Empowering more Proactive Citizens through Development Education: The Results of Three Learning Practices Developed in Higher Education

Abstract

In today’s society, schools have the ultimate responsibility to help students increase their awareness and understanding of the interdependent and unequal world in which we live, through a process of interactive learning, debate, reflection and action. With this in mind, development education (DE) has a crucial role to play through the development of analysis, reflection and action skills in tackling the effects of globalisation and the multiple dimensions of (un)sustainability and (in)justice in today’s world. In this article, based on the assumptions, objectives, and results obtained in three interactive learning practices, we describe how DE, based on a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology was successfully used in higher education to challenge and transform worldviews and to prepare students (and teachers) to act for a more just and sustainable world. The effectiveness of the practices has been demonstrated by the students’ acquisition of a more complete understanding of what it means to be a proactive citizen.