She works at the University of Oulu and is the first professor of global education in Finland. During her three-day visit, she tried to support Slovak colleagues in the long run—implementing the National Strategy for Global Education. Vanessa Andreotti and her experience in teaching development studies at universities.
Professor Vanessa Andreotti came to Slovakia at the invitation of the Pontis Foundation to inspire participants in a public discussion, professional breakfasts, or a full-day workshop on development and global education at the beginning of the difficult process.
The time for establishing a new study field is also maturing in Slovakia. At several Slovak universities, subjects on global and development studies are already taught. It is important in advance to determine who this field should prepare and train for practice: future teachers, field staff of non-governmental organizations, or those who make decisions on development aid. Professor Vanessa Andreotti works at the University of Oulu—she leads a research group devoted to ethics, diversity, globalization, and education (EDGE). Her Finnish institution is the only one in Europe that offers a master's program focused on critical intercultural education and an international program focused on globalization and education. According to her, "every practical output has a specific theory in the background—so it is not necessary to separate from each other the contribution of the state, the theoretical background of universities, and the practical experience of non-governmental organizations." At the same time it is important to take context into account, because "the definition of global education will definitely be different in Slovakia than in Finland or the United Kingdom. One should always proceed from the local context toward the global."
Slovakia has an advantage
Professor Andreotti has experience integrating global education into the higher education system in two countries—Finland and the United Kingdom. While in Finland, the promotion of global education was initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two decades ago and implementation was ensured by the Ministry of Education, in the case of the United Kingdom the impetus over the past decade came from fifty non-governmental organizations that called for a subject on development education and a global dimension in curricula. Vanessa Andreotti points out that "at that time the internet had not yet been massively available and used by teachers in preparing teaching. Thorough production of teaching materials, collection of resources, assembling toolkits, and sufficient equipping of libraries were therefore needed—for acquiring and deepening knowledge within global education." Slovakia has the advantage that there is already enough foreign material on the market on global and development education, and several thematically specialized portals also operate online.
The path of cooperation
Finland is a model example that the goal of integrating global and development education into schools can be achieved if all stakeholders are invited into dialogue: government, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations. Slovakia could follow a similar path of communication and cooperation. Vanessa Andreotti encouraged workshop participants to continue developing dialogue with competent actors (especially with the Ministry of Education): "In this phase, NGOs again lead the way in cooperation with universities—we need to make every effort toward implementing the national strategy, as well as the accreditation of the study program."
Božena Baluchová
The article was published in the bulletin Rozvojová pomoc - Jar 2012. It is issued by Platforma mimovládnych rozvojových organizácií (MVRO), which is an association of legal persons—the umbrella organization of 31 (23 full members and 8 observers) Slovak non-governmental organizations that are mainly engaged in foreign development and humanitarian aid. http://www.mvro.sk