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In my own area climate change has had a significant affect particularly given the prevalence of storms and rainfall and as a knock-on effect working in a rural area the impact on farmers has been particularly noticeable over the past number of years. I work in a school with a huge population of students from different countries so we as year groups over the past number of years have looked at the impact of climate change on the countries of their heritage.
In my own classroom I have/we could;
i) Local Climate Impact Project: Have students research and present on how climate change is affecting their community. This could include studying local weather data, interviewing community members, and documenting changes in the local environment.
ii) Invite Guest speakers/Go on Field Trips-Invite those working in the area of climate change eg environmental scientists, local farmers and grandparents to discuss how the climate of their locality has changed in their lifetimes.
iii) Art Projects: Encourage students to create art that reflects their understanding of climate change and its impacts.
iv) Promote Sustainable Transportation- Cycling to school Clubs/ Walk on Wednesdays etc
v) Upcycling projects- encourage students to reuse old items into new items to help promote a circular economy.
vi) Planting more trees in the school/local community.
vii) Rainwater harvesting initiatives to be used in the school/local businesses and on local farms.
The idea of a cultural engagement event is a lovely idea Colin and is definitely something I will be bringing forward in my own school when we return in September it would be a great way for children and their families to feel a part of the school community.
I have been fortunate enough that as a school we work directly with a EROC (Emergency Reception and Orientation Center) and have done since 2017. We have been welcoming children from various different war-torn countries into our school for over 7 years. The children and their families stay in the center for a period of time upon their arrival to Ireland. In my experience this time frame can vary from 6months to 18months before their families are settled somewhere else throughout Ireland. We have worked with other community groups in the vicinity making this children and their families feel welcome by organising workshops and events for the children and their families with organisations such as the GAA, Foróige and Community Games.
Directly as a school our school has organised additional English classes for parents as part of our HSCL program as well as knitting classes and flower arrangement to help the parents feel part of the school community and to feel welcome.
Completely agree Enda about the importance of Quality Education as improving education standards has proven itself to be a vital tool in breaking the cycle of poverty for many societies and improving their own economic prospects.
Sustainable Development Goal Number 4 Quality Education is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. This goal focuses on several key targets, including universal primary and secondary education, access to quality early childhood development, equal access to affordable technical, vocational, and higher education, and eliminating gender disparities in education.
At a local level it is to ensure access to quality education for all regardless of background or location and that the resources and infrastructure is in place to make this a possibility. Also ensure that children with special needs receive appropriate resources and support. At a global level it is important to bridge gaps and raise global standards for children worldwide so that all children receive a comparable level of education regardless of their location in the world or their gender for that matter. Also globally education is a crucial tool to break the cycle of poverty providing children with the skills and knowledge needed to improve their economic prospects.
In my own classroom I would encourage children to take part in awareness programs and storytelling (using the story or Malala Yousafzai as a stimulus) as well as organising a school assembly to discuss the importance of quality education both locally and globally.
Completely agree Laura, as a 6th class teacher I have seen girls very reluctant to put metalwork or woodwork down as a subject choice as they felt it wasn’t a subject girls should do and I have seen boys very reluctant to put home economics down as a subject choice for the same gender stereotypes reasons. We have spent a great deal of time this year encouraging children to follow their interests and what they are interested in as opposed to what they think they should do.
Gender stereotypes can affect children’s self-esteem and confidence. For example, girls might internalize the belief that they are less capable in subjects like math and science, while boys might feel discouraged from expressing emotions or pursuing interests in the arts. Stereotypes can steer children towards or away from certain subjects. Boys might be encouraged to excel in math and science, while girls might be nudged towards humanities and social sciences.
As a teacher who has taught 6th class in an Irish primary school for the past number of years a large part of what we do is deal with the transition from primary to secondary school and working with children as they choose their subjects for post primary school. I have had a number of conversations with female students who want to take woodwork or metalwork but have felt that “none of my friends are choosing them” or that those “subjects are more for boys”. The same has been true for male students who have avoided choosing home economics or visual arts for post primary school because the “lads will laugh at me” or “they’re more for girls”.
Myself and the other 6th class teacher have spent a large proportion of our SPHE lessons this year dealing with the transition to post primary school and encouraging children to choose subjects that they love and want to learn more about as opposed to what they “think they should” be focussing on. We have invited former students back to the class to talk about their subject choices and what they found about these subjects after they had transitioned to post primary school and we have found that the children responded very positively to these interactions with some of our former students who are now already in post primary school.
Development Education is crucial for fostering global awareness, critical thinking, empathy, and active citizenship among students. It helps them understand global issues such as poverty, inequality, climate change, and human rights, and encourages them to think critically and compassionately about the world.
As someone who teaches in a school which has a large population of children from a refugee background given the existence of an EROC centre in the town for the past number of years I feel that our staff is quite well equipped at dealing with the concept of development education as a school we are constantly discussing topics such as poverty, inequality, social justice whilst also trying to equip our students with empathy for those of different cultures.
However I often find that new staff members who join our staff can find this challenging but by working collaboratively with their partner teachers we model the type of lessons that help support development education in the school with a big emphasis on inclusion and empathy for those affected by various different worldwide issues. I personally often draw on history lessons about how Irish people emigrated en masse after the famine and how we built lives for ourselves to further show the interconnectedness of the world and this helps to give more cultural understanding to our pupils and hopefully give them a more compassionate view of the world.