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Hi Isobel, I really enjoyed reading your post and how you connected climate change to local examples in Lucan. The flooding along the River Liffey and Griffeen, as well as stronger storms, make it clear to pupils that climate change is already affecting their community. I particularly liked your ideas of keeping weather logs and observing local parks and rivers. These activities give pupils a practical, child-centred way to connect classroom learning with real-life experiences. Your suggested actions—reducing single-use plastics, planting trees and flowers, and adopting energy-saving habits—are achievable and empowering, showing pupils that small steps can make a meaningful difference.
Reflecting on the Development Education modules from this course, I can see how they support School Self-Evaluation (SSE). The modules encourage teachers to embed global citizenship, sustainability, and inclusion across the curriculum. By exploring themes such as inequality, migration, gender, and climate change, pupils develop empathy, critical thinking, and responsibility. This provides tangible evidence for SSE, showing how well children are engaging with these values and skills. Many of the strategies also connect to the Digital Learning Plan, as they use online tools and collaborative resources. Overall, the modules help schools reflect on current practice, identify areas for growth, and ensure teaching prepares children to engage meaningfully with the wider world.
In my local area, the effects of climate change can already be seen in more frequent flooding, changing weather patterns, and pressure on local agriculture. These visible changes provide a valuable starting point for pupils to realise that climate change is not just a global issue, but something that directly impacts their own community. In the classroom, I would encourage children to explore these local examples by observing seasonal changes, discussing news reports, and connecting their observations to global trends.
To make the learning meaningful, I would use cross-curricular projects such as investigating our school’s energy use, designing posters to raise awareness, or creating nature-friendly spaces through gardening. Pupils could also research how other communities are responding to climate challenges, allowing them to compare and reflect.
Three concrete actions we could take together are: reducing waste through recycling and reusing materials, conserving energy in school and at home, and supporting biodiversity by planting trees or wildflowers. These empower pupils to see themselves as agents of positive change.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thank you for your thoughtful post. I really liked your point about involving students in local environmental surveys. Giving them the responsibility to investigate and report back not only builds their research skills, but also gives them a sense of agency. Your idea about linking climate action with creative subjects like Art and Drama also really stood out—it’s a great way to engage pupils who might not connect with traditional science-based approaches. Looking forward to trying some of your ideas in my own classroom!</p>
Thank you for your thoughtful post. I really liked your point about involving students in local environmental surveys. Giving them the responsibility to investigate and report back not only builds their research skills, but also gives them a sense of agency. Your idea about linking climate action with creative subjects like Art and Drama also really stood out—it’s a great way to engage pupils who might not connect with traditional science-based approaches. Looking forward to trying some of your ideas in my own classroom!
Living in Cork, the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly noticeable. We’ve seen more frequent and intense rainfall, resulting in flooding across the city and surrounding areas. Storms have become more damaging, and rising sea levels pose a growing risk to our coastal communities. These local issues provide a valuable teaching opportunity to help pupils connect global climate change to their own lives.
In the classroom, I would encourage pupils to explore how Cork is being impacted. We could carry out a school climate survey, investigate local weather patterns, or even invite a guest speaker from the Cork City Council’s Climate Action Unit. Linking this learning to subjects like Geography, Science, and SPHE allows pupils to understand the causes and consequences of climate change—and their role in tackling it.
Three actions I would promote are:
Reduce waste – setting up a school-wide composting and recycling programme.
Save energy – creating posters and teams to monitor and reduce electricity use in school.
Raise awareness – through classroom campaigns, art projects, or writing to local councillors about environmental concerns in Cork.
By empowering students to act locally, we help them realise they can be part of the solution—making Cork and the wider world a more sustainable placeHi Aisling
Thank you for your thoughtful post. You raise such an important point about the lack of male teachers in early years settings. The absence of visible male role models in nurturing roles can unconsciously reinforce the idea that caregiving is a “female” trait. I completely agree—gender balance needs to be seen to be believed. Having men in infant classes would help normalize emotional expression and care across all genders.Your example of Aistear role-play is spot on. It’s during these imaginative play moments that children often reveal the stereotypes they’ve internalized from media, home, or society. I really like your suggestion to intentionally choose books and role-play scenarios that challenge these assumptions. It’s subtle but powerful. As you said, recognizing and praising qualities like creativity, kindness, or problem-solving regardless of gender is essential.
Development Education can support these practices by encouraging critical thinking about fairness and identity—building the foundation for a more inclusive classroom culture. Great insight!
Gender stereotypes can influence children’s behavior, self-esteem, and aspirations from a surprisingly young age. I remember a scenario in my classroom during a group activity where students were asked to build a bridge using blocks and simple materials. One of the boys immediately took the lead, assigning roles to others. When a girl suggested an alternative design, he dismissed her idea by saying, “Girls don’t build bridges.” Although said casually, it reflected an ingrained stereotype that boys are more capable in STEM tasks. The girl withdrew from participating actively, despite initially showing enthusiasm.
Development Education methodologies can play a powerful role in challenging these stereotypes by encouraging critical thinking, empathy, and global citizenship. Integrating stories of diverse role models from different cultures and genders, discussing fairness and equality, and encouraging collaborative projects where every child is given equal space to lead and contribute can slowly dismantle these biases.
From an SSE perspective, this approach can be part of a whole-school reflection on inclusivity and equality. Evaluating classroom interactions, representation in teaching materials, and student engagement through a gender lens can reveal unconscious biases. Development Education can then inform targeted interventions in the SSE process—such as promoting gender balance in leadership roles during class projects or reviewing subject choices at older levels to ensure equal encouragement.
Hi Joan,
Thanks for sharing your ideas, I really like how you’ve connected Ehigie’s paper to real classroom activities. Using literature, science, and current issues like Gaza makes the learning meaningful.
The “Global Awareness Day” is a great idea and a fun way to involve the whole school. It would link well with SSE goals, especially around wellbeing, inclusion, and active learning.
Reading Ehigie (2021) on global citizenship reminds me that our students must connect local actions to global challenges. Development Education isn’t just knowledge, it’s nurturing empathy, critical thinking, and responsibility . This aligns perfectly with SSE, where we reflect on how well our school promotes values like equity, sustainability, and intercultural understanding.
In my teaching, I’d embed global themes across subjects. For instance, in English, we’d read stories from diverse cultures and reflect on human rights. In Geography, we’d investigate climate justice and link it to the UN SDGs . These lessons would include action: students plan a mini-project, like raising awareness of plastic use or writing to local leaders about refugee support.
To involve staff, I’d propose a Development Education Week—colleagues would lead workshops or lessons on global issues in their subjects. We’d record these activities in our SSE plan under “Wellbeing & Global Citizenship,” using student reflections and class tasks as evidence of learning and school improvement.
By weaving Development Education into daily lessons and SSE, we build a school culture that values global awareness, critical thinking, and active citizenship.
