This was good practice because there was peer-to-peer learning; students were given time
to explore issues and learn on their own. With the help of the teacher, students were able to
compare social justice issues here in Ireland and what happens in the wider world. The action
component of this was the project work that students completed. At the end of the four weeks,
this class met with students from the other school and each presented their projects. They
then explored ways in which they would go back and share their projects with the rest of
the students at their schools. One school decided to hold a MDGs week in which they would
announce each of the MDGs via the school intercom every day of that week and they also
decided to present their poems and drama to the rest of the community at Sunday mass.
The project approach facilitated more time for students to engage with what they were
learning than the ‘traditional’ 40 minute class period allowed to a ‘guest speaker from KADE.’
Students got an opportunity to engage with social justice issues on their own terms –
the action component was different from the usual fundraising for a charity. It involved
students taking an initiative to educate themselves and their peers thereby taking part in
collaborative learning.
The evaluation questionnaires issued at the end of the project indicate that students learned
a great deal and they recommended that MDGs be taught to other TY classes. A comparison
of student knowledge at the start, gleaned from baseline survey, and the findings of the
evaluation questionnaire showed that after 4 weeks all students reported learning one
new ‘thing’ about Ireland and the wider world around the themes of Gender, Education and
Climate Change.
What would you do to improve on this in the future?
The project would have been improved if KADE had approached the school in May of the
previous academic year, when the school was working on the timetable for September. This
way the teacher would have been able to look at the KADE MDGs project and see how she
could integrate it throughout the religion topics for the year – some of the KADE activities
would then be used to reinforce each of the topics she would be covering with the students.
This would have allowed more time for DE but also it would have made students realise that
DE relates to their day-to-day learning and practical everyday issues.
This class was already involved in Drama; some of the students were also part of the Young
Social Innovators competition – to avoid overloading the TY curriculum and looking for extra
time, DE activities could have easily been integrated within such extracurricular activities.
Further Information
Kerry Action for Development Education (KADE): www.kade.ie