Teaching antimicrobial resistance : Educating young people to be change agents

We want our children to have the benefit of growing up in a world where it is possible to cure common diseases, such as pneumonia or meningitis, successfully treat complex diseases such as cancer and to do surgery without imminent risk of incurable infection. Therefore, we need our children – the next generation of citizens – to feel competent, able and willing to contribute to the work of preserving the power of antibiotics as effective medicine for bacterial infections in humans and animals. If we are to give children the competence they need to take action to preserve antibiotics, it is not enough to teach them the medical or epidemiological facts; they also need to learn values and priorities associated with the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as well as to transform their knowledge and values into practical actions. Aim of the workshop In this workshop, we want to bring together a group of educators, curriculum experts, policymakers and health experts to discuss the role schools can play in giving young people the competence they need to act responsibly and preventively as well as to, when antibiotics are necessary, use them wisely. In addressing the multi-sectorial nature of AMR, there is a need for teaching that helps students pay attention to, and see connections between, the many concurrent perspectives of relevance: medical, ecological, technical, ethical, social and economic perspectives. With this in mind, we would like the workshop to address, in particular, what education should include if it is to produce students who can act competently in relation to AMR issues, and how this competence is best taught in the context of a formal education system. The workshop discussion will be guided by the following questions: · What does teaching need to address, including both facts and values, to educate students and ensure their competence and willingness to act in relation to AMR issues? · How can we work to enable teachers to feel confident about teaching issues of high complexity, including multiple perspectives and, at times, conflicting interests and needs? · How is it possible to teach about a topic that may have very severe consequences without students becoming scared or disillusioned about the future? · How do we work to accumulate, sustain and disseminate experiences of and build a knowledge base around teaching about AMR?