fullan states: ‘scratch a good
teacher and you will nd a moral purpose’ (Fullan, 1993). However, he goes on to
suggest that this moral purpose must be combined with the ‘skills of change agentry’
(ibid.: 2). Including change within the moral purpose, he suggests, enables teachers
to develop strategies to accomplish their moral goals.
Taking these elements forward within the discourses on global learning, there is
evidence that many teachers see it as part of their role to be ‘vision creators’, to give
inspiration and a positive outlook on the world to their learners, to encourage them
to not only learn but to participate in society (Jones, 2009). Teachers also need to have
the skills to engage others within their educational institution and secure support for
their vision. ey need, too, to be able to reect on their own needs, to identify areas
of personal professional development that can help them be better teachers.
However, it needs to be noted that while many teachers may initially support this
vision, the reality of their experience as teachers and the societal and ideological
inuences on their daily practice can often work against this. Since the 1980s, it
could be argued that the role of policy-makers has been to control and tame teachers
rather than to empower them. erefore, any discussion on teachers as agents of
change needs to be predicated on an understanding of the limitations many teachers
face in their desire to be agents of change.
erefore, it is suggested here that any consideration of this area with regard to
global learning needs to move beyond notions of rhetoric and idealized forms of
what a good global teacher should be and towards an understanding that locates the
practice within an educational process of exploration and learning for the teachers
themselves.
Putting learning at the heart of the process of change
e author of this paper has elsewhere suggested that if global learning is seen as
a process of learning, as a pedagogical approach, rather than an ideal state, then
changes in outlook and perception of the world may well emerge in the learner,
but this by itself does not mean or should not mean societal change (Bourn, 2015).
is pedagogical approach encourages critical reection, belief in social justice,
an understanding of power and inequality in the world, and promotion of a global
outlook. It encourages learners to identify and seek out active engagement in society
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 69
so that they can put into practice their own perspectives of what a better world could
look like (Bourn, 2015: 195).
It is suggested in this paper that this approach can help to review and assess the role
of teachers as agents for social change if the analysis is located within a theoretical
framework that puts pedagogy at its heart. is means above all recognizing that
change can and does take place at a number of levels within and around the learner,
the school, the community, and wider society. It also means recognizing that if
learning in itself is seen as transformative, the impact on society can be judged
directly in terms of the impact of the educational process.
In her doctoral research on how young people learn, Katharine Brown suggests that
the work of Peter Jarvis is particularly relevant within the discourses in and around
global learning (Brown, 2015a). For Jarvis, learning is a transformative process in
itself that links our thoughts, actions, and emotions into seeing a new form of reality
(Jarvis, 2006). As Brown further notes, Jarvis is also important because he reminds
us that emotion and action are part of the learning process alongside cognitive
processes. ese factors are important to note when considering the roles of
teachers as agents of change, for not only do they need to have increased knowledge
and understanding of global issues and the skills to impart that knowledge, they
also need to be empathetic to concerns of social justice and recognize that learning
can often include some element of active involvement in the subject of the learning
(Brown, 2015b).
e debates around transformative learning are also relevant here. Mezirow denes
transformative learning as:
the process by which we transform our taken-for-granted frames of reference
(meaning perspectives, habits of mind, mindsets) to make them more inclusive,
discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reective so that they
may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justied to guide
action.
Mezirow, 2000: 8
Criticisms of Mezirow, notably Brookeld (2005), suggest that he puts too much
emphasis on individual transformation and does not suciently address social and
collective action for change. While these comments have some validity, Mezirow’s
work is particularly relevant to debates regarding teachers and global learning
because of the attention he gives to feelings and emotional beliefs, hence, potentially,
to social justice and inequality in the world.
A term increasingly used to reect the need for teachers to have a global outlook
is that of being a ‘cosmopolitan teacher’ (see Dyer, 2013: 22–5). Luke (2004: 1439)
Douglas Bourn
70 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
describes a cosmopolitan teacher as a ‘teacher with the capacity to shunt between
the local and the global’. Dyer further notes that teachers require pedagogies that
enable them to move across dierent knowledge spaces and contexts, both local and
global, and to engage and explain the ways and eects of globalization. Dyer goes
on to suggest that being a cosmopolitan teacher presupposes some experience with
cultural pluralism and interconnectedness.
ese approaches have some validity, but, as Heuberger (2014) notes, unless this
ethical and world outlook is combined with a ‘critical understanding’ of the causes
of inequality in the world, a global outlook can all too easily be a mechanism for
reinforcing the dominance of Western ideologies. Scheunpug (2011: 30) goes even
further and suggests that teachers need to have a ‘sense of how to get students to
look through other lenses and perspectives’ and to be able to activate their own
students’ ‘reconceptualization of these issues’. is means developing the skills to
understand and reect upon dierent worldviews, to question assumptions about
how poor people live in the world, and look at the underlying causes of inequality
and the relationship of this inequity to power relations in the world.
