Curriculum

CORE AREA 1

Curriculum

If we are to teach for justice and sustainability, then it must be strongly represented in our everyday teaching, learning and assessment.

We support curricular interventions that embed Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in teaching, learning and assessment in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This is achieved through partnerships approaches with HEIs and through projects led by faculty members. Curricular activities give rise to multimedia Artefacts of Learning that demonstrate pre-service teachers’ engagement with GCE or teacher educators’ innovative practice in GCE.

Core Area: Curriculum

Projects

Projects integrate Global Citizenship Education into Initial Teacher Education, allowing pre-service teachers to explore global development issues. This can be through standalone modules or integrated approaches spanning various education disciplines. Additionally, projects may include staff capacity-building events to facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing, sustained by annual funding.

Core Area: Curriculum

Partnerships

The Ubuntu Network forms partnerships with member Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to promote comprehensive approaches to Global Citizenship Education (GCE). These collaborations encompass curricular interventions, staff professional development, School/Department-wide dialogue, research, GCE outreach, and cross-campus initiatives related to the Sustainable Development Goals. Ongoing multiannual funding is provided to sustain these partnerships.

Drama Group

Featured Project

The Change Lab, National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Project Leaders: Fiona King and Tony Murphy. The Change Lab is the Ubuntu-supported project in NCAD.

It consists of year 1 Professional Master of Education (PME) pre-service teachers working in groups in the NCAD gallery space for a 4-weeks period to create a body of art work that critically reflects social injustices and unsustainable practices that define our time. In The Change Lab, students explore how their art practice has a social, ethical and cultural dimension as they create work that investigates complex, real world problems. How the student on the PME programme respond, research and create work through the lens of their practice as an artist, researcher and teacher is integral to the methodology of learning and teaching of Visual Art in post primary education. 

In preparation for the Change Lab, students work on conceptualisation and understanding Global Citizenship Education as an educational process and critical pedagogy. They develop photo essays focusing on a specific theme from the Sustainable Development Goals. The body of photography, compiled by each student, acts as a springboard to explore DE themes from a wider more global perspective during the Change Lab experience. The final art installation is presented and exhibited annually in the NCAD gallery in May. In year 2, students work on translating this process and learning into the classroom through School Placement.