Global Passport

There has been some innovative DE work taking place in Presentation Ballingarry this year. Transition Years studied ‘Lipstick’ by Rosita Boland in their English class. This looked at women and inequality in the world, touching on issues including violence, pay and conditions, underage marriage and percentages of women in the workforce compared to men. They also engaged in a Development Education writing workshop, exploring the world of democracy and the threat posed by the election of Donald Trump. Students had to write from the perspective of refugees, women and migrant workers. Additionally Junior Cert students have undertaken a module on world debt and how this affects people living in different parts of the global South. They explored how countries in the Global North are actually hampering the trade and development of countries in the Global South as a result of restrictive and unjust trade rules.

Scoil Mhuire Buncrana, also new to DE this year, havedone some wonderful work and haveplenty of plans to build on this! They developed and ran a DE module, which has been a tremendous success.The students created their own video highlighting awareness of Human Rights issues and this was shown to the 1st and 2nd years at their morning assemblies. A very substantial effort has been made for the School Trade Fair held in December where the Transition Year students organised a stall highlighting and promoting Fair Trade products. The school have also developed a Development Education Committee for the purpose of preparing the Passport Application Award. This committee worked really well and they are hoping to build it furthernext year. They are also planning to establish a Development Education Policy and investigate how each subject department in the school can integrate a DE topicinto their scheme of work. It is hoped this will be a department policy for each year group in the coming year!

Killinarden have made great strides with the DE in their school. From the top level, their DE policy is in the process of being passed by the Board of Management. They have also been doing great work at thecurriculum level, withSenior Cycle in particular. The Physics andChemistry classes have examined sustainable energy sources; in Geography they have explored erosion and global warming, particularly the effects on parts of the Global South. In History, students have considered the effects of colonialism on Europe and the wider world. And in English the impact of the media on world leaders has been explored e.g. regarding Donald Trump and ‘Fake News’. DE is now a timetabled subject in Transition Year for the first time. The TY class operates as the DE committee for the school and generates ideas for the school’s DE activities. This year they took the lead on a number of projects e.g. Global Green Week, Multiculturalism and a School Day of Hope. There are subject specific resources available in the DE section of the school’s library for teachers, which haveled to more and more teachers availing of training and integrating DE in their subject areas.

St. Josephs have built up some extremely high quality DE links to their subjects in both Junior and Senior Cycle subjects, from languages and science to politics and religious studies. Transition Years are lucky enough to have the following to whet their DE appetite: European Studies, Politics & Society, Community, World Affairs and Future Voices. Some of the most interesting examples of DE in the curriculum in St. Joseph’s include: exploringinfographs in English, examining how war affects women, as well as powerful discussions on patriarchy. As part of coding, students are currently developing an app related to climate change, which we will eagerly await for them to complete. In religious studies, themes of debt, child solders and conflict minerals have been explored. And in Business Studies, students have studied ethics and social responsibility, environmental concerns as a result of globalisation, protectionism and barriers to trade.