Global Citizenship Education
Taking Action

“Action has to be part of GCE. Students’ values and attitudes, thoughts and feelings have to be considered in any action in order for it to be meaningful.” Teacher attending WWGS CPD session
Planning for Action
When taking action students should be able to:
Whatever action you choose, students should try to reach as many people as possible and to involve as much of the school community in order to have a greater impact. Along the way students should communicate their chosen actions in order to raise the profile and awareness of the issue.
Checklist!
When deciding on what meaningful actions to take, go through the following checklist:
Use the WWGS Meaningful Action Planning Template in your classroom to help you plan out what you are going to do.
“The most common actions that take place in schools are fundraising activities. Having completed this year, I feel it is more important to be creating awareness in schools of the issues that are affecting people locally and globally. Fundraising can play a part of this – however, education is key.” Orla McGuinness, Teacher, Errigal College
Here are some suggested actions you and your students could take – but remember, it’s not an exhaustive list.When brainstorming with your students on taking action, why not use the following list and ask the students to rank them to come up with a general consensus on the actions that will be taken.
1. Raising Awareness
2. Be creative! Using the Arts to get your message across

Creative Case study: Margaret Aylward Secondary School
Margaret Aylward Secondary School explores global issues through art amongst other subject areas. In 2016, they explored the issue of migration, simulating the experience of having to travel by boat across dangerous seas. The students put themselves in the shoes of people forced to flee and discussed and listed the items they would bring on the boat. After much exploration of the issue, they set about making their own boats out of clay, and fired them in a kiln. The Botanic Gardens agreed to exhibit their boats on a pond in the gardens in the summer of 2016. The boats were on show again in May 2017 in the Ballymun Axis. Alongside the boats, artwork from students living in a refugee camp in Greece about their journey was displayed. The students also exhibited their memes work on the Global Goals and their pottery spoons as a result of exploring Goal 2: No Hunger. Students gave workshops on issues of migration and the Global Goals to accompany the exhibition.
3. Mobilising for individual change
“Students are very open to action if inspired in the right way.”
Alan Curran, Teacher, St Macdara’s Community College
4. Campaigning for Change!
In Your School:
Influencing national and international policy:

Awareness and Action case study: Blackrock College
Transition Year students doing the Global Justice module collaborated on a Climate Change project with Green Schools. During Environmental Awareness Week, they made and displayed posters (some in Irish) on the topic. Viewers were encouraged to follow the carbon footprints between different sections of the display. They made posters on the links between climate change and meat production/fishing, which were displayed in the canteen. Perhaps the most striking action as part of this initiative was students charging a Carbon Tax to all cars driving into the school car park. (Pictured here) Students also organised a whole-school day of climate change action at the end of the week.
“I worked with one class group on a project that focused on access to education around the world. We looked at Malala Yousafzai’s fight for girls’ access to education in Pakistan and after surveying the school to see what nationalities were represented in the school community, we looked at access to education in 50 countries. We raised awareness about this topic by creating a large display on the corridors of the school to highlight the fact that not everybody has access to education despite it being a fundamental human right. The students then wrote letters to different world leaders asking them to commit more money to education access and are now awaiting responses. We received a very positive response from Charlie Flanagan in relation to the money that the Irish government commits to education as part of Ireland’s overseas aid”.
Muireann Banks, Teacher, St Joseph’s College Lucan