Seminar on Rethinking Internationalisation in Higher Education for Global Citizenship

NUIG and Suas are hosting a seminar on Rethinking Internationalisation in Higher Education for Global Citizenship. The seminar will be held at the Carmelite Centre, 56 Aungier Street, Dublin 2 on Monday 22August, 4:30pm – 6:30pm, and links with the theme of the European Conference on Educational Research 2016, which takes place in Dublin from 23 – 26 August, in exploring ways to learn and work across different language divides, different disciplines and different types of knowledge and practices.

The aim of the seminar is to promote dialogue, sharing and collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the area of Global Citizenship Education. It will focus on the challenges and opportunities that the internationalisation of higher education (IoHE) agenda poses for Global Citizenship Education and will touch on the opportunity to contribute to work on promoting gender and valuing of diverse identities in the context of rising identity-based politics. 

What we now term 'internationalisation of higher education' is a phenomenon that has emerged over the last 25 years or so, referring to the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of post-secondary education, in order to enhance the quality of education and research for all students and staff, and to make a meaningful contribution to society. 

Internationalisation is now driving the reform of higher education. It has become a broad umbrella term that covers many dimensions including credit and degree mobility for students, academic exchange and the search for global talent, curriculum development and learning outcomes, franchise operations and branch campuses, for both cooperation and competition. While the agenda has significant potential benefits (especially its potential to make higher education more inclusive and equitable), it also carries significant risks. 

IoHE is being challenged by increasingly profound social, economic and cultural issues, such as the financial crisis, unfavourable demographic trends, hostile reactions to immigration and ethnic and religious tensions. While these challenges represent a threat, they also raise our awareness of the importance of IoHE in developing a meaningful response. There is now a major challenge and opportunity for Global Citizenship Education to position itself as a pillar of ethical or responsible internationalisation and to make a meaningful contribution to work on promoting gender and valuing of diverse identities in the context of rising identity-based politics.

Key questions are: 

  • How can we leverage the internationalisation of higher education for Global Citizenship in Ireland and beyond?
  • Where are the spaces for Global Citizenship Education in Higher Education, and how can we make these more inclusive? 
  • How do we, as educators and researchers, respond to the rise of identity-based politics and increasing intolerance and violence?
  • What values, competences, action and activism do we need to encourage, and how? 

Join them for what promises to be a rich and challenging conversation amongst a diverse group of researchers, educators and others interested in global justice issues, global citizenship and the role of higher education. The conversation will include Mona Mehta and Clarissa Jordao who are doing exciting work in the areas of teaching, research and activism in India and Brazil.

The event is free but you must register in advance with  joanne@suas.ie. 

About the facilitators:  

Clarissa Menezes Jordão holds a PhD in Literary Education at Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil. She currently teaches EFL at undergraduate level and Applied Linguistics at graduate level at UFPR, Brazil. Her main research interests are in the areas of teacher education, critical literacy in EFL and post-structuralist theories on language and meaning-making. 

Mona Mehta holds a PhD. in Development Studies and has been working on women's rights and gender equality for many years with Oxfam GB across different parts of the world. She coordinated the We Can Campaign that aimed to transform social attitudes around violence against women. She is currently engaged in programmes aimed at mobilising young people to counter intolerance and violence based on identities (gender, religion, ethnicity, race etc). 

Dr Su-ming Khoo teaches and researches at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her interests include postcolonial development studies, public advocacy and activism, human rights and the ethics of higher education.

Joanne Malone works for Suas Educational Development, which aims to support students to progressively engage with global justice issues through an integrated programme of non-formal learning activities that is currently delivered in 7 higher education institutions in Ireland. 

Launch of IDEA's Theory of Impact for GCE

September 26, 2025
Date: Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm Location: Online via Zoom IDEA is thrilled to invite members to the online launch of our new “Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education” on Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm, Online via Zoom. During this session, we will present the model, share insights into the process behind its development, and explore how it will be used to strengthen impact across the sector. We will also introduce a new tool in progress, an interactive data visualisation map designed to showcase our collective impact as a network. For many years, IDEA and its members have been grappling with the concept of impact in Development Education/Global Citizenship Education (hereinafter ‘GCE’). As GCE practitioners, tracking impact helps us to identify how, where and with whom our work is creating positive change, as well as investigating areas in which our impact could be stronger. Furthermore, we can also benefit from examining the collective impact of GCE carried out by the wide-ranging work of IDEA members, and from exploring how these impacts contribute to the major social changes to which the GCE community aspires. Driven therefore by the need to understand how projects and programmes are collectively “making a difference” in IDEA we looked at models that could help us visualise and capture GCE “impact networks”. We formulated our vision of impact and then a theory of how we expect this desired impact to be achieved to allow us to map our activities and collect data to corroborate that theory. This Theory of Impact model is how we hope to illustrate this complex GCE impact network. Building on work done by IDEA over many years including building sectoral capacity in using Results Frameworks for GCE, our Quality & Impact working group, engagement with Irish Aid on their Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), and the successful roll-out of a Code of Good Practice for DE/GCE, this Theory of Impact represent the next stage of our effort to ‘develop a consistent approach to measuring impact among the sector’. We are therefore thrilled to invite you to the presentation of our ‘Theory of Impact for GCE’. At this online presentation, we will tell you about the process that led to the creation of this model, how it will be used and what we hope it could bring to the sector. We will also touch on a new tool being developed based on the model, which should allow the creation of an interactive data visualisation map of our collective impact as a network. Join us as we launch into this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Join us as we begin this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Register below!

IDEA Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide Workshop, November

September 26, 2025
Date: 11 November, 10.30am – 4.30pm. Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row IDEA launched its new Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide resource pack in early March. The advocacy toolkit and policy guide were developed for IDEA members to strengthen their capacity to effectively advocate with policymakers and to actively engage in policy processes on GCE in Ireland and the wider world. IDEA will facilitate a full-day in-person workshop on these resources in the IDEA offices on Tuesday, 11 November ,10.30am – 4.30pm. Places are limited to 20 participants and will be given on a first come, first served basis. Please note that this is a repeat of the workshop that took place in May and is aimed at members who did not have the opportunity to participate in May. A vegetarian lunch will be provided. Register below!

Workshop: Brave Spaces for Racial Justice

September 26, 2025
Date: 06 November a nd 18 November from 3.30–4.30pm Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1 Due to positive feedback following a workshop during our annual conference, we are thrilled to invite members to a full 2-part interactive workshop about “Racial Justice” on 06 November and 18 November. This event will take place in-person in Dublin. Our facilitators Bronwyn April and Mdahyelya Bassi will guide participants through a critical exploration of the interconnections between racial justice, philanthropy, migration, and decolonisation within global and Irish contexts. The workshop will delve into how historical and ongoing colonial legacies influence contemporary issues of racial equity and social justice in Ireland and beyond. The dates for this event are fast approaching, so if you have any specific accessibility requirements, please email events@ideaonline.ie as soon as possible. Places for this event are limited, and registration is mandatory. Deadline to register is Monday, 04 November. Register below!