About this Collection
What do I want to find out?
Discover pupils’ attitudes and understanding in relation to charitable activities. Are they able to critically evaluate charitable activities, in which they themselves may have made a significant investment?
What do I need?
- Six examples of promotional materials for charitable activities used in schools, six of each.
- Ensure you have a range from across these sorts of categories:
| Donating money to a charity of choice | Donating new or used items to an overseas charity |
| Sponsoring a child | A letter writing campaign for human rights (for example, Amnesty International) |
| Donating money for an item that a community needs (for example, ‘give a goat’) | A global campaign on the causes of poverty (for example Send My Friend to School |
| Raise money to reduce carbon emissions (for example to install solar panels in the school) | Donating time to a local charity |
| Raise money for a link community (for example to install water pumps or build a new classroom) | A microfinance or microcredit scheme |
| A global debt campaign | A modern day slavery campaign |
| A social media campaign, gathering ‘likes’ to raise awareness |
- A set of numbered cards from 0 to 10
What do I do?
Timing: 30 minutes
- With pupils in small groups, ask them to rank the appeals on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst charity appeal and 10 is the best charity appeal.
- Ask them to write down all the reasons that the group give for their choices, even if they don’t all agree with one another.
- Ask them to keep negotiating until they do reach a consensus.
- Record the scores and gather up their justifications.
How do I analyse the results?
- Look at the pupils’ criteria for deciding which is best and which is worst.
- Note whether they are considering impact on poverty, how engaging or enjoyable the appeal or activity is, or are they considering its educational benefit?
- Note whether pupils are able and willing to critically evaluate their own engagement with charitable activities. Do they recognise that the charitable activities they engage with may not be the most impactful?
- It is important to acknowledge that there may be a conflict between pupils’ personal experience of appeals, how much they enjoyed it, how good it made them feel, particularly where they have invested heavily in time and effort, and the extent of benefit to recipients, or the extent to which it challenges or reinforces existing power relationships.
- Pay particular attention to the extent to which pupils are able to make the link between their own lifestyles eg carbon emissions, and victims of extreme weather events, or buying low cost fast fashion here and harsh working conditions in producer communities.
How do I measure the change?
- After your teaching intervention, repeat the activity giving the pupils two criteria for considering the charitable appeals. Ask them to re-evaluate them in terms of a) impact on poverty, which will make the most difference to the most people? b) educational benefit, does the activity teach you anything new about the situation you are raising money for?
- Ask pupils to compare the scores and reflect on any differences. Has an appeal that scored highly before now moved further down, or vice versa?
- Ask pupils to review the scores and reasons they gave and consider whether they now feel differently about them in the light of your teaching.
- Look for a change in pupils’ ability to critically evaluate the charitable activities. Are they more able to discuss pros and cons of each, are they aware of wider implications of some charitable appeals, for example religious affiliations of some organisations? Do pupils talk about the impact of the Minority World in causing or perpetuating poverty?
- Look for a shift of charitable activities that are focussed on social justice, solving the causes of poverty and on global action taking have become more popular as a result of your teaching. Are pupils moving from a sense of pity for others and distance from the problem, to a sense of connection with others and awareness of complicity with the problem, and a stronger awareness of campaigns for justice?
- Note whether pupils are more likely to join a campaign for justice, and whether they can name any others that are not part of the activity.
Featured image © Copyright Adrian Cable and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence