Emphasising a few things about the IGC Award

[Boyd Roberts]

While in Hong Kong on holiday recently, I enjoyed meeting up with Cheryl Osborne and Peter Muir at Discovery College. This is the second year of the Award at Discovery College, and students are working towards bronze, silver and gold level awards.

During discussions with Cheryl about Award implementation, a few points emerged that will be of more general interest.

1.            The Award recognises the journey undertaken by individual participants, not reaching a particular destination.

Award participants at Discovery College, as elsewhere, are starting their Award engagement in very different places. Some are already very well informed about global issues and global citizenship, while for others participation in Award is the start of their engagement with such matters. The abilities and capacities of individuals are also very different.

The Award is intended to recognise the personal development of individuals, not reaching any form of fixed standard. It is the progress and development that has taken place during participation that is recognised by giving the Award. Where at all possible, this progress and change should be recognised by peers as well as by mentors, and, for the gold award, by at least one person outside the school.

It follows that some Award recipients, after six months of participations at a particular level,  will have less of an understanding and have taken less remarkable action than some other individuals elsewhere in the world, and perhaps even in the same school, who are just starting out on the programme at the same level. So it is the journey and the change that is being recognised, not the end point.

 2.           The IGC Award can recognise activities participants are already undertaking.

The Award provides an overall framework within which an individual participant’s development as a global citizen takes place. This is reflected in the four components of the Award:

1.    Understanding other cultures and outlooks

2.    Personal global footprint
               Being good with money

              Environmental responsibility

3.    Influence and involvement with others (“Working with others”)

          Personal community service

          Advocacy, persuasion or promotion

          Active participation in decision-making Working with others

4.    Recording and reflection on personal change and development.

 

Participants may be undertaking activities or enquiries in the regular curriculum that are relevant to the IGC Award, and can form part of it, perhaps with some modification or supplementary activities. Some regular classroom work or service undertaken as part of another requirement (for instance as part of the IB Diploma Programme or Middle Years Programme, or for the International/Duke of Edinburgh’s Award) can count as part of the IGC Award.

What is critical is that there is personal, individual reflection to ensure that the activity is within the spirit of the Award. And that actions are underpinned by enquiry and developing greater awareness of the underlying issues.

 

It is not intended, therefore, that the Award programme must  be an entirely new and different set of activities – a completely new add-on to what the participant is already doing. But there will, inevitably, be some new activities undertaken specifically to fulfil Award requirements. It is inconceivable that a participant can receive the award without having to do something he or she would not otherwise have done. And the focus throughout all levels of the Award is on personal development, and demonstrating to others through reflection etc. that this development is taking place and has taken place.

 

3.            Breadth and depth of engagement

Students are busy meeting the many expectations and demands we make of them in schools. They also need time for their personal interests and social and family life. The Award is designed to be an achievable programme with realistic requirements. The time indications for Award participation in all areas are as follows:

Bronze level       40 – 50 hours in total

Silver level          Undertaken after completion of the bronze award

                                50 hours plus 10 hours on one or more projects

 

Gold level            Undertaken after completion of the bronze and silver awards

                                50 hours plus 20 hours on a single project

These hours include activities undertaken as part of other school requirements or activities which are considered to be eligible for inclusion and recognition in the Award.

At all levels, activities are required in all four Award components (Understanding other cultures and outlooks; Personal Global Footprint; Working with others;  Recording and reflection) , but at silver and gold levels, the projects give opportunities for participants to concentrate on a particular topic providing time and encouragement to go into greater depth. This applies particularly at gold level, where the project is to be undertaken individually, and has certain expectations.

(For further details on all of this, see information for centres/schools on the Award website at http://ebasic.easily.co.uk/02903F/016037/IGCAinfo4%20school%20Feb%2009.pdf

And information on projects at silver (and to a lesser extent, gold) levels are at http://igcaward.ning.com/forum/topics/projects-in-the-igc-award-draft-for-comment-additions-etc?xg_source=activity

(This is a draft awaiting further input from schools, for instance on specific projects undertaken).

4.            Is the silver award simply more of the same thing as the bronze award?

The silver award, like the bronze and gold, includes the four basic areas of the Award, i.e. Understanding other cultures and outlooks, Personal global footprint, Influence and involvement with others, and Recording and reflection on personal change and development.

Silver and gold levels expect the individual participant to be engaging with all areas of the Award in greater depth than he or she was working at in the bronze level – the focus throughout the Award is on personal development. (See the information for Schools for further information at http://ebasic.easily.co.uk/02903F/016037/IGCAinfo4%20school%20Feb%2009.pdf

Silver and gold levels also have the following additional requirements:

• acting as a mentor to other Award participants at a “lower” level, i.e. at silver level mentoring bronze level participants; at gold level, mentoring bronze and/or silver level participants

• projects – giving opportunities for more extensive engagement and in greater depth than the other areas of the Award.