The Global Learning Programme in England and social change
Within England, the current main mechanism for supporting teachers promote
global learning within their schools and therefore to be eective agents for change
is the Global Learning Programme, funded by the Department for International
Development (DFID). Begun in 2013, this Programme aims to:
• help young people understand their role in a globally interdependent world
and explore strategies by which they can make it more just and sustainable,
• familiarize pupils with the concepts of interdependence, development,
globalization and sustainability,
• enable teachers to move pupils from a charity mentality to a social justice
mentality,
• stimulate critical thinking about global issues, both at a whole school and pupil
level,
• help schools promote greater awareness of poverty and sustainability,
• enable schools to explore alternative models of development and sustainability
in the classroom.
GLP-E, 2013
Specically, the programme supports teachers to achieve these goals through
working in partnership with nearby schools through programmes of professional
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 71
development and practical support, accessible resources, and accreditation
opportunities as lead practitioners for global learning.
e accreditation process to be a lead practitioner includes the following key
elements:
• Development of professional knowledge – including an understanding of both
the content and pedagogical approaches of global learning and how to apply
these approaches within the classroom;
• Personal skills development to enable the teacher to work successfully with
colleagues, to be open to new ideas and to be able to inspire others;
• How to inuence others through development of skills to negotiation, leading
and networking.
SSAT, 2013
e programme therefore includes the key elements identied by Fullan and others
about how teachers can become leaders for change within schools as well as a
recognition of the fact that their professional development is much more than just
acquiring more knowledge; rather it requires recognizing a dierent pedagogical
approach. is is perhaps best summarized in the phrase ‘moving from a charity
mentality to one of social justice’. is implies a process of critical reection, of
learning to unlearn, and learning new ways of thinking and their application within
the classroom and the wider school.
The methodologies and approach of the global teacher as agent for
change
In her inuential work, Steiner identied three key teaching components as part of
being a global teacher:
• A methodology that valued personal experience of both the teacher and the
learner, with a range of pedagogical approaches.
• Recognizing that teaching principles that come from a social justice and
democratic perspective means putting them into practice within the classroom.
• Choosing diverse ways of presenting information and planning a range of
approaches
Steiner, 1996: 25–6
is means that the role of the teacher is to act as an agent for change within the
classroom. e recognition of this is key in relation to global learning.
Douglas Bourn
72 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
Global learning as an approach is much more than learning about development and
global issues. It is an approach towards learning, a mode of pedagogy that questions
dominant values, promotes a critical approach and recognizes the ideological
framing within which it takes place. As Wright (2011) suggests, this means that within
a school classroom context the teacher will expose learners to a range of viewpoints
and encourage them to question what could well be dominant assumptions about
a particular place, people, or culture. It also means that the teacher needs to have
the skills to engage learners in this complex process of reection, dialogue, and
engagement, which moves beyond a mere transmission of knowledge to recognizing
that there are dierent lenses through which a subject or topic can be seen and
understood.
e fact that this approach to learning within the classroom is transformative can
be noticed by teachers who have applied this global pedagogical approach. For
example, Tanswell notes:
that children are more able to talk about issues aecting them and others around
the world. ey are also able to say what can be done about it, which will hopefully
empower them to become active citizens and realize they can make a dierence in
their immediate and more wide reaching global community.
Tanswell, 2011: 35
is transformative impact is often noted when pupils are exposed to broader social
and cultural experiences, often through some form of international exchange or
links with their peers elsewhere in the world or through visiting speakers who have
brought world issues to life through personal stories (Bourn and Hunt, 2011; Bourn,
2014).
Teachers as agents for change within their school
Securing change within the wider school can often be more challenging and more
dicult than securing change within the classroom. Teachers who are supportive
of the principles of global learning are likely to see it as their role to secure
greater engagement with its principles within the school, to be agents of change,
ambassadors for global social justice. ere is evidence from research by Cox (2011)
that understanding the role of distributed leadership in securing change within the
school is key to this inuence. Referring to the work of Durrant and Holden (2006:
169), Cox notes the importance of cultures and policies across the school that can
encourage shared leadership, values that underpin the way the schools work (Cox,
2011: 6).
Noting evidence that has looked at school leaders in sustainable development in the
UK, Cox refers to the work of Jackson, who emphasizes the importance of having
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 73
an optimistic worldview (Cox, 2011: 7–8; Jackson, 2007: 34). is emphasizes the
relevance of vision, determination, the ability to empower others and be outward-
looking to global learning as well as sustainability (Cox, 2011: 8).
