Development Education is important because it increases
awareness and understanding of the unequal world we live in. It teaches us about the Global family and how our actions affect people in other places. Ehigie’s states “This is an epiphany that sees us viewing the problems of our neighbours, as problems of our own”.
I would include it Development Education in my teaching and
encourage colleagues to do the same as it teaches important skills to children such as critical thinking, leadership, exploring, debating skills, etc.
As a primary school teacher I would teach about Development
Education in SPHE under developing citizenship with local and wider
communities. I would teach it in History using historic figures. In her
introduction Ehigie uses the quote from Malcolm X ‘You’re living at… a time
of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change’. As she states in her paper it resonates today as much as it did back then. Street protests presently across France due to police violence and
systemic racism triggered by the fatal shooting of a 17 year old. The ‘Black lives Matter’ movement for the same reasons. The lack of freedom and human rights in wealthy and poor nations evident around the world.