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Hi Orla, I really like how you included so many examples of practical actions the children can take. I will definitely try incorporate many of these in my own classroom to promote taking local action!
Climate action is a topic related to the Sustainable Development Goals that I think affects children at a local and global level. Looking through the lens of an Irish primary school, students are well versed in terms related to global warming, climate change and climate activism. From my experience children are aware and often very frightened of climate change. They have heard that temperatures are rising, they have seen extreme weather events both locally and more often globally. They are often keen to recycle and not to waste water etc but they often don’t understand how these actions are connected to global warming.
For this reason I think it is important to take a multi faceted approach to taking action… Firstly, I would spend time allowing the children to explore and understand what climate change is, its causes, effects and steps we can take to prevent it. This could be done through child-led research and projects where the children take ownership of their learning and also their responsibility in taking action against climate change.
Then when the students have a confident understanding of climate change they can begin to design ways in which they can take action. This may be initiatives such as school litter picking, bin inspections, posters using recycled paper to promote ways of preventing climate change to writing letters to the principal, local politicians etc highlighting how climate change effects them and actions they feel they should take to address climate change eg: solar panels as primary source of energy etc.
I think its important as a school to include this child centered approach to addressing the global goals on a whole school level. I think acting as a facilitator, allowing the children to develop their own understanding and suggest their own actions is very important as it gives the children a sense that they can make a change and not feel frightened or overwhelmed but instead empowered to take action.
Hi Claire,
I was so interested and upset to hear about your Lego experience. I was aware how toys are marketed as maybe girls and boys toys for years and therefore almost ingrained in society at this point, however a price barrier deterring girls from getting ‘boy toys’ or profitting from female representation either way both feel very intentional and very disappointing.
I have also similar experiences of boys avoiding ‘girl activities’ which they clearly enjoy to fit the social norm in the classroom. I found this year some boys loved art and had a great flare for it. However when it came to writing about their favourite subject at the end of the year a loud group of boys jokingly mocked they would say art. After that I noticed no boy put down art as their favourite subject and 9/10 wrote PE to be their favourite subject.
Hopefully through Development Education we can successfully challenge these stereotypes with the children .
Gender stereotypes can affect children from an early age for example children’s toys are heavily marketed to different genders, boys play with cars and girls play with baby dolls etc. This then translates into the children’s views and beliefs in their own lives now, for example what toys they choose to play with and potentially in the future, prejudices to what jobs are suited to men’s skills and women’s skills. As well as toys there are also preconceptions of what girls should look like, presented in the media, often in the home environment and even in school uniforms at times eg: girls wear skirts and boys wear trousers.
An example I have seen in the classroom was a female child who had short hair and wore the school uniform trousers. A friend of hers (not meaning to cause offence) said how she ‘forgot [you] were a girl because you dress and look like a boy’. The child was upset by this and the friend, although apologetic, struggled to see what was wrong with what she said because her belief system was that girls have long hair and wear skirts.
Development education would be extremely important in addressing such situations as well as preventing them. Development education allows children to explore gender at an age appropriate level, using child centered pedagogies with the overall, core message that these perceptions are stereotypes and girls and boys can look, act and be whatever they want. Challenging stereotypes can be achieved by representation in the class books, role play and discussions.
Hi Patrick, I really agree with revalence of the paper’s themes in the classroom today. As a student teacher and subbing in recent years before qualifying I taught in many different schools and classes, I was astounded by just how many direct connections in the classroom there was to global crises such as the war in Ukraine. Secondly, I as an adult find myself overwhelmed at times with exposure we have to modern media and worry greatly on how children grapple with this. It is refreshing to see that even though these problems are so large and overwhelming we do have the power to make significant change.
On review of the article, it outlines many different reasons why it is important to teach development education in schools.
Firstly its relevance in today’s day and age where social justice and activism is commonly seen as a norm and is particularly of interest to new generations as what Dr Martin Luther King Jr referred to as ‘moral arc’, this means it will be of personal interest to the children as well as help them to assimilate into today’s society.
Secondly, the article explains how social change and being a good citizen starts with learning. Interestingly this article describes two vulnerable groups in society, one aware (those experiencing social injustice) and one unaware (those who support harmful ideologies) and how learning can help both. Development Education can help people to see our shared humanity and liberate us in our ‘system of self’ to make real active change to those experiencing social injustice. Development Education also enlightens the ‘unaware vulnerable’ group and liberates them from regressive, harmful ideologies in which they could have fallen victim to.
I would encourage my colleagues to include development education by explaining to them the importance of education in promoting justice. I would remind them of their influence in the ‘system of self’ to drive change, starting at a small level but then spreading on pupil by pupil to progress the ‘moral arc’ further in confronting social injustice still faced today.
For development education to be as effective as possible I believe it should be a whole school approach. I would try to include it in my own teaching and encourage colleagues to plan with the focus of learning to be empathy and human connection. It should also give the children a sense of power and responsibility in making change. The article also pointed at how the curriculum has the potential to teach understanding of social issues through other subjects such as history to link perhaps problems that may seem distant to their own lived experiences.