With regard to global learning specically, securing change within a school is
often related to encouraging and securing a whole-school approach. is means
promoting activities across multiple areas of the school and involving a range of
stakeholders within the school. Change needs to be part of a wider vision or ethos
and implemented through strong and committed support from senior leadership
within the school (Hunt and King, 2015: 12).
e evidence from schools is that where such a whole-school approach is taken,
there is likely to be greater impact upon the learners (Hunt, 2012: 51). is evidence
builds on earlier research by Edge et al. (2009), which showed that where the global
dimension was embedded within the school’s strategy, it is much more likely to have
a longer-lasting impact. is study also showed that identifying a teacher who has
the global element as a key component of his or her work was important to securing
change within the school (Edge et al., 2009: 18).
Teachers as global citizens
Teachers are not isolated from the world around them. Many will be active in a wide
number of social issues. While there have been debates about the need for teachers
not to be political, this is an impossible demand because refraining from taking a
political stance is itself a political act. But this is perhaps the most challenging and
controversial aspect of teachers as agents of change. ere is considerable evidence
to show that teachers are often reluctant to engage in what could be termed
‘controversial’ or political issues (Holden, 2007).
At a broader level, however, by virtue of their role within communities and particularly
if they are passionate and committed to global learning principles, teachers would
be seeking to inuence others beyond the classroom.
For many teachers this might be done through their active involvement in their trade
union. Teaching unions in the UK, for example, are known to be active supporters of
global social justice themes.
Beyond the UK, there is a wealth of literature on the role of teachers as activists.
Much of this is located within discourses around gender and race discrimination
(Verma, 2010), although there are also examples related to themes such as global
inequality in the world.
Douglas Bourn
74 ■ International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016
Giroux (2011), inuenced by the work of Paulo Freire among others, suggests that
teachers can play a role as ‘public intellectuals’, engaging in the debates regarding
more equitable and democratic societies.
In some cases, teachers can have an impact through political activism and by
participating and supporting social movements for social change. Active involvement
in a teaching union may well be one example of this.
But this wider social concern for change may manifest itself through teaching
overseas and directly engaging in projects that can help to reduce global poverty. For
example, in the UK there is a lot of evidence that volunteering experiences can help to
radicalize teachers’ view of the world, to get them to question their own assumptions
and seek ways to channel their enthusiasm and emotional commitment to broader
movements for change (Bentall et al., 2010).
It is with regard to these issues that those working within the teaching profession
could be encouraged to reect on their role as agents for global change, as responsible
citizens for a more equitable society.
Teachers as agents of change
Hansen and others refer to teachers as cosmopolitan educators, as people who have a
global outlook and are open to new ideas and approaches. However, being an agent of
change is more than just having a particular outlook on the world and a commitment
to greater social justice. It also means having the skills and opportunities to inuence
education and learning at all levels.
All too often, discourses around teaching and social change have tended to revert
to debates about either social activism or some form of ideal state to which teachers
have to aspire. What has not been debated enough is the relationship between
teachers as agents for change and the learning processes in which as individuals
they are directly involved.
If learning is seen as much more than the acquisition of facts and data, or even the
improvement of skills and a stronger values base, namely as a process that brings
together all of these elements alongside experience and the power of emotion and
feeling, then learning is by itself an agent of change. is is why the research by Brown
is so important, because her work, inuenced by Jarvis, suggests the direct relevance
of this approach to global learning. As Brown notes, global learning theories and
practices give a great deal of weight to the impact of emotions, experiences, and
spaces for reection that can result in transformational change. She also notes that
an individual’s cognitive processes are just one aspect of learning; there are others
related to experience, emotion, and behaviour that need to be included as well
(Brown, 2015a: 12).
Teachers as agents of social change
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7 (3) 2016 ■ 75
erefore, for teachers, a direct relationship needs to exist between what happens
in the classroom, in the school, and within wider society. Teachers are agents for
change within the classroom. ey can also be agents for change within the school.
But within society as a whole, any discussion on teachers as agents for change has
tended to focus too much on aspects of political activism that are seen as distinct
from classroom practice.
If what happens in the classroom, in the school, and within wider society is seen as
part of the change process for both teacher and learner, global learning can be a real
agent not only for individual change, but also for society as a whole.
Douglas Bourn is Director of the Development Education Research Centre. He is the
author of e eory and Practice of Development Education (2015) and numerous
articles and book chapters on global citizenship education, global learning, and
education for sustainable development. He has written a number of research reports
related to the Global Learning Programme for England, all of which are available at
www.ioe.ac.uk/derc.
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