The ABC of Global Citizenship Education 2025


Date
Wednesday 17 September, 10.00 am - 4.00 pm
Wednesday 1 October, 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm 
Wednesday  8 October,10.00 am - 4.00 pm


Location
Session 1: Brandsma Hall, Carmelite Community Centre ,
56 Aungier St, Dublin 2, D02 T258
Session 2: Online via Zoom
Session 3: Brandsma Hall, Carmelite Community Centre,
  56 Aungier St, Dublin 2, D02 T258



IDEA developed a training called the ‘ABC of Global Citizenship Education’ in collaboration with Concern Worldwide’s Global Citizenship team aimed at supporting newcomers to GCE to deepen their understanding and develop their skills in Global Citizenship Education delivery.  

 

Global Citizenship Education enables people to understand the world around them and to act to transform it. It works to tackle the root causes of injustice and inequality, globally and locally to create a more just and sustainable future for everyone. IDEA members use a variety of terms including Global Citizenship Education, Development Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Global Youth Work and related terms. 

 

The training is targeted at newcomers to Global Citizenship Education but is open to all. It will also be useful to anyone who wishes to brush up on their Global Citizenship Education skills. It runs in three parts, through a mixture of online and in person sessions. 

 

The training will: 

 

  • Support educators to bring a global justice perspective to your educational work 
  • Explore interactive and participatory approaches to Global Citizenship Education 
  • Provide information on relevant resources and supports for your Global Citizenship Education work 
  • Introduce you to the Code of Good Practice for Development Education 
  • Increase understanding of the context of Global Citizenship Education in Ireland, including relevant stakeholders. 

 

In previous years we have been joined by guest speakers – in 2023 we were joined by Dr Aoife Titley, Maynooth University, and in 2024 by the Hope & Courage Collective.  In 2025, youth worker and spoken word artist Dean Oke will join us as a guest speaker for Session 2 (Wednesday 1 October) where he will share his journey into Global youth work and his approaching to exploring global justice issues with young people.

 

This training course was designed and delivered for the first time in 2023 and then run again in 2024.


Fees for members of IDEA is €50.00 and non-members of IDEA is €100.00. Fee for unwaged (refugees, asylum seekers, students, others) is €3.00 - this can be paid in person.


Registration is closed for 2025 edition of this course. If you would like to enquire about future editions, please contact events@ideaonline.ie.

Biographies

Dean Oke is an experienced youth worker, working with young people through education, creativity, and social impact in Ireland and abroad. Dean is also a spoken word artist, using poetry to address social issues, sparking conversation and change through creative expression.  Dean uses social media as a platform to empower people young and old and  make sure they heard and valued. 

Elaine Mahon has worked for IDEA since 2013, where she manages the Capacity Development Programme supporting members of IDEA to increase their knowledge and understanding of DE/GCE practice, strengthening quality in their educational work and measuring impact. Elaine facilitated the development and roll-out of the Code of Good Practice for Development Education, which was led by IDEA members and is the first of its kind in Ireland. Elaine has wide-ranging experience in the Community and Voluntary sector  as a freelance facilitator and trainer specialising in areas relating to global justice, equality and interculturalism. Prior to working in IDEA, Elaine spent three years at the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI). There Elaine engaged in the development of non-formal education resources including One World Week resources and providing advice, support and training to youth workers on DE/GCE.  She has completed  a Certificate in Global Citizenship Education from Maynooth University.

Lizzy Noone has been working with schools on Global Citizenship Education and campaigning for 24 years. She has worked for WorldWise Global Schools for 9 years working with schools to have a whole school approach to global justice and equality. She worked with Concern for 15 years previous to this, working on three EU funded projects including stop Child Labour. She has worked with Concern Debates and the Concern Campaign Academy that engaged students in GCE and campaigns. She represented Ireland on the European Development Education Forum for four years, and was an active member of the steering group of the Global Campaign for Education and Stop Climate Chaos for many years. She did the Transformative Learning Journey 2 with Bridge 47. She is a strong believer in degrowth and decolonisation.

Images from our 2024 training

October 8, 2025
We are looking for a consultant to design an interactive data visualisation tool for our Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education in Ireland. The consultant will lead the design or tailoring of off-the-shelf survey software and analytics software to our needs, in collaboration with IDEA staff. Please submit a tender including a description of stages in the development process, number of days, expected fee, and experience of relevant personnel for the work to be carried out to anya@ideaonline.ie . The deadline for application is Wednesday, 29 October, 5.00pm. Read the full terms of reference here.
October 6, 2025
After three remarkable years with IDEA, we are sad to share that Anya Sparynska is moving abroad to begin a new adventure. During her time with us, Anya made an indelible mark - first by shaping a pioneering programme role, and later by guiding us in a capacity development role that strengthened our impact across Ireland’s development education sector. From designing and implementing innovative initiatives to building partnerships and capacity across our member organisations, Anya has left IDEA stronger, more connected, and more ambitious for the future. “I am sad to leave at such a pivotal time in IDEA: we are faced with unspeakable horror, as the need for justice and accountability grows ever more urgent. I have seen, however, our members and staff respond with creativity, humanity and dedication to these challenging times and find inspiration in it, even at this darkest hour. A desire to be close to my family and the pressure of the housing crisis have driven me to Brussels, but I know I will be back as Ireland - it’s passionate, brave and kind people - now feels like home. I will be sure to follow IDEA and our members’ work closely in the coming year and hope to stay in touch! “Working at IDEA has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. Seeing ideas and passion turn into real impact and change has been incredibly fulfilling - I’ll carry those lessons, and the very special friendships made along the way with me always.”
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 (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!