Stressing the need to exploit the momentum of the current global youth movement against climate change, 28 young authors recently launched the first Danish high school textbook in development studies. The launch took place in front of 130 teachers, development professional, academics, and interested public in the UN City in Copenhagen, the Nordic headquarters of 11 UN organisations.
Of the 28 young development students and professionals behind the book, four are former students of the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge. Anders Kjemtrup, Selma Skov Høye, and Georgios Marinos all hold an MPhil in Development Studies while Peter Andreas Nielsen holds an MPhil in Economics with an elective in Development Economics.
Georgios and Peter, who initiated and co-edited the book, met in Dr Ha-Joon Chang’s Development Economics class in 2017/18 and one year later, Dr Chang participated in the book launch in the UN City. Alongside Mogens Lykketoft, former Danish Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs and President of the UN General Assembly, Dr Chang discussed the role of teaching and youth involvement in tackling the current global development challenges. In addition to participating in the book launch, both Dr Chang and Mr Lykketoft have provided forewords for the book.
The textbook has been tailored to the requirements of Danish upper secondary education which allows teachers and students to jointly decide on course content and syllabus which is required to cover certain core content. The book provides a wide overview of themes and diverging theories and strategies in development, and invites students to apply theory and analytical frameworks to real life cases and data. It is complemented by a webpage and a short documentary partly funded by Danish DFI Danida.
The authors have founded an NGO, open to membership applications, through which they will channel authors’ royalties to charitable causes and continue lobbying for greater focus on global development issues in Danish education.
Visit the book’s website (in Danish): https://forlagetcolumbus.dk/produkt/global-udvikling/produkt/vis/
Visit the website of the newly founded NGO (in Danish): http://globaludvikling.dk/
The Centre offers congratulations, we are very proud of you!