Unique Voice at UNESCO with 'Bella and the Blue Birds'
Helping young people develop a Unique Voice
The use of drama and creativity for the proactive Socio-Emotional Education of the Global Citizen and the fostering of peace.
For an in-depth understanding of the impact of socio-emotional education, please read the Unique Voice Research Paper. Unique Voice Research Paper – UNESCO Week for Peace 2017
In March 2017 Unique Voice participated in UNESCO’s Week for Peace and Sustainable Development: The Role of Education in Ottawa, Canada, and it was a wonderfully memorable experience.
The week consisted of two fora: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED). ESD and GCED are to two major UNESCO programmes that are included under the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Target 4.7 of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.
UV delivered a workshop called “‘Developing a Voice for Peace’: Using Drama and the Arts for Explicit Emotional Education and the Prevention of Conflict” during the GCED Forum. Our workshop was a 90 minute session in which education practitioners, researchers and decision makers from all over the world experienced our story-and-analysis Drama-based approach to GCED and heard about the research behind our practice. Krystal told the delegates the story of “Bella and the Blue Birds”, which they subsequently had the opportunity to critically discuss and dissect though the use of Drama-based tasks. It was really very fun!
During the week, we learnt as much as we shared practice. We attended plenary sessions, workshops and debates in which different topics, pedagogical approaches and issues within the field of GCED were discussed. It was invaluable to be able to enrich our practice through the input and feedback from other global citizen educators. Our plan now is to keep in close contact with other GCED practitioners and UNESCO to ensure we make the best possible use of this international practice momentum and develop our initiatives even further.
Interested to find out more? Please contact us… We would love to hear from you!
So What’s next? Well, having secured funding from Arts Council, Unique Voice and Bristol’s Learning City are hosting an exciting event for professionals working in Early Years settings
The aim is to bring together specialists working in the Early Years, to listen to the story of ‘Bella and the Bluebirds’ and experience a creative workshop.
We are working towards developing the book and activity pack to become available to Early Years settings Nationwide, and therefore would like to gain the valuable opinions and experiences of those specialists. Likewise we will be sharing our knowledge on creative play in Early Years, and our learning from the UNESCO conference on educating young people to be positive Global Citizens.
The story and activities focus on diversity, immigration, integration and racial equality, themes which are more important than ever in todays climate.
Are you an Early Years Professional? Please click here to read more about event at Bristol City Hall and to register your attendance. The event if FREE and a great opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge with like-minded professionals.
What’s the future of the project?
Bella and the Blue Birds is the first in the series of our ‘moral education’ packs, which will consist of a children’s book alongside an activity pack for use in Early Years settings.
Inspired by issues prevalent in our community, the books give adults the means to have open discussions about subjects which can be hard to broach or explain.
The results from the meeting will allow us to bring together our expertise in teaching creatively and the expertise of those who work with Early Years children. This will ensure that we produce the most effective, current and educational product possible.
If you work with young children and see particular issue affecting them which can be a struggle to help them with, we would be very interested to hear from you.