Just as hockey (and cheering for our national team) can unite adults in Slovakia once a year, children can be united by activities aimed at climate justice and responsibility for the global problems of humanity. Workshops within development education are an example of this.
Eliminating extreme poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality and empowering women, or fighting HIV/AIDS or malaria? People in Slovakia are not interested in these global issues. Fortunately, not everyone is indifferent, and so thanks to several years of efforts by educators and especially non-governmental organizations, our government approved in January the National Strategy for Global Education for the years 2012–2016. Its goal is not only to long-term raise awareness among Slovak society about the problems of the global world, but also to integrate global and development education into formal education at the second and third levels of educational institutions.
What to imagine under the term development education
The Slovak Catholic Charity (SKCH) is currently implementing a project focused on climate change called "Climate Justice" with the subtitle "For Climate Justice in Developing Countries with a Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa." The activities consist of compiling a methodological guide and training for educators; educational materials, screenings of short documentaries, a multimedia competition (for example, for Earth Day) and workshops for children and youth from 100 primary and 70 secondary schools; an international conference for professionals, as well as a traveling photo exhibition not only for children but also for their parents and the general public.
This educational exhibition, containing 26 panels with 50 thematically placed photographs and informative texts as well as maps, vividly displayed the risks and impact of climate change on the population of Sub-Saharan Africa. We cannot pretend that climate change does not affect us – we must realize the interconnection between developing countries and European states, including Slovakia.
Giving feedback like on social networks
In April, 60 teenagers from St. Maria Goretti Primary School in Piešťany completed an interactive workshop on the topic of climate justice from the SKCH workshop. The answer to the first question ("how many of the children present are active on Facebook") was not particularly shocking – it was the vast majority. That is also why the workshop activities were conducted in the style of communication on social networks – since that is what peers are currently living – sharing common photos, commenting on each other's statuses, and evaluating their activities with the button: "I Like."
During an activity called the Climate Alphabet, four evenly matched teams competed against each other. Their task was to find a term related to the issue of climate change for each letter of the alphabet. It started with the word Atmosphere, followed by Storms, then Tsunami or Cyclone; for the letter D, the children thought of: Rains; for E: Evacuation or Evolution; then Freons, Global Warming, etc. Within the group and between groups, the participants evaluated and encouraged each other with the aforementioned Facebook gestures – they raised their thumbs up. In such an innovative way, it is possible to stimulate increased activity and interest in global and development topics among young people, and to support teamwork and peer learning.
Encouraging and motivating responses from children
The boys and girls were also tasked, in four groups, with creating a definition of climate justice. From the children present we could hear statements such as: "If we stop polluting the environment, producing harmful chemicals and destroying Mother Earth, then we will be better off"; "We should treat the world the way the world treats us, or rather: let us value the world as we value ourselves."
However clichéd or idealistic these definitions may sound – the young workshop participants meant them sincerely and seriously. It is precisely the acceptance of responsibility for climate change and the proposal of solutions, as was evident from the reactions of the Piešťany teenagers to the interactive workshop activities and the individual panels of the photo exhibition – that is the desired outcome, sufficient feedback, and a motivating response to the charity's project activities within development education.