Development Education in the Primary Classroom

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Development Education

Development education aims to deepen understanding and encourage people towards taking action for a more just and equal world. It provides a unique opportunity for people to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as global citizens. This course brings together two approaches for social change, education and international development.

Technical Requirements

All our courses require broadband Internet access and participants need to be familiar with using the internet, downloading and installing software.

Course Objectives
  • Ensure teachers know what is happening around the world, how people live and what situations and difficulties people are facing.
  • That teachers will appreciate the interconnectedness of the world and how: decisions made in one part of the world affect and impact someone’s life in another part, our lives impact other lives, our society or economies impact others.
  • To enable teachers to empower their pupils to take action – how they can make positive changes in the world.
  • To enable teachers to use participatory methodologies to challenge learner’s values, increase their knowledge of global issues and develop their skills of teamwork, public speaking and advocacy.
Expected Outcomes
  • The course will provide teachers with an approach to engage pupils in exploring Development Education through the lens of gender, global inequality, migration and refugees, and climate change.
  • Teachers can use what they have learned throughout Primary School specific modules for are provided for each age group. It can be shared by teachers and follows children throughout their primary education.
  • Engagement in the course will improve the quality of teaching by introducing participants to a range of digital resources, methodologies and knowledge that will support teaching and provide the opportunity to embed technology into teaching, learning and assessment practices.
Course Duration

Delivered online, this course can be taken anytime between July 3rd and August 18th, 2023. Participants are required to engage meaningfully with online content for approximately 20 hours. Whilst participation and engagement with the course content will be primarily judged on the quality of their contributions, an attendance roll will be kept and a log of their time spent working online.

Course Author

Ashley Westpheling is the Development Education Officer for Plan International Ireland. She is responsible for the management and implementation of the Development Education Strategy, which is focused on working with teachers in both primary and post-primary schools, and the non-formal youth sector. She also oversees the Youth Advisory Panel, a group of 35 young people from all over Ireland engaged in Gender Equality Advocacy. Originally from the United States, Ashley moved to Ireland following time spent working in Switzerland, Czechia, and Malta as an English and Art teacher. She has worked in the NGO and education sector for 10 years and feels passionately about youth engagement, activism, and gender equality.

Ashley Westpheling
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