ABSTRACT
The Earth Summit of world leaders in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 discussed environmental, social and sustainable development issues which should be the target, world wide, by the year 2000. The programme has become known as Agenda 21 and governments delegated much of the responsibility to local government, which led to the acronym, LA21. A catch-phrase summarises the aim, ‘Think globally, act locally’. This chapter explores the global inequality of resources and resource consumption and the connection between being a local citizen and a global citizen. It argues that environmental equality affects people of all races, creeds and ethnicities.
It also highlights the significance of equality in a global context and the need for commitment within and outside the formal education sector for education for global justice to take place. Some local examples demonstrate possible limitations in knowledge about equality issues in the West. Meeting the challenges in the West can be done effectively only if education is interpreted as an exercise in collaboration amongst different individuals and organisations in any community. Real partnership between schools, community organisation, and a higher education institution is shown to be a key strategy for providing appropriately trained teachers.
Normally there is only limited interlinking between global development and issues of equality, another example of ghettoisation that has often led to the duplication of work and limited progress in any one area. Equality can feature in different contexts. A teaching approach that asks fundamental questions about equality and justice in relation to different people and countries and the world should have far reaching effects on developing sensitive, empathetic and committed adults and children as global as well as local citizens.
