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I would focus on Sustainable Development Goal 1: End Poverty in all is forms as this is an issue both at local and global level. In Ireland, there are many individuals, families and children living in homelessness, in emergency accommodation and many who are priced out of the housing market due to the ever increasing and competitive prices, lack of accommodation and the increased rental market. At a global level, many of the same issues exist as well as many inadequate houses especially in poorer countries which lead to extremely poor living conditions for many. For children this can have a detrimental effect on their health including developmental delays, emotional and behavioural wellbeing as well as their social skills.
Students could support this SDG by helping and contributing to homeless charities at a local and global level, reach out to local politicians in relation to policy change that could improve the availability of local and affordable housing for families and by volunteering with housing organisations.
Hi Ashling,
Thank you for such an insightful post. I agree that the use of play, storybooks, dress up etc is a fantastic way to challenge gender stereotypes as it is what the children are used to, it is informal while still getting the message across to students. The Little People, Big Dreams books are a resource that I need to invest in and use more in my classroom as I can see how they would be so inspirational for students and are pitched at a level suitable to them.
I feel gender stereotyping has improved hugely in recent years as students become more aware that it exists and become more comfortable in being themselves. I feel this self-confidence is a huge factor in irradicating gender stereotypes though unfortunately it will never be non existent. There are two main areas where I have seen gender stereotypes in my 6th class in the last year; both good and bad. Soccer was a huge love of my class last year however, it wasn’t without its controversy throughout the year. When picking the teams at the beginning of the year, a boy was automatically chosen by the class as team captains with the girls generally being chosen last. To fix this, a captains list was made. However, I found that some of the girls, while really eager to play soccer felt that they had to leave the boys play themselves and that they couldn’t get involved. Instead the girl would sit around chatting, play volleyball, do each others hair etc. It wasn’t until the boys where away at a football/ hurling match outside of the school that the girls felt comfortable to play soccer and really enjoyed it when the boys were absent. Similarly, a number of boys in my class enjoy baking, however, they would often hide this passion as they felt it didn’t fit in with ‘gender norms’. Thankfully, through different initiatives throughout the year the boys were able to practice and showcase their talent in baking. I really love the Plan Education lessons which have been outlined on this course and this is certainly something I would use in the classroom to teacher more about gender stereotypes. We have been introducing Developmental Education slowly in our school main through the Sustainable Developmental Goals and this has certainly helped with children’s understanding of the different areas within developmental education.
Hi Harriet,
I am very interested in some of the initiatives that you have outlined in your post. Firstly, I haven’t heard of the ‘Nature Explorer’ programme before. It sounds very interesting and is something that I must look into for the school year ahead. I also love the ideas of your ‘knowledge sharing weeks’. This is something I would love to do in our school and is certainly something I will bring to our staff as it is through observing others and sharing ideas that we learn the best.
We work in ‘Policy/ Subject groups’ in our school and I find that these were quite effective for us when we are tyring to introduce a new concept to our teaching. A smaller group of teachers work together, discussing the topic and then ideas are brought to staff as a whole. This would work well with the introduction of development education but again it would have to take place during Croke Park Hours as you suggested. That said, start small and great things can be achieved.
In his paper Ehigie (2021) highlights the many social issues that still exist in our society including poverty, hunger, inequality and political instability and how it is important that we as a society work together both at a local level and a global level to address these causes of social injustice. He outlines how we need to act as ‘global citizens’ and work together to offset the many current disadvantages that can be found in our world. One way of doing this is through education and that is why I would be strongly in favour of including the topic of Development Education in my classroom and throughout my school in partnership with my colleagues. As a very multicultural school I would explore this idea of global citizens by exploring and investigating where in the world all our students are from and identifying this on a map in the school hall. This would identify to students how ‘global’ a school we are and why it is important to work towards improving the global disadvantages that exist. One way I would introduce Development Education lessons into my classroom and the school as a whole is through the Plan Action resources, activities and lesson plans available online. Plan Action have set these lessons out so that they are suitable to all class levels, different topics are covered at each class level and differentiation and opportunities for integration are also provided. In this way, as a school we know that by 6th class the children have explored all the relevant topics within Development Education and this would feed greatly into a school’s SSE as it allows for more holistic development and also feeds into a learning environment that is more globally aware.
