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Totally agree with this post.In Ireland we see first hand the huge damage that flooding brings. Every winter the children see in the media the awful affects that floods have on homes and businesses. Making the link between this and the small things we can do everyday to help climate change is the crucial piece of learning that we as teachers need to ensure the children make.
Climate change is something that we all have to take responsibility for and to be willing to take action on. In Wexford, climate change is visibly reshaping our coastal areas. In the past few years we have seen more intense coastal erosion along our beautiful beaches like Rosslare and Curracloe. Also we have seen increased flooding in urban areas like Enniscorthy. Discussing these local issues in our classroom makes climate change relevant and important for our students.
It would be amazing to bring a class on a field trip to observed coastal erosion and the damage it causes first hand. By doing this it would make a global issue become personal and not abstract.
Three practical actions that we could explore in the classroom are
-Sourcing local food- eg. Buying local Wexford strawberries and potatoes instead of mass produced shop vegetables. Creating posters to encourage others to do the same.
-Transport- Create a school wide campaign to encourage the children to walk or cycle to school to cut Co2 emissions.
-Biodiversity- We already planted a school wildflower garden last year. We could work to increase this and possibly sow our own lettuce and potatoes.
These student led actions will empower the children to show that world wide changes begin at home!I really like this idea of having a “Welcome Week” for new families. Often the families that are forced into migration come into Ireland with huge trauma already and then have to face the fear of rejection from the country that have come to. By holding such weeks we could show not only the children but the whole family that they are most welcome in our school and country.
I was pleasantly surprised about the number of organisations that work with refugees in my community from national organisations to grass roots groups. One of the groups that I have seen on a very local level is the commitment of my local library to create special events solely for refugees. By chance I happened to be in the library when this happened and the pure joy and wonderment on the faces of the refugee children was amazing to see. I think this would be a lovely idea to bring into school- invite some refugee families into our school on one of the intercultural days that we hold every term in our school. These days celebrate differences in culture, dress, language and most importantly food. This would show that our school and community is a place where difference are welcomed and celebrated hopefully making them feel welcome. This would feed into SSE of showing our schools inclusivity, global citizen awareness and the social emotional well-being of our students.
I really enjoyed reading this comment and completely agree that Education is the key to freedom and as we live in a developed country our pupils do not realise that this is a human right that not all children are lucky enough to receive. I agree that the “privilege walk” or the “Step forward game” would be a great visual for the children to realise that not everyone is as lucky as them!
Climate Action is one of the SDGs that I feel children are aware of as it is a topic that is spoken a lot about in the media but also they get to observe the weather every day. Moreover we are seeing more extreme weather conditions both locally and globally. As educators it is our responsibility to empower children to show that they can make a difference. We can focus on making global goals concrete through local initiatives. This can be approached in a cross curricular manner through SESE, SPHE and with initiatives like the Green Schools. Doing a “Zero Waste Week” challenge where pupils track their consumption, examine their waste and design posters to reduce single use plastics. By completing local initiative like this we are showing the pupils that they have the power to transform their immediate surroundings into better places to live in while educating them and in turn their families.
I too employ this strategy of ensuring groups are mixed gender and assigning different roles especially at the start of the year. I find it very interesting that the girls who tend to lead are often refer to as “Bossy” while the boys are “leaders” and this comes from both sexes.
Realistically by the time pupils enter primary school they already experienced gender sterotypes as it is all around them whether they are in a toy shop, watching a cartoon or even from the words or actions of family members especially an older relative.
I experincced this first hand in our school this year when we had a male SNA for the first time and my class found it hard to understand as they had only experienced females SNAS. I find story telling a really powerful tool in exploring gender inequality- two books that I have come back to time and time again are “Girls can do anything” by Caryl Hart and “The Boy with Big, Big Feelings” by Brittney Winn Lee. I use these books as a catylst for circle time discussions asking open ended questions like “Why are some jobs seen as “just for boys”?
I really enjoyed Emma Watson’s HeForShe speech and what came to mind for me is that we need to promote gender equity- we need to be fair to all genders, gender equality does not just refer to women.This idea of Development Education being a mindset is a key change that we all need to make in our thinking. This is something that we can educators can tackle in a cross curricular setting to ensure its not an add on that we include at the end of the month but that is explored meaningfully through many subject areas throughout every week in the year.
I agree that the “Connecting Head, heart and hand” lesson would be a great way to begin exploring the idea of everyone being equal in our world with the students. Often I find that children are aware of inequalities in our world but find it hard to understand how they can make a difference.
I agree that the “Connecting Head, heart and hand” lesson would be a great way to begin exploring the idea of global citizenship with the students. Often I find that children are aware of inequalities in our world but find it hard to understand how they can make a difference.
I agree that the “Connecting Head, heart and hand” lesson would be a great way to begin exploring the idea of global citizenship with the pupils. Often I find that children are aware of inequalities in our world but find it hard to understand how they are make a difference.
This paper really outlined the importance of moving global citizenship education away from superficial awareness to more meaningful engagement and critical thinking among learners. It highlighted the interconnectedness of all humans and how through Development education we can empower our students to challenge systemic inequalities.
As I teach in an Educate Together school, our Learn together curriculum highlights and explores many of the themes of Developmental awareness already. The lesson plans and resources highlighted in this module will definitely integrate easily into themes I have already explored with classes. I find collaborative and enquiry based projects work really well and helps the pupils to see themselves as active changemakers- every small change can make a difference. Seeing their outrage and disbelief when we explore themes means that this becomes hot topics at home with parents and siblings.
I feel picking a school wide topic where every class explores the same theme could work really well and classes could present their findings to the whole school at our assemblies.
For our SSE we could gather evidence of our current practice and set practical and meaningful targets for Development education to ensure that global citizenship becomes a core part of our teaching and learning.