Transformative Education for Times of Crises


This blog was written by Tereza Čajková and Aurèle Destrée, who facilitated a workshop called “Transformative education for times of crises“ at the IDEA conference on Wednesday, 23 June 2022.


The “Transformative education for times of crises“ workshop invited participants to question how our modern/colonial ways of thinking, being, and living are bringing our world to the point of collapse. Also, what we need to (un-)learn to navigate the current and future crises we are facing.

 

Tereza Čajková introduced the methodological approach and pedagogical materials of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective (GTDF). This collective works on questions related to historical, systemic, and ongoing colonial violence and the ecological unsustainability of our current habits (or ‘ways of living’). The pedagogical aim of this approach is to support the development of capacities to hold what is difficult, complex, and uncomfortable without feeling overwhelmed or paralysed. And to learn how to navigate relationships in times when a sense of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is increasing.

 

During the workshop, we explored how the following four denials mark the modern-colonial habit of being:

 

  • denial of systemic violence and complicity in harm: the fact that our comforts, securities and enjoyments are subsidised by expropriation and exploitation somewhere else
  • denial of the limits of the planet: the fact that a finite planet cannot sustain infinite growth and consumption
  • the denial of entanglement: our insistence on seeing ourselves as separate from each other and the land, rather than “entangled” within a living socio-ecological metabolism
  • the denial of the magnitude and complexity of the problem: the difficulties we will need to face together.

 

These denials can be understood as defences against the social and ecological realities of our situation. Consequently, the GTDF collective suggests that if what is at the core of our global problems is denial rather than ignorance, as educators, we need to consider a very different kind of educational and methodological approach.

 

For the standard mode of modern education, the GTDF collective uses an analogy of ‘filling up cups’ with knowledge, competencies and skills to address ignorance, or an image of a person climbing or conquering a peak, where learners are prepared to arrive at a state of mastery, readiness and confidence to function in a given world. These types of education focusing on personal empowerment and mastery of knowledge and skills are termed “mastery education”.

 

However, as the world in crisis is turning into an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous place, we need to learn how to navigate unpredictable realities, doing so with a deep social and ecological accountability.

 

The GTDF collective proposes a “depth education” approach to address the denials in a way that centres neither the teacher nor the learner but the world itself. This approach sees the role of education h as developing capacities and stamina to stay with the complexities and difficulties that we tend to resist or run away from and to learn to practice how to disarm and de-emphasise the ego.

 

Rather than focusing on ‘content’, depth education focuses on creating social-pedagogical ‘containers’ that can hold difference, discomfort and dissensus in generative ways. Without these containers, we may be left with superficial engagements that tend to fall apart when tensions and disagreements surface.

 

As an example of the depth education approach, we experienced the Education 2048 exercise. This pedagogical experiment intends to clear space and build collective capacity to reflect on the role of education in confronting the potential or likelihood of social and ecological collapse in (and/or beyond) our lifetimes. It is a head and heart experiment that opens essential questions. For example, how to educate for human responsibility considering the needs of the next seven generations of humans and non-humans alike?


The Anthropocene is a term used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant negative impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.



At this moment in time, we need to deeply question what and how we learn, without any certainty that we now know better, but with the commitment to learn from the violence, unsustainability, and repeated mistakes of the past so that we only make different mistakes in the future.

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!
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!
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!