WorldWise Global Schools Conference: Meaningful Action

In late April, the annual WorldWise Global Schools conference took place in Croke Park with the theme of ‘Meaningful Action’. This interactive day invites post-primary teachers and students from all over the country to engage to learn and showcase their Development Education practice. Now into its 4th year it has also established itself as an important date in Ireland’s ‘Development Education’ calendar, a chance for many practitioners and NGOs to come together along with the schools participating to think critically about our DE practice.

This year’s theme focused on three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or ‘Global Goals’) – on ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, ‘Climate Action’ and ‘Responsible Consumption’. The day was opened by Minister of State Joe McHugh and Stephanie Kirwan of Development Perspectives gave an introduction to the SDG agenda for those present as well as highlighting her own work on the #SDGchallenge.

The next session was a youth panel to explore how young people are taking meaningful action on the three Goals. The panellists were Meaghan Carmody (Young Friends of the Earth), Phil Manifold (ECO-UNESCO), Annique van Niekerk (Nu – Ethical Fashion Community which was supported via Suas’ Ideas Collective), Stephanie Kirwan (Development Perspectives) and Grace McManus (Bray Refugee Solidarity Group/10,000 missing children campaign). This was a hugely inspiring part of the day for everyone present: the students got to hear from their peers about how they became activists; and the rest of us listened to a truly transformative story of young people who learned about an issue, felt compelled to do something and joined others to figure out a way that they could make a difference. What’s more, these young people had come through various Development Education interventions over the last number of years and were testament to the excellent work of so many civil society actors – NGOs, youth workers and teachers.

The rest of the day focussed on workshops on the global goals with the students as well as a separate session for teachers facilitated by WWGS, along with IDEA and Ubuntu. The workshops looked at key issues locally and globally relating to the issues as well as developing ideas for meaningful action together. The day closed with the presentation of ‘Global passports’ to schools taking part in the WWGS programme.

All in all it was an excellent event for those active in post-primary education and the Development Education sector more broadly. The event consisted of the wonderful combination of amazing attention to detail, along with mild chaos which is part and parcel of most Development Education events involving over 300 people! The panel in particular was a powerful demonstration of the potential of good Development Education Practice and the real impact that it has to encourage critical understanding and activism to transform our communities and global structures affecting our lives.

April 29, 2025
Wednesday 18 June, 10.00am - 4.00pm Wynn’s Hotel, Abbey Street Lower, Dublin 1
April 7, 2025
Last week, IDEA hosted the second webinar from our 2025 series, ‘Exploring Contemporary Crises and Issues through Global Citizenship Education, ' focusing on Palestine. If you missed out, you can watch the full video below!
April 4, 2025
At the end of March, IDEA staff and representatives from three IDEA members travelled to Riga, Latvia, for a two-day event marking the launch of IDEA’s Erasmus+ project with our partner LAPAS (Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation) focused on the IDEA Code of Good Practice The project’s core objective is to enhance the quality of global citizenship education (GCE) at local , national and European levels. Central to this work is the creation of a Code of Good Practice for Latvia based on learning from the IDEA Code that will support Latvian GCE practitioners, including teachers, NGOs, youth workers and others, by fostering a common understanding and approach to GCE. This represents the first piloting of the IDEA Code in an international context. The new IDEA task group for the project, made up of Code members, alongside IDEA staff, are supporting LAPAS members to adapt the Code for the Latvian national context by sharing our own experiences and learnings from the Code and GCE in Ireland. The event in Riga was the first in-person gathering of the project, bringing together LAPAS and IDEA members. This face-to-face interaction allowed us to begin the process of knowledge exchange, and mutual learning which will spread the Code’s reach and strengthen our GCE practice. IDEA was represented in Riga by Dean Oke (CDYS (Cloyne Diocesan Youth Service), Georgina Eastaugh (Concern Worldwide) and Claire Glavey (Global Village), alongside IDEA staff Elaine and Aine.