The EduSpots online courses aim to challenge pupils to critically revaluate their assumptions about creating social change through listening to the lived experience of students and community members in different contexts, as well as offering the core theory needed to build successful service projects.

During May and June we ran two concurrent courses; Community Action, and two strands of our Global Development course. Across both courses, we brought together 248 participants from the UK, Ghana and the across the world, exposing pupils to different perspectives in the context of the coronavirus outbreak.

A sample of our weekly summaries which aim to capture student learning and conversation: 

‘Best in Course’ Awards 

The courses provoked some brilliantly thoughtful and insightful comments from the participants, with 64 distinctions being awarded to participants. We also selected our ‘best in course’ awards.

Community Action:

Winner – Oscar (Eton College)

Runner-Up – Nicholas (Ghana International School)

Global Development:

Winner – Alan (Ghana International School)

Runner-Up – Freddie (Eton College)

Global Development (Advanced):

Winner – Efua (Ghana International School)

Runner-Up- Ned (Wellington College)

Essay and Blog Competition

Alongside our courses, participants were able to enter both an essay and blog competition.

With over 45 entries in the competitions, the judges had a challenging task in selecting a shortlist. Well-done to all winners, with winning entries being published in our new EduSpots youth magazine.

Essay Competition:

Winner – Chenyang (Eton College)

Runners-Up – Tess (Sevenoaks School), Cosmo (Eton College), Milind (Canford School)

Blog Competition:

Winner – Natasha (Barton Peveril College)

Runners-Up – Hugo (Eton College), Bobby (Eton College), Haleed (CAMFED)

Future courses

Due to the success of our summer courses, we are expanding our offering to 5 courses over the 2020/2021 academic year. The 5 courses we will offer are: Global Development, Postcolonial Perspectives, Social Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, and Leadership and Action.

The courses specifically aim to include voices from the African context in both the discussions and the course content, where there is a heavy focus on postcolonial theory and African scholars and authors. This will enable students to improve their understanding of racism, and lead in this field in their school.

If you would like to find out more information about our online courses, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Head of Secondary Partnerships, George Tunnacliffe, at gtunnacliffe@eduspots.org.

Pupil feedback from our summer courses

‘The Global Development course has highlighted the importance of understanding global issues and has enabled us to think critically and holistically about several issues that we often overlooked or underappreciated.’

 ‘The course has shown me, among other things, the nuances of all the different aspects of development, the post-colonial theory and implications of that in charity work. It has shown me that not everything that one thinks is helpful is actually truly or completely helpful, and before acting, one must carefully consider all implications of one’s actions.’

‘I have come to understand development as a process that does not involve the one trying to initiate the process, but also the beneficiaries. I have also come to appreciate the fact that communication or discussions should not necessarily lead to any consensus. The fact that two or more people are able to meet and talk without judging others is a step in the right direction. Going forward, I have come to appreciate the importance of theories of change and the need for thorough research when one wants to carry out a development project.’

 ‘I have learnt about different perspectives and theories of development, such as the human development approach, dependency theory, post development theory, etc. My world view has improved positively and I have improved also in being open minded about issues.’

‘I’ve understood and learned throughout the Community Action course, the importance of; fundraisers and how to raise as much as possible, making good elevator pitches, understand the problem, make the project sustainable, implement good communication as this is very important, create a successful theory of change, and later on evaluate all my steps. Which have for sure given me a great insight on how to lead an impactful project.’