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Linsey Crooks, a broad horizon
By Linsey Crooks, Teacher
An early interest in equality led one teacher to blaze a trail for global citizenship in Scotland
During my BEd Hons course at Jordanhill (1989-1993), I studied an elective that has effectively shaped my career path. At the time, I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life.
It was a course on equality and discrimination. As an eager and impressionable young teacher, I quickly developed a burning interest in the global impact of social behaviour, values and cultures.
I worked as a class teacher for seven years, when the opportunity to work for Unicef presented itself. It was the perfect vehicle to be involved in global citizenship. By this time, I was job sharing to suit my young family's needs.
I worked voluntarily for Unicef's education support service, teaching Global Citizenship at assemblies and in senior classes.
My name became known in the aid agency world and I was asked to cover a maternity leave with Scotdec in Edinburgh. At that time, it represented a number of aid agencies, delivering in-service on Global Citizenship and the global dimension in the curriculum, providing education resources to support this.
I worked from home, developing and delivering in-service across the country, all the time continuing to work part-time as an early intervention teacher.
I was then approached by Scottish Churches' China Group (SCCG) to produce an education resource that would focus on Global Citizenship and China.
I embraced the project wholeheartedly and set to the task of developing a cross-curricular resource for upper primary, which would engage children in active learning and rich tasks in an enterprising way. The project involved the SCCG's field officer, Patricia Johnston, blazing a trail from Nanjing to Lhasa via Chengdu! She interviewed children from a variety of family backgrounds, visited their homes and schools and took hundreds of photos and hours of film.
From this information, we were able to develop a fantastic resource, which was piloted and launched in time for the Beijing Olympics. It has now been implemented across some authorities and by individual schools in other areas.
My next move was back into Unicef, only this time with enough knowledge and experience to be paid for my work! My current role is as Unicef Partner. I work on a freelance basis, which suits my family responsibilities.
Our current focus is the Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA). This is a framework for teaching children about rights and responsibilities. It is a tried and tested method of teaching values, improving behaviour and raising attainment. It makes everyone involved aware of their rights and responsibilities and how they directly affect the school, local, national and global communities.
I continue to work as a class teacher one day a week in South Lanarkshire. I find this invaluable in keeping abreast of developments in education and the realities of everyday school life.
Looking to the future, I hope the RRSA continues to snowball through our education system as teachers realise the potential, socially and academically, of having an internationally recognised value system in place at the heart of their school's ethos. Teaching children how to behave in a respectful and responsible manner towards others and the world around them has to be the most effective way to becoming responsible global citizens.