On October 2nd-3rd, WWGS brought together almost 100 teachers from schools all over Ireland that are in receipt of WWGS grants to implement development education (DE) in their teaching and learning. On Friday morning we welcomed new grantees who are currently starting their journey on embedding (DE) in their school communities. Workshops from Trócaire, Concern, developmenteducation.ie and visual literacy facilitator Lizzie Downes provided an excellent overview of the various aspects of DE, and explored active methodologies for teachers to use in the classroom with the students and colleagues.
Teachers participated in an NGO Resource Fair where they had the opportunity to link in with DE practitioners and gain relevant resources and insights. A great cross-section of organisations were represented at the Fair, including Irish Aid, Afri, Sport against Racism, Development Perspectives, Friends of Londiani, ECO-UNESCO, Creating Schools and Sonairte, amongst others.
In the evening we were joined by teachers from schools who have an established record of DE with WWGS; and for the remainder of the weekend teachers were facilitated to further explore the content, values, skills and methodologies that are essential to DE. Teachers also had the opportunity to share their own experiences of integrating DE into their school community. We had two fantastic presentations by Jose Horte of Davis College and Noreen Carolan of Beaufort College, sharing their journeys on applying for and being awarded the WWGS Global Passport . Through excellent workshops by external facilitators Gerry Jefferes, Conor Harrison and UNICEF Ireland, participants explored how to deal with controversial issues in the classroom and were introduced to the new Sustainable Development Goals and ways to draw these into their classrooms.
The residential was a great success with wonderful feedback from all involved. We would like to thank all of the teachers and DE colleagues for participating and making the event such a valuable and enriching learning experience for all.